New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

PiunikaWeb readers should remember our article about the disparity in update frequencies between the regular and the 5G variant of OnePlus 7 Pro. US will finally have a 5G phone from OnePlus – thanks to the newly announced (or not?) collaboration with Sprint – but the delay might stay forever.

oneplus_7_pro_5g_ee_offering_tweet
EE was the first wireless carrier to offer OnePlus 7 Pro 5G

Other than upcoming Sprint deal, there is the T-Mobile branded OnePlus 7 Pro available for regular US based customers. However, the carrier branded variant is significantly trimmed down, e.g. you can use only single SIM and the color/storage/RAM configurations are significantly limited.

Besides those, power users feel rather hopeless as T-Mobile does not allow one-click bootloader unlock. Participating in Open Beta or Android Q Developer Preview initiative are not possible as well. Of course you can ‘convert‘ your T-Mobile model to international one, but that’s not applicable for everyone.

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T-Mobile OnePlus 7 Pro (GM1915) running global OxygenOS 9.5.3 firmware

Back in June, the Shenzhen OEM and T-Mobile jointly started Friendly User Testing (FUT) program for OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7 Pro. You can think it as a revamped version of OxygenOS Open Beta strategy, where carrier exclusive OnePlus phones can get the early access to upcoming software updates.

This program will be run by our North American QT team.

We will be accepting 100 people into this FUT program, and the chosen users will need to meet certain requirements. The builds will be available as an OTA update and should not require clean flash or loss of data. However, as these are pre-release builds, while very unlikely, there’s still a chance of data loss that you should be aware of.

As the whole FUT thingy is protected by NDA, we are unable to hear anything from the participants – at least till this date. A OnePlus forum user has shared a response from the US FUT team, which not only confirms the arrival of Android Q for T-Mobile OnePlus Pro, but also indicates the timeline!

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Click/Tap to zoom

Matter of fact, the email doesn’t mention anything about 7 Pro or 6T specifically. It could be possible that T-Mobile will roll out Android Q based test (FUT) build for both phones ‘within 2-3 weeks’. On the other hand, OnePlus 7 Pro may get it first for being the current flagship.

Other participating users are reportedly getting the same email. It makes me really curious to know further about the ‘problem’ they are facing that may lead to ‘break‘ the phone.

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Source (Click/Tap to zoom)

Are you still running the T-Mobile firmware on your OnePlus 6T/7 Pro? Comment below.

Update (September 17)

After the regular model, the T-Mobile OnePlus 7 Pro is also getting Android 10 update. The OTA is rolling out via Friendly User Testing program. Details here.

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Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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