OnePlus announces a deplorable Android 11 upgrade schedule for the OnePlus 6 and 6T

OnePlus rolled out Android 10 to the OnePlus 6 and 6T relatively quickly, albeit with a few bugs at first. Nonetheless, the former flagships received a stable Android 10 update within three months of Google releasing the OS publicly, a much faster turnaround than some of OnePlus' contemporaries managed with their devices.

However, a lot has changed since late 2019. While Samsung, Nokia and even LG have pledged to up their games when it comes to software support, OnePlus has dropped the ball. In fairness to OnePlus, it updated the OnePlus 8 and 8T to Android 11 quickly, but it took until March for the company to finalise Google's latest OS for the OnePlus 7 and 7T. Google released Android 11 on September 8 2020, meaning that it took OnePlus over six months to bring the OS to devices that were a generation old.

Now, OnePlus has announced that the first Android 11 Open Beta for the OnePlus 6 and 6T will arrive 'at the end of August'. If OnePlus repeats the two weeks break from the Android 11 Open Beta to a stable build as it did with Android 10, then the OnePlus 6 and 6T will not receive Android 11 until mid-September at the earliest. 

For context, Google has released new versions of Android in August or September since Android Nougat in 2016. Presumably, it will continue to do so with Android 12, which has already reached Developer Preview 3. Hence, it seems likely that the Pixel 3 and 3 XL, which Google announced nearly three weeks before OnePlus did the 6T, will receive Android 12 as the 6 and 6T are receiving Android 11.

In short, OnePlus continues to give the impression that it is good for one OS update. After that, and you may be waiting nearly two years between OS updates, as is the case with the OnePlus 6 and 6T.

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