Whether you like OnePlus as a brand or not, one cannot deny that the smartphones offered by the Chinese OEM are some of the easiest-to-mod devices currently available on the market. The devices are really popular on our forums since they’re relatively easy to bootloader-unlock and root, and with readily available kernel sources, they’re also a boon for custom ROM/kernel development and overall modding. We saw OnePlus publish the kernel source code for the newly released OnePlus 9R shortly after its launch. The company is keeping up with the tradition with the regular OnePlus 9 series by releasing its kernel sources as well.
OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro Kernel Sources
OnePlus 9 Forums ||| OnePlus 9 Pro Forums
OnePlus has also published the Android 11 kernel source code for the OnePlus 7/7T family of devices. These phones recently picked up their stable Android 11 updates in the form of OxygenOS 11.
OnePlus 7/7 Pro/7T/7T Pro Android 11 Kernel Sources
XDA Forums: OnePlus 7 ||| OnePlus 7 Pro ||| OnePlus 7T ||| OnePlus 7T Pro
Apart from OnePlus, Xiaomi is another vendor that nowadays maintains a good track record of releasing kernel sources in a timely manner. Being receptive towards the needs of the developer community, the company has now posted the kernel source codes for a bunch of newly released devices, including the Mi 11 Lite 4G (code-name "courbet"), Mi 11 Lite 5G (code-name "renoir"), Mi 11 Pro (code-name "star"), Mi 11 Ultra (code-name "starpro"), and the Mi MIX FOLD (code-name "cetus").
If you’re a developer and you’re interested in developing for these phones, you can download the kernel source code with full commit history at Xiaomi’s official GitHub page under the “courbet-r-oss” (for the Mi 11 Lite 4G) and “star-r-oss” (for the rest) repos, respectively.
Kernel Sources: Mi 11 Lite 4G || Mi 11 Lite 5G/Mi 11 Pro/Mi 11 Ultra/Mi MIX FOLD
XDA Forums: Mi 11 Lite 4G ||| Mi 11 LIte 5G ||| Mi 11 Ultra ||| Mi MIX FOLD
When it comes to publishing kernel sources of Android devices, it is really hard to beat Google. The company has historically provided Day 1 kernel source code release for Pixel phones, but they’re admittedly a little late with the ADT-2 and the ADT-3. If you have either Android TV development platform and want to start tinkering, then you’ll be happy to know that Google has finally released the kernel source code for these devices.