Android 12 Upgrade Report Card: What a bizarre 12 months
When it involves Android upgrades, all device-makers are positively not equal. Time to carry the platform’s strongest gamers accountable.
Google/JR Raphael, IDG
In the world of software program, six months is an eternity.
Heck, have a look at how a lot has occurred over the previous six months since Android 12 got here into the universe. Google began after which completed a hefty 0.1-style replace that lays the groundwork for important large-screen enhancements to the Android expertise. And it is now nicely into the general public improvement section of its subsequent large Android model, Android 13 — which is the quickly forming launch on most people’ minds at this level.
And but, loads of individuals out within the land o’ Android are in some way nonetheless ready for final 12 months’s Android 12 replace to reach on their extraordinarily current, not-even-remotely-budget-level telephones.
That’s why I began doing these Android Upgrade Report Cards some 6,942 years in the past — as a result of from a median phone-owner’s perspective, there’s actually no solution to know what’s gonna occur six months after you purchase a tool and the way nicely the producer is definitely gonna assist it.
Maybe I’m simply old school (and/or outdated, normally), however that does not sit nicely with me. You’re the one paying good cash for a bit of expertise. You ought to have the context you must make an informed and knowledgeable determination about which product is best for you — not only for the primary few weeks that you just personal it however for the complete two- to three-year interval that you just’re more likely to carry it round.
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This 12 months’s a barely unusual one. One of Android’s longest standing core device-makers is not within the image, a few new contenders are on the point of moving into the sector, and atypical patterns are popping up left and proper with a few of the most sometimes constant (for higher or for worse) gamers within the Android recreation.
In spite of all of that, although, information does not lie. And goodness gracious, do that 12 months’s numbers converse volumes.
Now that we’re six months previous the launch of Android 12, it is time to step again and have a look at who’s making upgrades a precedence and who’s treating ’em as an afterthought. Only you may resolve how a lot this information issues to you (trace: It oughta matter — loads), however whether or not you discover post-sales software program assist to be a prime precedence or an irrelevant asterisk, you need to be armed with all the information that empowers you to make totally knowledgeable future shopping for selections.
So with out additional ado, right here it’s.
(Want the total nitty-gritty on how these grades have been calculated? You can discover a detailed breakdown of the components and each factor taken into consideration on the very finish of this text.)
JR
- Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 16 days (58/60 factors)
- Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 16 days (29/30 factors)
- Communication: Excellent (10/10 factors)
The Android 12 rollout was a barely atypical one for Google — instructed ya it was a bizarre 12 months! — in that the corporate’s supply of the newest and biggest Android software program did not coincide with the software program’s launch.
More usually than not, Google begins its Pixel rollouts on the identical time a brand new Android model is introduced. This 12 months, we noticed a clumsy hole of simply over two weeks between when Android 12 was on the market, in uncooked code type, and when anybody was really in a position to apply it to a functioning cellphone.
Still, 16 days is a wonderfully affordable period of time to attend, and Google was crystal clear from the get-go about when its present Pixel telephones may anticipate the replace to reach. It additionally managed to get the replace to Pixel homeowners nicely forward of anybody else within the Android ecosystem regardless of that slightly-later-than-usual begin.
(For the needs of this evaluation, by the way in which, it is the beginning of a rollout — to a flagship cellphone mannequin within the U.S. — that counts, as you may examine in additional element right here.)
What’s most spectacular, although, is the truth that Google treats all of its telephones as equals — that means even for those who personal a previous-gen gadget or a lower-priced Pixel “a” mannequin, you get main updates like Android 12 similtaneously the current-gen flagship cellphone homeowners. That’s a pointy distinction to the way in which each different device-maker handles its lineup, and it is the way in which issues very a lot must be.
And whereas Google’s common “rolling out in waves” asterisk all the time applies to a sure diploma, with some Pixel homeowners not receiving the software program on that very first day, Android 12 made its solution to all supported Pixel units inside an inexpensive period of time and with out the necessity for any further communication past the corporate’s preliminary announcement.
For the usual caveat right here: Sure, we may argue that Google has a singular benefit in that it is each the producer of the units and the maker of the software program — however guess what? That’s a part of the Pixel package deal. And as an individual buying a cellphone, the one factor that basically issues is the expertise you obtain.
And as common, the outcomes let you know all there may be to know: Google’s telephones are with out query essentially the most dependable solution to obtain ongoing updates in a well timed method on Android. Google’s the one firm that makes an express assure about improve deliveries as part of its units’ buying package deal, and it is completely the one one which constantly delivers on that entrance, 12 months after 12 months.
Samsung
JR
- Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 65 days (52/60 factors)
- Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 95 days (24/30 factors)
- Communication: Good (7/10 factors)
Continuing our “bizarre 12 months” theme, Samsung’s within the midst of a transition with its gadget lineup and thus which fashions take advantage of sense to deal with as precise flagships. In 2021, Samsung made it clear that the once-flagship-level Note line was out of the image and that it was viewing its foldable Fold mannequin as the way forward for its flagships — an equal, in the intervening time, to the first Galaxy S model.
So for our current-gen evaluation, we’ll have a look at a mixture of the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3, for the reason that two have been framed as equal in flagship footing within the 2021 product launch cycle.
In 2020, although, it was a barely completely different story. At that time, the Note was nonetheless current and handled as an equal to the Galaxy S line in its flagship-level standing. And the folding telephones have been nonetheless extra of an experiment and fewer of a mainstream entity. So 2020 will observe our earlier mannequin of treating a mixture of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note mannequin of the second because the co-flagship telephones for the 12 months, and it will possible be the final 12 months the place such a mixture happens.
With all of that being stated, Samsung did decently nicely this go-round — a noticeable tick up from its surprisingly poor displaying with Android 11 final 12 months, although nonetheless not fairly the story of pure glory you would be led to consider from all the barely misguided headlines surrounding each Samsung rollout.
For its official grade, Samsung got here in at simply over two months for bringing Android 12 onto its current-gen U.S. flagships — however keep in mind, that is a median of the corporate’s efficiency with its two co-flagship merchandise. For the Galaxy S21, it was really a 44-day wait, whereas with the Z Fold 3, it was a far much less commendable 86-day supply delay.
As common with Samsung, it is on the previous-gen flagships the place issues actually take an unlucky flip. The firm got here in at 95 days — greater than 1 / 4 of a 12 months — for bringing Android 12 to its Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 telephones. (The timing for the 2 was fairly darn shut: 96 days and 93 days, respectively.) It’s not a horrible end result, comparatively talking, however it definitely is not nice.
Still, it marks Samsung’s finest scores and quickest efficiency with Android improve supply so far. In truth, this 12 months is the primary time Samsung has ever crept down into double-digit territory with its improve timing; in each different 12 months since I’ve been analyzing this, its supply occasions have been nicely into the triple digits of days.
Another space the place Samsung noticed important enchancment is in its communication, which has historically been a significant weak level of the corporate’s Android improve operation. Typically, Samsung makes no effort in any respect to speak with its prospects about its improve course of or what might be anticipated alongside the way in which.
This 12 months, fortunately, that modified: The firm really launched a particular breakdown of which telephones it was planning to improve and when! Granted, it did not achieve this till nicely over a month after Android 12 got here out, and it shared the data solely inside a limited-access Samsung Members app versus publishing it publicly in a method that’d be more likely to attain extra individuals — therefore the not-quite-perfect communication rating — however it’s nonetheless a large leap ahead and one we are able to solely hope turns into the brand new norm.
All in all, it is a constructive story for Samsung this cycle. It’s too quickly to inform whether or not the brand new traits will stick or whether or not we’ll see one other return to mediocrity within the subsequent 12 months or two, as has occurred with Samsung earlier than — however for now, hey, we’ll take it.
OnePlus
JR
- Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 75 days (52/60 factors)
- Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 167 days (19/30 factors)
- Communication: Mediocre (5/10 factors)
It’s a bizarre 12 months for OnePlus normally proper now, as the corporate works by way of a merger with Chinese cellphone model Oppo and figures out its focus for the long run. From canceled telephones to ill-considered software program strikes (and subsequent undos), it has been a little bit of a bumpy and at occasions awkward transition.
Still, amidst all of that, the corporate really managed to maneuver in the best route with its Android improve deliveries. Following an embarrassingly dangerous cycle with Android 11, OnePlus pushed its efficiency again in the best route with an Android 12 rollout for its current-gen OnePlus 9 collection flagship 75 days after the software program’s launch and for its previous-gen OnePlus 8/8T collection flagship 167 days after.
To be clear, these numbers are nothing to have a good time, particularly on the latter entrance. Taking practically half a 12 months to get present software program to your top-of-the-line cellphone from one launch cycle earlier — a cellphone a lot of your top-paying prospects nonetheless carry — is totally unacceptable.
But it is at the least an enchancment from final 12 months, even when it is not fairly again to the place OnePlus was with its improve deliveries the 12 months earlier than that.
And it is definitely a greater story than the following firm on our checklist.
NEXT PAGE: The backside of the barrel — and a few indicators of hope for the long run