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OnePlus recently announced the OnePlus 12 and 12R smartphones in the global markets. Now, the company’s President Kinder Liu in an interview with Toms Guide has revealed why the company does not offer an extended seven years of software update policy for the OnePlus 12. This is considering, OnePlus’s rivals Samsung and Google who announced seven years of software policy for their respective latest-generation Galaxy S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 series phones.
OnePlus President explains why it doesn’t offer longer software support
The OnePlus 12 offers four years of software updates whereas the 12R scales back to three years. With an additional year of security patches, the software support stretches by one year to five and four years on the number series flagship and the mid-range offering respectively.
In the interview, Liu says “Simply offering longer software update policies completely misses the point. It’s not just software update policies that are important to the user, it’s the fluency of your phone’s user experience too.” The executive means to say that a longer software update policy isn’t necessarily a good thing if the phone’s hardware cannot keep up.
The OnePlus executive goes on to explain further by metamorphically comparing the phone to a sandwich. The filling inside the sandwich is the phone’s software which manufacturers claim that it will be good to eat in seven years. However, they miss out on mentioning about the bread – the user experience which could turn moldy after four years. Hence, a seven-year software update policy won’t matter because the rest of the experience with the phone is terrible due to the hardware issues arising over time.
More reasons why OnePlus’s 5 years software policy makes sense
Liu reveals that OnePlus conducted stress tests with TUV SUD for the latest OnePlus 12 and 12R to simulate years of use and guarantee four years of fast and smooth performance. One of the parameters of the stress test included the phone’s battery health which is commonly degradable. It will be the first piece of hardware on any device to wear out. Hence, unless OEMs switch to user-replaceable batteries, longer seven-year software support does not make sense at the moment.
Additionally, Liu also came across a Counterpoint Research report that says Android users seem to upgrade their smartphones within four years of purchasing them. This also lines up with OnePlus’s current software support policy.