OnePlus OxygenOS 11 With Android 11 Update Schedule Revealed

OnePlus usually tries to roll out Android updates and security fixes as religiously as possible, even if it sometimes ends up late or, worse, a bit buggy. Android 11, however, seems to be a pretty testing release for it, as it continues to hit a few critical snags in trying to get it out to its supported phones. The company is now coming clean with its intended schedule for rolling out OxygenOS 11, based on Android 11, to its older models and, not to get hopes too high, it seems that the 2018 OnePlus 6 might still be in the running.

Launching with Android 8.1 Oreo, the OnePlus 6 already went through two major Android updates. OnePlus only started promising three updates last year so it's a pleasant surprise to hear that the company is still considering upgrading it to Android 11. Whether that comes to fruition or not, however, is a different story.

The first to get Android 11 this year will be the OnePlus Nord, which isn't exactly a surprise since the mid-range phone was launched back in August. The OnePlus Nord N10 and N100, unfortunately, are still to be discussed. But when they do get OxygenOS 11, that's pretty much the end for its major Android updates unless OnePlus has a change of heart.

As for the OnePlus 7 and 7T, both launched in 2019, the Open Beta for them has yet to even begin. OnePlus blames it on a show-stopping data encryption bug when trying to port Android 11 over to the phones. OnePlus should have probably also practiced the same meticulous attention to bugs before it rolled out a rather problematic update for the OnePlus 8 and 8T last week.

It's slightly disappointing that OnePlus took longer to roll out Android 11 but OxygenOS 11 is quite a big and significant change, not all of them in good ways. The latest release of OnePlus' custom experience diverges quite a lot from the stock Android experience and it might be a contributing factor to slowing down its development and testing on older OnePlus phones.