OnePlus coo believes seven years of updates are unnecessary if hardware cannot keep up

OnePlus COO Kinder Liu suggests that seven years of Android updates are not necessary if the smartphone hardware cannot keep up. For example, the recent OnePlus 12 gets four years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates.

In a interview with Tom’s Guide Says Liu: “Simply taking longer to release software updates defeats the purpose. The fluidity of the user experience is also important.” According to the medium, the COO suggests that updating smartphones for longer is of little use if the hardware of the associated device is no longer relevant.

Liu is responding to recent developments at Samsung and Google, which promise seven years of software and security updates for the Galaxy S24 series and Pixel 8 series respectively. OnePlus keeps the regular OnePlus 12 series at five years of security updates, while the cheaper OnePlus 12R gets three years of OS upgrades and four years of security updates.