Xiaomi promised that the Mi A1 would receive Oreo by the end of 2017, and the company hit a buzzer-beater by rolling out Android 8.0 to the Android One device on December 30th. But the kernel source code was nowhere to be found, a violation of the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2), and an affront to the development and enthusiast community. It's about two-and-a-half months late, but Xiaomi has finally released the Android 8.0 Oreo source code for the Mi A1.

The Oreo source code can be found at GitHub (branch "tissot-o-oss"). The last time we saw Xiaomi release kernel source code for the Mi A1, it was for Nougat at the end of January. Owners of the phone who are open to flashing things can now look forward to Oreo-based custom ROMs and mods to come.

The Mi A1 is Xiaomi's first Android One device, and by at least two accounts it's a fantastic budget smartphone. A well-designed phone that has stock Android, a healthy dev community, and a price tag of about $200 has a lot going for it. Now let's see what happens with Android 8.1.

Source: GitHub

Thanks: Joey Huab