Loads of OnePlus 7 features are coming to older phones
From DC dimming to Zen Mode
If you can’t justify upgrading to a OnePlus 7 or OnePlus 7 Pro you won’t necessarily have to miss out on all their new features, as OnePlus has revealed that a large number of them are coming to the OnePlus 6T, OnePlus 6, OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5.
All of these phones are set to get Zen Mode – a feature which stops you using the phone for anything other than phone calls and photos for 20 minutes. They’re also all going to get Screen Recorder, so you can capture whatever’s happening on your phone’s screen.
FNATIC Mode is in the pipeline for all of these handsets too. This is a gaming mode that blocks notifications and optimizes the CPU. And similarly RAM Boost will be added to optimize the use of RAM.
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Other features due for these handsets include the ability to do quick replies in landscape orientation, and a move to Android Q – which of course isn’t yet available even on the OnePlus 7 range.
Finally, there’s DC dimming, which is designed to reduce screen flickering at lower brightness. However, initially OnePlus plans to launch this feature in an open beta for the OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 6, before evaluating if and when the OnePlus 5T/5 will get it.
There’s no exact date for when these features will arrive, but OnePlus says they’ll start coming in the “near future”, so you might not have to wait long. In fact, Zen Mode and Screen Recorder are already available in open beta for the OnePlus 6 and 6T, so those will probably be the first finished updates.
You can also already get unofficial versions of those two features on certain OnePlus phones, but for most people we’d suggest waiting for the official, finished release.
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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.