OnePlus’s new OxygenOS software update rollout method is very disappointing: Opinion

OnePlus used to be one of the best smartphone manufacturers who provided regular and fastest software updates to its smartphones.

Until late 2020, after Google, the company was the second-best company in terms of rolling out a software update. Currently, the company is not the same, even after the partnership with Oppo, the company keeps delaying the software update rollout for its smartphones. Even the company is failed to update the eligible flagship smartphones.

JOIN ONEPLUS ON TELEGRAM

The OnePlus 9 series, launched in the first half of 2021, is the only smartphone series updated with the Android 12-based OxygenOS 12 version. Don’t forget, it had several bugs in the first stable update (though, the company released 2 Open Beta builds for the OnePlus 9/9 Pro before releasing the stable update).

The company has also failed to update its other eligible flagship smartphones including the OnePlus 8, 8 Pro, and 8T. The real disappointment is the company hasn’t yet started the OxygenOS public beta program for 2020’s flagship smartphones. For your records, there’s a closed beta program for these smartphones.

The flagships from 2019 are also eligible for the Android 12-based OxygenOS 12 update but can’t say when this update is coming to the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7T series. The Android 12 OS will be the last major software update for these flagship smartphones.

In 2021, the official partnership between OnePlus and Oppo does not change anything for OnePlus. The only change, the company adopted Oppo’s software update policy, OnePlus said “there will be 3 years of major Android support and 4 years of security patches for flagship smartphones” (read the complete policy here).

About the competitors, Samsung is far ahead of OnePlus in terms of rolling out major Android updates and regular security patches. By end of 2021, the company already updated all eligible Galaxy flagship smartphones, the total numbers could be more than 100 million smartphones.

In comparison to the OnePlus 9 series, Samsung has already updated the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Flip 3, Galaxy S21, S20, S10, Note 20, Note 10, Fold 2, Fold, Flip/5G, and Tab S7. The company also updated some of its mid-range smartphones with Android 12 OS.

Samsung became the best Android smartphone manufacturer in terms of providing regular security patches and they are the fastest too, beating Google as well. At the time of writing this article, OnePlus has only updated its OnePlus 9 series flagship smartphone with the January 2022 security patch, well, Samsung has updated almost all flagship and mid-range smartphones with the latest security patches.

Other manufacturers, Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, and Nokia have already updated more than 2 smartphones with the latest Android 12 OS.

The latest OxygenOS 12 is made on Oppo’s ColorOS codebase, which is disappointing OnePlus smartphones users, some of them are very disappointed, can’t say the numbers, just open Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or OnePlus Community, you will get the idea.

The worse is, OnePlus recently released OnePlus 9RT in India, with pre-installed Android 11-based OxygenOS 11. The device will get the stable OxygenOS 12 update in March/April 2022. The same device launched in China in late 2021 with Android 12-based ColorOS 12. It is proving that the OxygenOS development team is facing difficulties turning the ColorOS codebase in OxygenOS.

The current software update rollout policy is very disappointing, it is making current OnePlus users switch to a better OS experience, One UI or iOS. Are you happy with the new OnePlus policy? Don’t forget to vote in the poll below.

[poll id=”7″]