OnePlus President gave the reason behind sticking with five years of update rather than seven for OnePlus phones

OnePlus just recently launched the OnePlus 12 and 12R in the market which received an overwhelming response from the buyers. And OnePlus 12 came with the commitment to receive four years of Android updates with an additional year of security patches. Despite being a flagship handset in the market it lags in terms of updates because we have seen Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 phones coming with up to seven years of software updates.

This question is no longer unanswered by the company because in an interview with Tom’s Guide, Kinder Liu, OnePlus COO and president shed light on this. Though several things were discussed during the interview, we will talk about the update thing.

When Liu was asked about the update thing, he said “Simply offering longer software update policies completely misses the point,”. He further mentioned, “It’s not just software update policies that are important to the user, it’s the fluency of your phone’s user experience too.”

And to make it more clear than ever he gave a metaphor “Imagine your phone is a sandwich,” he said. “Some manufacturers are now saying that the filling in their sandwich — their phone’s software — will still be good to eat in seven years. But what they’re not telling you is that the bread in the sandwich — the user experience — might be moldy after four years. Suddenly a seven-year software update policy doesn’t matter, because the rest of your experience with the phone is terrible.”

He also said that the company makes sure to test the phones that simulate the years of smooth usage. Based on these tests, it guarantee the fast and smooth usage of the handsets even after four years of usage. He cited Counterpoint Research that says Android users tend to upgrade their phones after four years of buying them. And OnePlus’s current commitment to the update is in line with the user’s behavior. And according to Liu Samsung and Google’s commitment to provide updates for up to seven years is of no use after four years for the majority of customers.