OnePlus Beats Google With Four Years of Major OS Updates

Android OEMs still don't provide the six years of updates you get with Apple phones, but some manufacturers are trying to close that gap. From a report: OnePlus is adding an extra year to its smartphone update promise and is now offering four years of major OS updates and five years of security updates. Timeline-wise, this plan matches Samsung's, though Samsung offers monthly security updates and OnePlus doesn't. The company is still only promising security updates every other month, so it can't do too much bragging. Android-maker Google -- who you'd think would have the best update plan -- is in a distant third, with only three years of OS updates and five years of security updates.

They might...

[Type44Q]

They might make good phones but their shipping dept/fulfillment/whatever are beyond incompetent. Without going into mind-numbing details, I highly recommend steering clear or buying from a third-party seller.

Devils in the details

[internetd00du]

Which models get the 4 years of updates?

I assume this policy is limited to the higher end / more expensive models (as hinted in the article).

Re:

[aRTeeNLCH]

Most likely true, as for most Android brands. Samsung is the exception, the flagship Galaxy S series get the 4 major upgrades plus one additional year of (quarterly? Monthly?) security updates. But this year's A series models down to the A33 get the same. Mind you, from market introduction. Still, as Android goes it's excellent, and the reason why I picked up a new S22 last week. For less than USD 600 an excellent phone. Yeah I got lucky on the second hand market for sealed and unused phones, quite a few ne

Nice.

[MachineShedFred]

Now are they promising any level of quality to these updates, or is it going to be another OnePlus 7 Pro / Android 11 debacle where they release a buggy AF image and then do absolutely nothing to fix any of the bugs for months?

I'd be more thrilled about this if OnePlus software wasn't fucking terrible lately.

Re:

[Luckyo]

If I remember correctly, that was the point where they moved that particular device from Oxygen OS to the "new rebranded Oxygen OS" which is effectively Oppo's own ColorOS. Which resulted in a lot of compatibility issues, since OnePlus phones weren't made to quite the same standards as Oppo's own.

I still remember breathing a sigh of relief back then because I had OnePlus 6T, which stayed on the last genuine OxygenOS based image and didn't get the update to "ColorOS that is totally Oxygen OS, please ignore t

Well they had to do something....

[mr5oh]

Well the open source community used to develop and support their devices for a long time. The OnePlus One is still an official supported Lineage device despite being an 8 year old device. However OnePlus doesn't seem to be supporting the community like they used to, or even releasing source code like they are supposed to. Unfortunately the OnePlus I'm making this post from is likely my last, as new ones do not offer the same freedoms.

Re:

[Luckyo]

My understanding is that Oppo took over the company some time in last few years. It was always the main actor behind the facade, but there were some corporate politics on the back of it that granted OnePlus significant freedom from its de facto parent company to do what must be done to get into developed markets.

And now that it's done, those were rolled back and integrated back for cost savings.

Re:

[mr5oh]

Yeah, except now they merged back and those running stock devices now get treated to Color OS rather than Oxygen OS, which from what I've read is not quite as good (I run Lineage). Either way, I think it's a mistake. Most people still don't know what or who OnePlus is. Carriers don't really carry them, so without the "tech savvy" community recommending them, I think they are going to start struggling. Perhaps I'm wrong though. How many people do you know outside the tech community know OnePlus though? More

Re:

[Luckyo]

That's very country dependent. In some nations OnePlus is a well known brand. In others, Oppo is a well known brand. And in the rest, neither is a well known one.

For example here in Finland, a lot of people have a OnePlus phone. As in ordinary people, not just nerds. And carriers do sell them if you want one.

This is a good thing?

[backslashdot]

It means their hardware will not evolve, or the codebase will be a hodgepodge.

Yes, it is.

[twocows]

Yes, I would say getting updates for a longer time and increasing the useful secure lifetime of the device is typically a good thing. I'm sick of companies that can't be bothered to update their devices for more than two years.

Still better than Lenovo

[Anonymous Coward]

Lenovo will sell you tablets with Android that's two major versions behind and offer no updates ever.

*yawn* - The desire for OS updates

[thegarbz]

Security updates are something worth talking about, but honestly who here is excited about an OS update? When did you last see a killer feature get introduced? When was the last time an OS feature made you say "oh man I really wish I had that!".

For me it was around the time Android Honeycomb came out, ... like a decade ago which added multitasking fundamentally changing the way I use my phone.

Fast forward to Android 12 and we have ... greyscale mode. AVIF support (something which is irrelevant to basically 99.9% of people), a scrolling screenshot support, Bold text!!!!!!

Whooop de fucking do.

We used to get excited about OS updates as they allowed our toys to do new things. These days... it's hard to get excited about anything Apple or Google announce, in both hardware and software. It has ceased being life changing.