Also, a bunch of OnePlus phones get stable builds
Asus’s ROG Phone 6 was our gaming phone of the year for 2022, but the Taiwan-based manufacturer has also become known for tiny yet zippy flagship phones such as the ZenFone 8 series which received its Android 13 update from the company last month. The more recent ZenFone 9 got the update in early December. While ZenUI offers a lot of great extras on top of vanilla Android, Zenfone 9 owners can now try a different take of Android 13 with Paranoid Android.
It’s still alpha days for this ZenFone 9 Topaz ROM (davinci), but Paranoid developers are quick to advance builds down the pipeline. An XDA forum post by developer Androbots mentions no issues with the ROM although users are encouraged to notify the team if they come across any. Developers have also bundled this month’s Android security patch into the build which is a nice touch.
The developer warns phones with a custom kernel to avoid this ROM, even if it’s claimed to be compatible. You will need to unlock your Zenfone 9’s bootloader — which will involve a data wipe — to flash Topaz Alpha 1. You can find additional information on flashing the ROM via the aforementioned forum post on XDA.
The Paranoid Android team have been spreading Topaz to many of the best flagship phones with amazing speed. This past week saw stable builds go out to the OnePlus 5, 5T, 7, 7 Pro, 7T, and 7T Pro — in a separate by similar vein, the Nothing Phone 1 got its stable version of Topaz last week. Plus, in the last 24 hours, realme’s X50 Pro 5G and GT Neo 2 5G have advanced to their second betas.
