OnePlus is lastly taking good care of what was a weak level of its telephones: their replace schedules. The company announced on Friday that the OnePlus 8 sequence (T, R, common, and Professional) and all newer flagships will get three main Android OS updates and 4 years of safety updates. We’re nonetheless ready for particulars from OnePlus, however on the floor, this dedication matches Samsung’s update plan, placing OnePlus in a tie for the most effective Android assist timeline. Google, the corporate that makes Android, is now in third.
OnePlus is within the midst of a giant upheaval, and the way forward for the corporate just isn’t solely clear. For years, OnePlus provided flagship-style smartphones at surprisingly low costs, peaking with the $670 OnePlus 7 Pro in 2019. Since then, co-founder Carl Pei left the company in October 2020, which kicked off what looks like a major shift in technique. 2021’s OnePlus 9 Professional was $969, principally the identical value as a comparable Samsung telephone. In January 2021, OnePlus mentioned it was merging “some R&D capabilities” with Chinese language guardian firm Oppo, and in June 2021, the 2 firms announced that they had been merging fully.
OnePlus says the brand new, longer assist time is the results of the corporate merging the event of OnePlus’ Android pores and skin, Oxygen OS, with Oppo’s Android pores and skin, Shade OS. The 2 skins are typically focused at completely different markets, nevertheless it would not sound just like the UIs will probably be merged. OnePlus says, “It is a change that you’ll possible not even discover because it’s occurring behind the scenes.”
OnePlus’ announcement doesn’t specify if the 4 years of safety updates will happen month-to-month or not. Presently, the corporate delivers safety updates each two or three months, which is not nice in comparison with Samsung and Google. We have requested OnePlus for clarification and can replace this publish if we obtain a response.
OnePlus and Samsung’s longer assist instances had been most likely spurred by Qualcomm’s December announcement that it was extending assist for its flagship SoCs to a few years of main updates and 4 years of safety updates. Android updates go a lot smoother when your SoC vendor gives replace assist, and now that Qualcomm has bumped up its timeline, we’re seeing OEMs making the most of the assist and passing it on to shoppers.
Google has but to bump up its assist timeline, and at three years of OS and safety updates, the corporate is at present in third place behind Samsung and OnePlus. That is a fairly unhappy place for an organization that must be the Android ecosystem chief, however when the Pixel 6 comes out with Google’s “Whitechapel” SoC, Google will not have any limits on how lengthy it could assist the telephone. The stress is on for an extended assist time. The corporate may even be capable of match Apple, which is hitting six years of updates with iOS 15.
