Updates on Android are a travesty at times, but OnePlus is one of the few OEMs that manage a decent track record. Today, the company is announcing a commitment to updates with a new maintenance schedule.
OnePlus has, generally speaking, been good about providing major system updates as well as security patches to its device for the past few years. With the exception of the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X, the company’s devices have gone well beyond what most competitors do.
However, OnePlus has never had a formal promise in place when it comes to updates. That changes today with a new “Software Maintenence Schedule” which ensures 2 years of major software updates. That includes updates such as the coming Android P which is already available in beta.
Along with that, OnePlus will also deliver 3 years of security updates. The company mentions that during that extra year, these updates will be delivered every 2 months. This new policy matches up almost exactly with what Google delivers to Pixel (and previously Nexus) owners, but obviously, updates may not arrive quite as quickly on OnePlus devices.
As per the maintenance schedule, there will be 2 years of regular software updates from the release date of the phone (release dates of T variants would be considered), including new features, Android versions, Android security patches and bug fixes and an additional year of Android security patch updates every 2 months.
This new policy is effective immediately on the past several OnePlus devices. That includes the OnePlus 3 and 3T, OnePlus 5 and 5T, and OnePlus 6. It will also stand for devices released from this point forward.
As for the oldest devices on this list, the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, things are wrapping up fairly soon. The last open beta build of OxygenOS will roll out in July. Stable updates will end in November of 2018, with security updates ending in November of 2019.
9to5Google’s Take
One of the reasons I’m happy to recommend a OnePlus device to others is the update schedule, and this policy just makes that even easier. It’s becoming harder and harder to find companies that make this promise and actually stick to it, so I can’t give OnePlus enough credit for this.
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