After disappearing from the custom ROM scene for a while, Paranoid Android returned with its Android 12-based Sapphire builds in late November last year, and the team released the first Alpha in 2021. This was followed by the first beta dropping in March 2022, starting with the OnePlus 9 series. Four months later, the second beta build of the ROM is here with several bug fixes and enhancements.
According to XDA, three OnePlus phones are getting the new Android 12 Beta today, with downloads available now:
Builds for more devices should be available in the coming weeks, including the OnePlus 8, Redmi Note 7 Pro, and the Poco F3/X3. There's currently no word on whether the standard OnePlus 7 will get access later.
There are no big new user-facing features in the second Paranoid Android Sapphire beta build. However, it packs some critical underlying changes that should lead to better system stability and adds support for some other features the root-and-ROM crowd might enjoy. An abridged change log, published by device maintainers at AOSPA, is just below:
- Updated blobs
- EROFS
- Fixed some camera issues
- Wireguard kernel support
- Fuse passthrough
- Variable Refresh Rate drops to 60Hz on inactivity
- Incremental file system
While the Paranoid Android team teased support for the Pixel 6 Pro in June, a build for the phone has yet to go live. Admittedly, the custom ROM scene in the Android world is no longer as active as it used to be. LineageOS is probably the most popular Android 12-based custom ROM right now, bringing an AOSP Android experience to more Android devices than likely any other project. If all this discussion of old phones getting Android 12 leaves you envious and left out, it might be worth a look, through ROMing carries some risk and a little responsibility.