OPINION: Huge Android updates aren’t often as streamlined as people who fall from the Apple tree, with a relatively fragmented rollout dependent not solely on producers however carriers and different components that, primarily, delay the method of getting you the most recent and biggest Android updates.
As Google creates Android, it ought to come as no shock that the Pixel telephones are often the primary to get any large updates – on this case, Android 15.
The massive replace was rolled out to Pixel smartphones earlier this week, however what about different producers?
It’s protected to say that third-party Android OEMs have a little bit of a chaotic historical past with Android updates. Take Samsung for instance; regardless of releasing the OneUI 6 (primarily based on Android 14) to the then-flagship Galaxy S23 vary simply weeks after Google did final 12 months, this 12 months’s OneUI 7 replace has been delayed into 2025, possible alongside the reveal of the rumoured Galaxy S25 assortment.
Loads of delays
Samsung isn’t alone on this battle both; big-name Android manufacturers like Honor didn’t roll out the Android 14 replace to its 2023 flagship Honor Magic 5 Professional till April 2024, six months after the software program made its debut.
It definitely makes the concept of OEMs promising multi-year OS upgrades really feel hole when chances are you’ll not obtain the replace for a lot of months after its launch.
OnePlus was in the same place with the OxygenOS 14 replace primarily based on Android 14; the OnePlus 11 acquired the replace in December 2023, however the top-end OnePlus Open didn’t get the replace till Could 2024, 4 months after the discharge of the OxygenOS 14-powered OnePlus 12.
It appears like OnePlus is seeking to rectify issues this 12 months with a pleasant and well timed rollout of its OxygenOS 15 replace primarily based on Android 15, nonetheless. Regardless of the most recent Pixel vary solely getting the massive Android 15 replace earlier this week, OnePlus has confirmed that OxygenOS 15 will make its debut subsequent week, Thursday 24 October 2024.
OnePlus is in first place
It’ll coincide with a livestream set to kick off at 3:30pm BST that I count on will define the brand new options and performance of the software program, as the corporate has been fairly coy about what to anticipate to this point.
Teasing that the replace will supply a “good mixture of velocity, efficiency, and intelligence”, OxygenOS 15 is claimed to carry new AI options targeted on productiveness and creativity, in addition to a typically quicker and smoother expertise courtesy of up to date algorithms and animations. The software program also needs to carry a refreshed design, although particulars of what’s new are but to be revealed.
An important piece of data but to be revealed, nonetheless, is the listing of units that’ll get the replace subsequent Thursday.
It’s virtually a provided that we’ll see it on this 12 months’s top-end OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R first, however I’m hoping that it’ll accompanied by different 2024 releases just like the OnePlus Nord 4 and perhaps even the OnePlus Pad 2 – although a tablet-optimised model might take somewhat longer to roll out. There are a lot of magnitudes extra OnePlus telephones than OnePlus tablets within the wild, in any case.
What I’m extra interested by is the rollout to barely older units just like the OnePlus 11 and the top-end foldable, the OnePlus Open.
If OnePlus manages to roll out the replace broadly on Thursday, it’ll be setting a brand new benchmark for Android OEMs rolling out main Android updates, one which’s solely actually matched by Google and Apple – and they’re the businesses behind Android and iOS respectively.
The truth that OnePlus is even in the identical dialog is a credit score to OnePlus’ dedication to its fanbase. Let’s simply hope that the OxygenOS 15 replace is as thrilling as OnePlus is making it out to be – although, fortunately, we don’t have very lengthy to attend to search out out.