The OnePlus Nord series has been making waves in the market, despite only targeting the low to mid-range segment. The original OnePlus Nord needs no introduction at this point, and the Nord N10 5G also trudged upon a similar trajectory with a robust value-for-money quotient. When it comes to aftermarket development, however, users are wondering if the Nord lineup will have the same robust modding support of the flagship OnePlus smartphones. A device like the OnePlus Nord N10 5G should be prime for some major third-party development, but this has been surprisingly slow even after the kernel source release. This is no longer the case, as the first source-built Android 11 custom ROM is now available for the Nord N10 5G.
OnePlus Nord N10 5G XDA Forums
Big credit goes to XDA Member Billaids, who created a highly functional unofficial build of Pixel Experience 11 for this budget 5G-capable offering from OnePlus. For those not familiar with Pixel Experience, the ROM comes with preinstalled Google apps and offers vanilla Android experience just like on Google’s own Pixel devices. Among the things that do work out of the box, you can find that critical functionalities such as the cellular radio interface layer (RIL), camera, GPS, Bluetooth, and fingerprint reader are working just fine. In terms of bugs, Wi-Fi and mobile data are a bit unreliable, while the NFC module isn't functional at this moment. It’s still an impressive achievement, considering that most phones need a much longer time period for a fully functional ROM free of camera or radio issues.
If you own a OnePlus Nord N10 5G and want to take Pixel Experience for a spin, make sure you’ve already unlocked the bootloader. You’ll also need to completely wipe your storage before flashing the ROM, so be sure to take a full backup of your important data beforehand.
Download unofficial Pixel Experience 11 based on Android 11 for the OnePlus Nord N10 5G
Do note that since the ROM is still in testing, you may face some unwanted bugs. In case you do, you can report the bugs in the forum post and help the developer further improve the ROM. As this is the first source-built project for the Nord N10 5G, it effectively opens the floodgates for other popular ROMs to be ported as well.