“Best Android budget phone” was praised better than iPhone SE and Pixel a, but have software updates ruined it?

Android phones can be tempting if you are on a budget. Often, new devices undercut the competition and offer powerful processors at a surprisingly cheap price.

And when it comes to budget phones, OnePlus is one of the companies that has made a name for itself for selling great budget phones. It was part of a clever marketing plan, to get users hooked on budget devices and then slowly raise prices, until one day you end up at pretty much a flagship-level cost for the device. Of course, many users did not like that change, and demanded the next great "flagship killer" (c) (tm) at a much lower price.

So that is exactly what OnePlus did with the launch of a brand new series of phones, the OnePlus Nord in 2020. A $400 phone that offered an incredible amount of features for its price, it was crowned as the "best Android budget phone" of 2020 and early 2021 by many, and all of that made a lot of sense in the beginning. And no surprise, after the glowing reviews it sold like hotcakes and months after the launch it was constantly sold out and you had to wait for weeks to get your hands on one.

From hype to abandon

A couple of years of ownership reveals pitfalls of "best budget phone"

I fire up the OnePlus Nord every once in a while, it was a device I myself praised as the next "Google Nexus", and to this day I still enjoy its design and especially the beautiful blue color. Even today, it could make for a great gift. Yet in these past few months, every time I fire it up, I am greeted with the same old software and no sign of an upcoming update. How did this budget beast end up being treated as second-class Android update citizen?

See, Android updates are the one thing we keep on hearing "will get better" every single year. And it kind of does, just not for everyone.

And especially not so in the budget segment. In the case of the popular OnePlus Nord, it’s now been nearly nine months and it still hasn’t received the Android 12 update we were promised!

Yes, it’s understandable that budget phones are not the first priority of phone makers, but nine months?! Heck, in just a couple of months we expect to have the first phones with Android 13!

Once again, this is not just any phone. It's the phone that started the Nord series that OnePlus expects will sell over 25 million units by 2023!

No sympathy in the community

Fanboys often scorn users for even asking about an update

I paid a visit to OnePlus forums to see whether I am not missing something and whether it's just my device that is not receiving the update. Lo and behold, there is a 90-page thread there, all dedicated to the Nord update delay. I found it particularly frustrating how some users felt entitled to shame others for even expecting an update in the first place.

“Insatiable hunger for updates coupled with the expectation of getting pixel like treatment for half the price,” user Fast_and_Curious replied to a comment.

This type of comments not only have zero contribution to the issue at hand, but put the blame on users for expecting an update that they were promised in a reasonable timeline. Of course, the comment also fails to mention that the OnePlus Nord starting price of around $400 is actually not much cheaper than the Google Pixel 4a/5a series. Yet still those devices are able to get updates on day 1 of the Android 12 update cycle, which to remind you was in early October of 2021!

Admittedly, you can install a beta version of OxygenOS 12, but a beta is... well, a beta! It's expected to have bugs and when a user from Europe asked whether they should try it, another one responded"Better don’t, it’s a bit of a hassle to return to the EU version, especially when stable gets released."

I personally have two friends that have bought the OnePlus Nord thanks to my recommendations and it's frustrating to see their devices left waiting for an update for months on end.

Update: A user who has been actively participating in the OnePlus closed beta testing program also reached out to us. With more than 90 participants in the program, the feedback app was reportedly not even functional for the first couple of weeks of use. After that, the group administration reportedly showed up rarely and did not address the issues that users brought up as feedback. Overall, this user says he felt utterly let down by the OnePlus beta testing program.

Not all budget Android phones are the same

Let's make one thing clear, though: not all budget Android phones are treated this way. For example, Samsung has really stepped up its game and started rolling out Android 12 with its One UI 4 update to the Galaxy A52 in January and February, and the even older Galaxy A51 model started receiving the Android 12 update in April.

At the same time, this situation shows that smaller brands often look like a great deal with a lower initial price on their budget phones, but there are compromises that come with this too. I have my hopes that sounding the alarm on this will actually help phone makers pay attention to updates. It really doesn't make sense to have literally dozens of new devices released, often each one differing in price by just about $20, but failing to properly update them just a year and a half or two after their release.

But what do you think: are software updates equally important to you, or do you think it's acceptable to have fewer and slower software updates in exchange for a devices that costs a bit less than the competition?