Damien Wilde / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Fairphone has responded to OnePlus’s feedback on why the latter didn’t match Google and Samsung’s seven-year promise for updates.
- OnePlus stated seven years of updates don’t matter if the consumer expertise was unhealthy, including that the battery may not final.
- Fairphone responded by saying that OnePlus and others ought to make their batteries replaceable and provide extra repairable designs.
“Some producers are actually saying that the filling of their sandwich — their telephone’s software program — will nonetheless be good to eat in seven years’ time,” OnePlus president Kinder Liu stated in a latest Tom’s Information interview.
“However what they’re not telling you is that the bread within the sandwich, the consumer expertise, may be moldy after 4 years. Instantly, a seven-year software program replace coverage doesn’t matter as a result of the remainder of your expertise with the telephone is horrible.”
Liu additionally steered that whereas rivals stated their software program replace coverage will final for seven years, “their telephone’s battery could not.”
Fairphone hits again at OnePlus
Fairphone co-founder Miquel Ballester argued in an emailed press launch that Liu had some extent “albeit by accident,” relating to {hardware}.
Because the ‘bakers’ of Fairphone 2, the longest-lasting Android system thus far, and the nonetheless oven-fresh Fairphone 5, providing eight years of assured software program assist and aiming for ten — we wholeheartedly agree that non-repairable, glued-shut gadgets aren’t an excuse for mediocre software program assist commitments.
The Fairphone government asserted that assured software program assist was solely a part of the equation.
“It’s excessive time the business as a complete embraced a extra repairable design for his or her gadgets,” Ballester urged, arguing that “in case you can’t open it, you don’t personal it.”
The Fairphone co-founder additionally had a ultimate message for OnePlus and others:
To Mr Liu, and anybody else anxious about their telephone’s battery being outlasted by its software program, the answer ought to be apparent: Make it replaceable.
We’re glad to see Fairphone taking OnePlus to process relating to Liu’s reasoning. In any case, we may considerably perceive if a smartphone model merely stated it was too costly and resource-intensive to supply seven years of updates. Nonetheless, claiming that {hardware} and a decomposing consumer expertise are hurdles in the way in which of long-term updates means that perhaps OnePlus ought to handle these challenges.
Liu’s excuse isn’t utterly with out advantage, although. There have been quite a few circumstances over time of older telephones being slowed down by new updates or receiving a great deal of bugs. However this isn’t a standard incidence anymore. The truth is, consumer experiences recommend that the 2015-era FairPhone 2 nonetheless runs high quality, albeit with some niggles (e.g. fingerprint scanner, GPS).
Do you purchase OnePlus’s causes for not providing seven years of updates?
3 votes
It additionally appears like some chipmakers haven’t stepped up their dedication to Android updates, both. Extra particularly, MediaTek advised Android Authority final 12 months that it was nonetheless at the moment providing 4 years of updates.
Fairphone isn’t the primary to notice that long-term updates now require {hardware} adjustments, both. We just lately argued in an opinion piece that telephones just like the Galaxy S25 want detachable batteries as these batteries are more likely to die lengthy earlier than the telephones cease getting updates.