Oppo Phone Deals

Oppo's update policy runs by price tier

Oppo is unusually direct about the fact that update support scales with what you pay, and the tiers are worth knowing before comparing on price alone.

Recent Find series flagships, including the Find X8 and Find X9 generations, receive five years of Android version upgrades and six years of security patches. Other Oppo flagships from 2023 onwards receive four upgrades and five years of patches, and pre-2023 flagships receive three upgrades and four years.

Mid-range handsets receive two Android upgrades and four years of security patches. Budget models receive one upgrade and three years of patches. Some entry-level models receive no Android version upgrades at all.

That is a spread of five years between the top and bottom of the range, which is larger than the price difference between tiers might suggest. On a 36 month contract, a budget Oppo will be out of Android updates well before the term ends.

Oppo and OnePlus are effectively the same company

Oppo and OnePlus operate as a single business, sharing staff, research and development, and the underlying code that their respective Android interfaces are built on. Their update policies are correspondingly similar, and both scale with price in the same way.

This is worth knowing when cross-shopping, because a comparison between the two brands is closer to comparing two ranges from one manufacturer than comparing two competitors. Coverage of the specific model, contract length and total cost will tell you more than the badge.

Charging speed and where Oppo differentiates

Oppo has consistently competed on charging speed, and its flagships frequently charge considerably faster than equivalent models from the better known brands. If you charge in short bursts rather than overnight, that is a genuine day to day difference rather than a specification sheet number.

Fast charging does interact with battery longevity, and our guide to phone battery health explains how charging behaviour affects how quickly a battery degrades. That matters more on a long contract, where you keep the handset well past the point at which battery condition becomes noticeable.

Where the value sits

Oppo's Reno mid-range handsets are usually the most competitive part of the range on total cost, and they occupy the price band where the largest number of buyers are shopping.

The question to settle is whether the two Android upgrades and four years of security patches that come with a mid-range Oppo cover the contract you are signing. On a 24 month term they comfortably do. On a 36 month term they do not cover the final year.

If a longer support period matters more than the specification, compare against Samsung deals and the Pixel a-series at a similar total cost before deciding. Our guide to what storage size do I need on a phone covers the storage decision, which is fixed on most models in this range.

What to compare when choosing an Oppo phone

Identify which Oppo tier the model sits in before comparing on price, because the support difference between a Find flagship and a budget handset is around five years.

Match that support period against the contract length. This is the single most useful check on Oppo, because the policy is explicit enough to make the calculation straightforward.

Then compare on total amount payable rather than the monthly figure, and treat OnePlus models as part of the same range rather than as a separate competitor.

If you are moving from another provider and want to keep your existing number, our guide on how to keep your number when switching explains the process. If you are deciding how much data to pay for, our guide to what is a good data allowance covers what different types of use consume.