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    Android 13 Upgrade Report Card: Surprise!

    It’s humorous how a lot a well-liked narrative can differ from actuality when you begin bringing chilly, exhausting knowledge into the equation.Over the previous couple years, Samsung has labored exhausting to enhance its status as a dependable supplier of software program updates within the Android area. And to make sure, it is made some significant strides alongside the best way.But once you transcend the broad impressions and objectively measure the corporate’s dedication to well timed Android working system rollouts — properly, the story will get a teensy bit extra sophisticated.That’s exactly why I began doing these Android Upgrade Report Cards manner again within the platform’s prehistoric ages. From the get-go, we have seen some wild variance in how properly completely different device-makers assist their merchandise after you have completed paying for ’em — and as a mean phone-owner, there isn’t any nice strategy to know what’s gonna occurs six months or a yr after you shell out your {dollars} for a top-of-the-line cellphone.It’s partially simply par for the course with the character of Android as a platform. The working system is open supply, and which means every device-maker can modify it how they need (for higher or typically for worse). And consequently, which means the accountability falls on every firm’s shoulders to course of each new incoming Android model and get it out to its clients.[Get level-headed knowledge in your inbox with my free Android Intelligence newsletter. Three things to know and three things to try every Friday — straight from me to you.] While we will not management the extent of care and dedication every firm places into that course of, we are able to management our personal information about how a lot completely different device-makers prioritize post-sales assist. That manner, you may at the very least have the context you want to make an informed choice about which cellphone is best for you — not only for the primary few weeks that you simply personal it however for your complete two-, three-, or perhaps even four-year interval that you simply’re prone to carry it round.Now that we’re six months previous the launch of Android 13, it is time to step again and take 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 data issues to you (trace: It oughta matter — loads), however whether or not you discover post-sales software program assist to be a high precedence or an irrelevant asterisk, you need to be armed with all the info that empowers you to make absolutely knowledgeable future shopping for choices. 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.Google JR
    Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 0 days (50/50 factors)
    Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 0 days (25/25 factors)
    Length of time for improve to succeed in two-cycles-back flagships: 0 days (15/15 factors)
    Communication: Excellent (10/10 factors)
    Perhaps the least stunning a part of this yr’s evaluation is the half that is virtually all the time constant: Google’s on the tippity-top of the pack with its unmatched dedication to offering well timed and dependable Android updates by itself self-made Pixel telephones — and for truly following via on that promise.Following an uncommon slight delay with the beginning of its rollout final yr, Google was again to its typical behavior of sending out the most recent Android replace to Pixels on the exact same day the software program was launched.(For the needs of this evaluation, by the best way, it is the beginning of a rollout — to a flagship cellphone mannequin within the US — 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 when you personal a previous-gen gadget or a lower-priced Pixel “a” mannequin, you continue to get main updates like Android 13 concurrently the current-gen flagship cellphone house owners. That’s a pointy distinction to the best way each different device-maker handles its lineup, and it is the best way issues very a lot must be.And whereas Google’s ordinary “rolling out in waves” asterisk all the time applies to a sure diploma, with some Pixel house owners not receiving the software program on that very first day, Android 13 made its strategy to all supported Pixel gadgets inside an affordable period of time and with out the necessity for any additional 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 gadgets and the maker of the software program — however guess what? That’s a part of the Pixel bundle. And as an individual buying a cellphone, the one factor that actually issues is the expertise you obtain.And as ordinary, the outcomes inform you all there’s to know: Google’s telephones are no doubt probably the most dependable strategy to obtain ongoing updates in a well timed method on Android. The firm may (and most actually ought to) begin supporting its telephones for longer, particularly as different gamers within the ecosystem prolong to 4 full years of working system updates compared to Google’s three — however by way of timeliness, Google’s the one firm that makes an express assure about improve deliveries as part of its gadgets’ buying bundle, and it is completely the one one which constantly delivers on that entrance, each single yr. OnePlus JR
    Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 38 days (46/50 factors)
    Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 120 days (19/25 factors)
    Length of time for improve to succeed in two-cycles-back flagships: 88 days (12/15 factors)
    Communication: Poor (0/10 factors)
    Expecting to see another person on this second place spot? Or perhaps anticipating to see a barely stronger rating in our silver-medal place? Well, shock — instances two!If there’s one fixed with OnePlus, it is a full lack of consistency in terms of its Android improve efficiency. The firm did admirably properly for some time, then it had an embarrassingly unhealthy flop of a yr with Android 11 in 2020.Last yr, it recovered and began to maneuver again in the correct route with its Android 12 efforts — although it nonetheless got here into solely stable “C” territory and did not come near matching its earlier success.Now, with Android 13, the corporate’s flipping and flopping a little bit however ending up in the identical normal vary of mediocrity as what we noticed within the final improve cycle. OnePlus truly did decently properly with its current-gen flagship, the OnePlus 10 Pro (which, confusingly, doesn’t have a non-Pro equal). Owners of that gadget received Android 13 of their palms simply over a month after the software program’s launch, which is not unhealthy in any respect and is a major step ahead from what occurred with OnePlus’s current-gen mannequin final time.But the place the corporate fell flat was in its dealing with of previous-gen flagship telephones — a frustratingly frequent problem for OnePlus as of late. Its most up-to-date previous-gen cellphone, the OnePlus 10T, waited a whopping 120 days to get its Android 13 replace, whereas the two-cycles-back flagships within the OnePlus 9 sequence waited for a weirdly much less unhealthy however nonetheless not spectacular 88 days to see the software program.All in all, it is simply not an incredible outcome — and including insult to harm is the truth that OnePlus supplied just about no communication alongside the best way and no method of steerage to its top-paying clients about what was occurring and after they may count on Android 13 to reach.Most stunning of all, although, is the truth that this middling effort got here in forward of the subsequent phone-maker on our listing.Samsung JR
    Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 86 days (41/50 factors)
    Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 105 days (20/25 factors)
    Length of time for improve to succeed in two-cycles-back flagships: 104 days (12/15 factors)
    Communication: Poor (0/10 factors)
    So right here it’s: If you learn a lot tech information, you are most likely underneath the impression that Samsung is completely killing it in terms of Android improve deliveries. And to be honest, that is not solely flawed.The firm is doing an admirable job of supporting its sprawling lineup of Android gadgets for longer than ever, with most flagships now receiving a full 4 years of working system updates — a yr greater than even Google is guaranteeing with its Pixel merchandise.But in terms of timeliness, Samsung is not such a shining star.The firm truly slipped a bit from final yr in its supply time for its current-gen flagships (which, for the aim of this evaluation, are thought-about to be the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy Z Fold 4, since Samsung has made it clear that it has been viewing these two gadget strains as equal-footing flagship merchandise since 2021). It did worse with its most previous-gen gadgets, too, falling to 105 days with its 2021 cellphone pair and coming in at 104 days for its high two 2020 telephones (the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20, in that ultimate yr earlier than Samsung switched its main emphasis from the Note line to the Fold line as a co-flagship product).Between that substantial drop in efficiency — notably on the present flagship entrance — and the corporate’s unlucky return to its typical method of conserving clients fully at the hours of darkness about its progress alongside the best way, Samsung slipped again from its temporary flirtation with a “B” grade final yr into agency “C” territory and a firmly middling outcome for its Android 13 efforts.It’s simple to attain a optimistic headline with one token rollout, however when you begin taking a look at an organization’s full efficiency, throughout the board, the story is not all the time so easy.And — exasperated sigh — issues solely worsen from right here.NEXT PAGE: How the mighty have fallen

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