- OnePlus confirmed that the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T Android 11 beta program will start in late August.
- If that’s the case, that means a stable launch of Android 11 won’t come until late 2021 — or even early 2022.
- By that point, a handful of phones will likely already be on Android 12.
OnePlus used to have a reputation for delivering Android updates and upgrades at a steady and long-term pace. However, in recent years, the company has lost that reputation as its software updates become slower and less frequent.
As an example of this, the company just revealed when the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T Android 11 beta program will begin. According to this official forum post, users will be able to grab a beta version of Android 11 starting in late August 2021. Notably, this is right around the time that we expect the stable launch of Android 12 to happen.
Related: Android 12 features: Everything we know
Judging from past beta programs, it’s incredibly likely the OnePlus 6/6T won’t see a stable launch of Android 11 until a few months after the beta program begins. That could be anywhere from Fall 2021 or even possibly into early 2022.
Granted, the OnePlus 6 has already seen two Android upgrades: first from Android 8 Oreo to Android 9 Pie, and then to Android 10. The OnePlus 6T launched with Android 9 Pie, so the upgrade to Android 11 would be its second full upgrade. By industry standards, the fact that these phones will see Android 12 at all is not the norm.
Still, with primary competitor Samsung now delivering its own software updates faster than OnePlus, it’s clear that this OnePlus6/OnePlus 6T Android 11 news won’t earn the company any points in comparison. All of Samsung’s flagships from the past two years are already on Android 11, and some will likely be on Android 12 by the time the OnePlus 6 series gets Android 11.
