It’s time for end-of-year reviews for Android smartphone manufacturers who, since the release of version 13 in the fall, have been stepping up their efforts to deploy updates ad hoc on their devices. Oppo prides itself on having made available ColorOS 13, based on Android 13, “out of 33 smartphone models worldwide” since the launch of its beta in August 2022. Such figures undoubtedly include products benefiting from the stable version of Color OS 13, but also those which are still running under its beta version – their list has moreover been recently released by the brand.
If Oppo seeks to highlight its efforts to upgrade its smartphones more quickly than in past years, however, we retain another information: the Chinese manufacturer will offer four major Android updates and five years of security patches on its smartphones. The good news does not concern all of its products, however, since Oppo specifies that this new policy will be reserved for “a selection of high-end models in 2023”. At the start of 2022, Oppo had promised three OS updates and four years of security patches for its Find X5 series, which will therefore stick to this roadmap. On the other hand, we can guess that its first folding terminal in clamshell format, the Find N2 Flip, expected in the first quarter of 2023 in France, but also the Find X6 series, will be affected by the announcement of the day.
Oppo joins a still too short list of manufacturers committed to ensuring the software monitoring of their smartphones over the long term. In the world of Android, Samsung is a leader in this area, and has also promised since the beginning of the year four major updates and five years of security patches on its folding models, its Galaxy S and a part of its Galaxy A. OnePlus, which is part of the same group as Oppo, announced a few weeks ago to offer the same duration of software support … on a selection of products, and from 2023. Regardless of the manufacturer, there is unfortunately still a long way to go before this type of treatment, which is crucial for increasing the longevity of our smartphones, is granted to the least expensive models.