Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has made a huge announcement that completely changes the game: going forward, it will be upgrading its Android devices to major Android releases at least thrice in their life cycle.
Users of Xiaomi smartphones will, from now on, be guaranteed upgrades to newer versions of Android at least thrice.
This is in line with what we have previously heard from another large Android device maker, Samsung.
Last year, while releasing the Galaxy Note 20 series, Samsung surprised the world with a commitment to upgrade not only the Galaxy Note 20 series but almost every other device it offers, including low-end Android devices, to the latest versions of Android at least thrice in their lifetime.
Before Samsung’s move, HMD Global’s Nokia brand was the only one whose users had some guarantees regarding updates to their devices.
At the moment, Xiaomi already does a commendable job of making sure most of the features it rolls out to users of its more recent devices also make it to older devices as part of MIUI updates, which are normally not tied to the cyclical Android updates.
Xiaomi is also committing to supporting its devices with security updates for at least 4 years.
“With the continuous improvement made to smartphone hardware, the life cycle of a smartphone is gradually lngthening, meaning users aren’t required to replace their smartphones as frequently. For this reason, more consumers place great importance on receiving the latest operating system updates, along with the latest features,” Albert Shan, the Head of Product & Technology, Xiaomi International, is quoted saying in a statement from the company.
Users of the yet-to-be-released Xiaomi 11Pro and the Xiaomi 11T will be the first to benefit from Xiaomi’s new direction when the devices are unveiled in a week’s time. It remains to be seen if Xiaomi will bend backwards and add already-existing devices to the fold or it will only be new releases that are affected.
