OnePlus flagships will get three major Android upgrades and 4 years of security updates

OnePlus has just announced a big update to its Software Maintenance Schedule for its flagship and mid-range portfolio.

As per the new announcement, OnePlus is now committing three major Android upgrades and four years of security updates for its recent flagships, a step up from two major Android updates and three years of security updates that the company has been sticking to since 2018.

This brings OnePlus almost in line with Samsung, which already commits to the same level of support for its flagships — going all the way back to the Galaxy S10. However, this parity only applies to the flagship phones as OnePlus’s mid-range Nord portfolio is still subject to the standard 2 major Android updates and three years of security updates. On the other hand, Samsung offers its recently released mid-range phones such as the Galaxy A52 and Galaxy A72 the same level of software support as its flagship.

OnePlus says this is made possible due to their recent merger with OPPO, which will see both companies sharing R&D resources and working under one roof. At the time of announcing the merger, Pete Lau said that the integration with OPPO would also help OnePlus improve its software update situation.

Here’s the updated software maintenance support cycle for OnePlus phones:

• Three OS updates / 4 years of security updates: 
  • One+ 9 Pro
  • One+ 9
  • One+ 9R
  • One+ 8 Pro
  • One+ 8
  • One+ 8T
• Two OS updates / 3 years of security updates:
  • One+ 7 Pro
  • One+ 7
  • One+ 7T
  • One+ Nord
  • One+ Nord CE
• One OS update / 3 years of security updates:
  • One+ N100
  • One+ N10 5G
  • One+ N200 5G

Alongside the software support cycle announcement, OnePlus also revealed that they’re working on the unification of OxygenOS and ColorOS codebases. One+ says OxygenOS fans have nothing to worry about as it’s all “happening behind the scenes.” It also specifically mentions that users won’t even notice this change, so it looks like there won’t be any major changes to the UI itself. In any case, One+ says the switch to the integrated codebase on the current phones will happen with the Android 12 update. So we’ll have to wait and see.

Source: xda-developers.com