Install Android 5.1 Lollipop on Android One Devices

The Android One program was announced back in June 2014 Google I/O by Sundar Pichai, the head of Google’s Android. The aim behind introducing devices branded under Android One was to address competitive markets that are price sensitive by offering low-end smartphones with pretty good specs around $100. The program was first launched in India in partnership between Google and 3 major Indian OEMs namely Micromax, Spice and Karbonn.

All Android One smartphones share the same specifications and the Vanilla flavor of Android despite of the fact that they come from different OEM. It has also been said that all the devices will get instant software updates directly from Google. As of now, manufacturers like Asus, Alcatel, Acer, HTC, Intex, Lenovo, Panasonic, Lava and Xolo have already joined hands for producing Android One phones in some more countries.

The Android One devices in India, namely Micromax Canvas A1, Spice Dream UNO and Karbonn Sparkle V were launched with Android 4.4.4 KitKat. However, none of the devices got instant Lollipop update (as promised) even months after the new Android version came out. The Android One devices in Indonesia recently received the Android 5.0 update. The news will certainly sound unpleasant to the owners of these devices in India.

Anyway, we have a very good news for the Indian users of the Android One devices as you do not need to wait for the update anymore. XDA member dkchalotra has shared the official Lollipop ROM backup that can be restored even on Indian Android One phones via a custom recovery.

If you own the Micromax Canvas A1, Spice Dream UNO or Karbonn Sparkle V and have root and custom recovery installed on your phone, you can update your phone to Android 5.1 Lollipop right away.

Prerequisites:

A rooted Android One phone.
Since the ROM backup provided below is created with PhilZ Recovery, you need to install PhilZ first to be able to restore it on your device.
Download the Android 5.1 ROM backup: Download Link