Oneplus and updates

2025-08-08

So back in 2021, I decided to replace my aging iPhone SE (the original one from 2016) with a brand new Nord N10, a budget phone from Oneplus. However what I didn't know at the time, is that Oneplus decided to only give these devices a single fucking Android update. This means that your brand new 300 dollar phone will only get a new version of Android once, and while sure, you will get security updates, the moment those updates end, your phone will be left to rot and die. I think the funniest thing is that, the fucking flagship OP phone of the era, the 8T (a phone released before the Nords), had Android 11 out of the box, meanwhile the Nord N10 and N100 had Android 10 preinstalled. What a shame.

And Oneplus's excuse? "Everyone does that, why not we too?". On this article, they claim the following:

The Nord N10 5G and N100 will receive one major Android update and a total of two years of security updates. The plan for these two devices aligns with industry standards for smartphones in more affordable price ranges. As always, we will continue listening to feedback from our users and looking for ways to improve the software experience for all OnePlus devices.

So this was my first Oneplus experience. It will certainly be my last. What a fucking shame. I guess the "enthusiast" era of Oneplus is over now.

Other notes:

• You are probably asking: why didn't you go with a custom ROM? For the longest time, custom ROMs for this specific phone were (and still kinda are) rare and hard to find. Not only that, fast charging goes from 30 watts down to a pathetic 8 watts because Oneplus decided to go with a propietary fast charging standard, which no ROM developer has managed to tackle yet.

• The funniest thing is, that if I went with the Pixel 3a i was also considering at the time, I would probably have a much better experience.