And whereas Google’s regular “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 14 made its solution to all supported Pixel gadgets inside an inexpensive 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 might argue that Google has a singular benefit in that it’s 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 finally issues is the expertise you obtain.
As regular, the outcomes inform you all there’s to know: Google’s telephones are indubitably essentially the most dependable solution to obtain ongoing updates in a reliably well timed method on Android. It’s the one firm that makes an express assure about that as part of its gadgets’ buying bundle, and it’s completely the one one which constantly delivers on it, yr after yr.
Samsung
Google/JR
Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 44 days (46/50 factors)
Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 62 days (22/25 factors)
Length of time for improve to succeed in two-cycles-back flagships: 67 days (13/15 factors)
Communication: Poor (0/10 factors)
Going again to my musings in the beginning of this story: If there’s a method during which Samsung has been per its Android improve efficiency through the years, it’s that the corporate is constantly inconsistent in how lengthy it takes to get present Android software program into the fingers of its highest-paying prospects.
This yr, Samsung did fairly effectively: a second-place end, with an 81% B- rating — not too shabby in any respect, particularly relative to Samsung’s typical requirements.
When you look again somewhat, although, you’ll see how a lot these requirements shift over time. Last yr, with Android 13, Samsung scored an unlucky 73% C. The yr earlier than that, with Android 12, the corporate got here in with an 83% B. And the yr earlier than that, with Android 11, it was a 68% D+ (ouch!).
In spite of a curious consensus amongst many tech writers that Samsung is one way or the other completely killing it in terms of upgrades, the corporate simply can’t be counted on to ship present smartphone software program in a reliably well timed method. That’s true generally even for its current-gen flagships, although these normally see updates inside 1 / 4 of a yr or so, a minimum of (as of more moderen Android improve cycles). It’s particularly a difficulty when you get to Samsung’s older gadgets, which are typically the place the corporate actually begins dropping the ball.
That being stated, once more: This yr wasn’t too horrible. The current-gen (on the time of Android 14’s launch) Galaxy S23 cellphone took simply over a month to see its replace, at 38 days, whereas the then-current-gen folding flagship Galaxy Fold 5 took 49 days. It will not be earth-shattering velocity, but it surely’s fairly respectable.
It’s the two-plus months on the second-gen and two-year-old flagship that pull the corporate’s rating down from the place it might and arguably must be. And then additionally the annoyingly regular Samsung method of maintaining prospects utterly at the hours of darkness about its progress alongside the best way and providing no significant communication about what’s taking place and when a rollout may start.
All of that’s to say nothing in regards to the added drawback that’s very current with Samsung telephones particularly round totally different machine variants. Unlike Google, Samsung tends to ship Android updates to 1 particular variant at a time — that means, as an illustration, the Verizon model of a cellphone may get an replace first, then the AT&T or T-Mobile or unlocked mannequin won’t begin its rollout for one more few weeks to even a month or extra down the street. This doesn’t have an effect on the corporate’s total rating for the needs of this evaluation, but it surely’s definitely an element price mentioning and one which ceaselessly provides to the frustration expressed by the corporate’s prospects.
Long story brief: It’s simple to attain a constructive headline with one token supply, and if we had been trying solely on the one-dimensional layer of the rollout to a single present flagship, we’d in all probability say Samsung is completely killing it — similar to all the opposite publications that aren’t diving so deeply. Once you begin an organization’s full efficiency throughout the board, although, the story isn’t all the time so easy.
And — yup, you guessed it — issues solely worsen from right here.
OnePlus
Google/JR
Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: 110 days (38/50 factors)
Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: 113 days (19/25 factors)
Length of time for improve to succeed in two-cycles-back flagships: 83 days (12/15 factors)
Communication: Poor (0/10 factors)
Speaking of curler coaster rides, OnePlus is giving Samsung a run for its cash within the up-and-down, constantly inconsistent division in terms of its Android improve efficiency.
This yr, OnePlus is decidedly down in its outcomes — with a disappointing D+ rating and delays of three to 4 months for many of its top-tier gadgets. These numbers are literally decrease than the corporate’s efficiency the previous couple years, with 77% and 76% C grades in these cycles, although a bit higher than its Android 11 effort earlier than that (which was a barely-passing 60% D).
For perspective: Back in 2020, OnePlus was on hearth. It was ending up a stable three-year streak of holding the second-place spot in these analyses and steadily growing its efficiency with every subsequent cycle. Then — effectively, one thing clearly modified.
Just like Samsung, what provides insult to OnePlus’s damage is the truth that it’s completely terrible about speaking with its prospects. Wade by means of the official OnePlus discussion board, and also you’ll discover pages upon pages of feedback from pissed off phone-owners who’re both determined for any shred of information about when their top-of-the-line machine will see its more and more growing old software program replace or are pulling their hair out due to issues with the rollouts which have began.
All in all, it’s simply not a fantastic outcome — although in comparison with the following Android device-maker on our listing, it definitely could possibly be worse.
Motorola
Google/JR
Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagships: Still ready (0/50 factors)
Length of time for improve to succeed in previous-gen flagships: Still ready (0/25 factors)
Length of time for improve to succeed in two-cycles-back flagships: Still ready (0/15 factors)
Communication: Poor (1/10 factors)
I’m operating out of how to say this, so I’m simply gonna quote myself from our final Android Upgrade Report Card — as a result of there’s no potential solution to sugarcoat it anymore: Motorola merely doesn’t care about updates. It makes little to no effort to help its prospects with fairly up-to-date software program after a purchase order has been made, and we see the identical actual story yr after yr. After yr.
As of this second (and as per regular), Motorola has but to roll out a single Android 14 improve to any flagship cellphone within the US — or wherever, for that matter. Motorola’s message right here has been painfully constant for some time now: If you purchase a Moto cellphone, you’re gonna be ready a great lengthy whereas to get present software program, in case you ever get it — and also you’re gonna be ready at the hours of darkness, too, with no significant communication from the corporate about what’s happening or when you’ll be able to count on to see any progress.
On the latter entrance, in January — 1 / 4 of a yr after Android 14’s launch — Motorola supplied an preliminary listing of which gadgets must be getting the software program, with none even the vaguest trace of when stated rollouts might truly get going. It’s one thing, by way of communication. But simply barely.
It’s sufficient to get Motorola a single barely-there-effort level, although, resulting in that appropriately pitiful-looking 1% F rating.
Such a disappointing devolution for a once-mighty Android contender.
Wait — what about everybody else?
Does this listing appear shorter than you had been anticipating? Alas, that is our present Android {hardware} actuality, a minimum of right here within the States at this second.
One-time Android common LG is not round, as the corporate bowed out of the phone-making sport solely in 2021. And early Android veteran HTC has been off the grid since 2021’s Report Card, given the truth that it’s barely even placing out new telephones anymore — definitely not flagship-level gadgets. If the corporate ever comes again round and makes an attempt to get within the sport once more at any level, I’ll eagerly add it again into the listing for inclusion.
And then there’s Sony — an organization a random reader will ask me about every now and then however that simply doesn’t make sense to incorporate on this listing proper now. Sony has by no means had a lot of a significant presence within the US smartphone market (which is a disgrace, actually — however that’s one other story for one more time), and in recent times, its position within the US cell market has dropped from “barely anything” to “virtually nothing.”
I can’t even start to make head or tails of Sony’s convoluted, confusingly named cellphone lineup anymore, however the firm despatched out its first Android 14 improve in early November and continued chipping away at its listing by means of the beginning of 2024. It definitely wouldn’t be topping the listing if it had been included on this evaluation, but it surely’d be one other addition to the middle-of-the-pack, C-range part if it had any significant US presence.
What about Nokia? That firm has a reasonably restricted presence within the US, but it surely had typically accomplished a stable job of maintaining its telephones up to date with each main and minor OS releases and with month-to-month safety patches up till 2021, when Google’s Android One program began quietly falling aside. These days, Nokia’s taking its good candy time to get present software program onto its gadgets — with rollouts simply getting going previously a number of days — so even when it had been included on this evaluation, it wouldn’t be a exceptional outcome.
Last however not least, there’s Nothing — the hype-loving small-scale phone-maker from OnePlus founder Carl Pei. Nothing has been doing (ahem) just about nothing by way of speaking about its software program help progress with its paying prospects, however its earliest trace of an incoming Android 14 improve occurred in mid-December, for its current-gen Nothing Phone 2 mannequin, and it didn’t even begin speaking about an improve for its one-year-old Nothing Phone 1 flagship till early February. Suffice it to say, its rating wouldn’t be spectacular if it had been important sufficient to incorporate on this breakdown.
In element: How these grades had been calculated
This Android Upgrade Report Card follows the identical grading system used with final yr’s evaluation — which options exact and clearly outlined requirements designed to weigh efficiency for each present and previous-generation flagship telephones together with an organization’s communication efforts, all in a constant and utterly goal method.
Each producer’s total grade relies on the next method, with ultimate scores being rounded up or right down to the closest full integer:
50% of grade: Length of time for improve to succeed in present flagship cellphone(s)
25% of grade: Length of time for improve to succeed in most instant previous-gen flagship cellphone(s)
15% of grade: Length of time for improve to succeed in two-cycles-back previous-gen flagship cellphone(s)
10% of grade: Overall communication with prospects all through the improve course of
Notably, 2023’s Android 13 evaluation marked the primary time the method was expanded to account for flagship telephones which can be two generations again along with the latest previous-gen fashions. With the de facto customary help window stretching to a minimal of three years, it made sense to take a broader view and see how totally different device-makers are literally doing in terms of supporting these older fashions — as a promise of help alone solely means a lot. How lengthy it truly takes for these telephones to obtain updates is equally vital. And the scores right here now mirror that, extending additional right into a cellphone’s lifespan.
Upgrade timing usually varies wildly from one nation or service to the following, so with the intention to create a constant customary for scoring, I’ve targeted this evaluation on when Android 14 first reached a flagship mannequin that’s available within the US — both a carrier-connected mannequin or an unlocked model of the cellphone, if such a product is offered by the producer and available to US prospects — in a public, official, and never opt-in-beta-oriented over-the-air rollout.
(To be clear, I’m not counting having the ability to import a world model of a cellphone from eBay or from some random vendor on Amazon as being “readily available to US customers.” For the needs of making an inexpensive and constant customary for this evaluation, a cellphone needs to be offered within the US in some official capability with the intention to be thought of a “US model” of a tool.)
By trying on the time to Android 14’s first look (by way of an over-the-air rollout) on a tool within the US, we’re measuring how shortly a typical US device-owner might realistically get the software program in a traditional scenario. And since we’re trying on the first look, in any unlocked or carrier-connected cellphone, we’re eliminating any carrier-specific delays from the equation and focusing purely on the soonest potential window you could possibly obtain an replace from any given producer on this nation. We’re additionally eliminating the PR-focused silliness of a producer dashing to roll out a small-scale improve in someplace like Lithuania simply to allow them to put out a press launch touting that they had been “FIRST,” when the sensible implication of such a rollout is principally only a rounding error.
I selected to deal with the US particularly as a result of that’s the place this publication (and this individual scripting this proper now — hello!) relies, however this identical evaluation could possibly be accomplished utilizing any nation as its foundation, in fact, and the outcomes would differ accordingly.
All measurements begin from the day Android 14 was launched into the Android Open Source Project: October 4, 2023, which is when the ultimate uncooked OS code completed importing and have become out there to producers.
The following scale decided every producer’s subscores for improve timeliness:
1-14 days to first US rollout = A+ (100)
15-30 days to first US rollout = A (96)
31-45 days to first US rollout = A- (92)
46-60 days to first US rollout = B+ (89)
61-75 days to first US rollout = B (86)
76-90 days to first US rollout = B- (82)
91-105 days to first US rollout = C+ (79)
106-120 days to first US rollout = C (76)
121-135 days to first US rollout = C- (72)
136-150 days to first US rollout = D+ (69)
151-165 days to first US rollout = D (66)
166-180 days to first US rollout = D- (62)
More than 180 days to first US rollout (and thus no improve exercise throughout the six-month window) = F (0)
There’s only one asterisk: If a producer outright abandons any US-relevant fashions of a tool, its rating defaults to zero for that particular class. Within that class (be it present or previous-gen flagship), such conduct is a sign that the producer in query couldn’t be trusted to honor its dedication and supply an improve. This adjustment permits the rating to higher mirror that actuality. No such changes had been made this yr, although there have been situations the place it’s occurred previously (whats up, Moto!).
Last however not least, this evaluation focuses on producers promoting flagship telephones which can be related and not directly important to the US market and/or the Android fanatic neighborhood. That, as I alluded to above, is why an organization like Sony is not a part of the first evaluation — and why firms like Xiaomi and Huawei aren’t presently a part of this image, regardless of their relevance in different components of the world. Considering the efficiency of gamers in a market akin to China will surely be attention-grabbing, but it surely’d be a very totally different and completely separate evaluation, and it’s past the scope of what we’re contemplating on this one report.
Aside from the businesses included right here, most gamers are both nonetheless comparatively insignificant within the US market or have targeted their efforts extra on the price range realm within the States to this point — and thus don’t make sense, a minimum of as of now, to incorporate on this specific-sample-oriented and flagship-focused breakdown.
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