OnePlus clarifies its misleading update policy

Imagine this—you just bought a car and the dealer promised you a 5-year warranty. Sounds good, right? But later on, you find out that you’re actually only getting four years because the car spent one year sitting in the lot. Apparently, that counts toward your total warranty. If that sounds shady, OnePlus seems to be pulling that exact same trick.

It turns out that OnePlus counts out-of-the-box software as one “update”. According to a report from Droid-Life, they have confirmed with OnePlus that its claims of 4 years of Android OS updates is more like 3 years. For example, the OnePlus 13 launched with Android 15 preinstalled.

Many assumed that the four-year update policy meant that the OnePlus 13 would get Android 16, Android 17, Android 18, and Android 19. That made sense to us, too. However, OnePlus has clarified its update policy, saying that the out-of-the-box software counts as one update. So, in reality, the OnePlus 13 will only be updated to Android 18. It could always go further, depending on whether OnePlus feels like it, but officially, it should end at Android 18.

OnePlus claims that this has always been its update policy. That’s fair, but since we’re not alone in our earlier assumptions, perhaps the company should be more upfront and clear with its wording. After all, for a phone launching in 2025, coming with Android 14 preinstalled while Android 15 has been available for months seems like poor form.

This is a stark contrast to other companies, such as Google, whose update policies for its Pixel phones do not count software out-of-the-box.