【【【Foreword: An Extremely Bad System Update Experience】】】
With the popularity of smart phones for many years, everyone must encounter such problems to some extent. That is, when for some reason to turn over a long-unused old mobile phone ready to play its "residual heat", after many years of re-booting the phone found that the system version is too old, and even can not install some of the latest common software, but may be due to their past willfulness (such as modifying the system software), the phone has been unable to update the system through the regular OTA channel.
At this point, you may find that the brand does not provide any download channels for system update packages on the official website or official forum. Even in the mobile phone's system, the entrance to "manual system update" is deeply hidden.
What's worse is that this scene is actually not the "brain supplement" of our three easy lives, but our personal experience just a few days ago. In the end, I had to download the "official full package" of this model through a third-party ROM download station, and tried to find the hidden offline update mode in the system, and tossed it for several hours before finally restoring the old model to a usable state.
However, such an experience also prompted us to ask whether other models on the market have similar "system update obstacles"?
【【In fact, some brands are quite enthusiastic about "brushing machines"】】
In order to figure this out, we spent a lot of time flipping through the official website and official forums one brand at a time, and finally found that the situation we encountered was only a minority after all, and the vast majority of brands were still satisfactory in "allowing users to update the system through non-OTA methods".
Even some official system versions that are no longer supported (such as the MIUI12 internal beta version of Xiaomi Mi 6) will have special installation tutorials summarized by netizens placed in a conspicuous position for the reference of users in need.
At the same time, OnePlus is also very positive about the non-OTA system update of its models. Especially like the one plus 8, one plus 7 series of such a system adaptation itself is not particularly good models, in the official forum not only has a detailed history offline update package information, and even netizens will teach you how to cross models, cross-version "magic brush machine". Whether you simply want to "save the bricks" or want to toss the new system in advance, it is very convenient and safe.
Another brand that has strong support for offline updates of the system is Nubia. As you can see, they also provide a complete historical system version download service on the official website, and each version has a complete update log to query, and users do not necessarily have to upgrade through "OTA" or install the latest version.
[[However, some manufacturers are not doing it so perfectly]]
If the practice of these three companies in allowing non-OTA system updates and supporting users to freely manually swipe the machine can be called "model students", then the attitude of some brands in this matter is somewhat "getting by".
For example, although vivo provides a very intuitive ROM download entrance on the official website, and also has a manual brushing guide with pictures and texts, it will be found that only the latest version of the system is provided for download. If you do not want to upgrade to the latest version of the system, there is no way to download the old version of the offline system installation package in the official channel.
The situation is similar to Meizu, but as an old "kerosene", we clearly remember that there were multiple optional system versions available for download on the Flyme official website. However, for some new products in recent years, Meizu generally no longer provides a rich and optional version of the historical system, users either download the latest version, or can only choose to return to the factory system.
More interesting is OPPO. After looking at the "Software Update" page of OPPO's official website, you will find that their policies for the old system and the new version of the system are completely different.
In the OPPO official website, the old system before ColorOS 7 can freely choose the historical version of the manual flashing machine, which is obviously very praiseworthy. But the problem is that for subsequent system versions, OPPO no longer provides manual download services. That is to say, if you have an old OPPO mobile phone, you must first swipe into the ColorOS 7 system provided by the official website, and then go to the mobile phone to update the online system through OTA.
This means that because it is updated through an OTA, it is not possible to "pick" the system version. What the official pushes, it can only be used.
Of course, OPPO also provides a PC version of the system upgrade tool on the official website. But according to our test of Sanyi Life, the models that this tool can support are suspected to be particularly small, at least the Reno4 Pro, Find X3 and Find X5 Pro we have on hand have been prompted to "not support updates".
【【In addition, some brands directly chose "lying flat"】】
Of course, some friends may say, "What is this?" At least these brand systems are still available on the official website, and there are ways to manually install updates. At least it's much better than a brand that doesn't offer manual updates at all (or almost entirely). ”
This is not unreasonable, after all, in this survey, we have indeed found some brands that are not doing too well in this regard.
Realme is a slightly better example. Because many models of offline system installation packages can be found on their official websites, but on the one hand, the models provided by the official website are not comprehensive, and many models released in 2021 cannot be found; on the other hand, all these offline system installation packages are very early versions, that is to say, when you brush them into the mobile phone, you actually have to face the OTA update that cannot be rejected or selected.
In contrast, Huawei's support for the manual update system of its models is even worse. In fact, we can hardly find any offline system update packages for models in recent years on its official website, and all that can be searched are very early models, and the number is relatively small. In the official forum, we can also see some users' dissatisfaction with the official push OTA and prevent users from manually flashing the machine.
【【【System update is small, but the user's choice is large】】】
Some friends may think that it is not a manual system update, how troublesome! Manufacturers have to provide OTAs, why do you have to struggle with this?
Indeed, from the perspective of product "after-sales service", it is not a necessary thing to provide a manual offline system installation package that can be freely selected in version and can be easily operated on the official website. Because the vast majority of models can easily get the latest system updates through OTAs, and even if we talked about this at the beginning of this article, the mobile phone can not be properly carried out due to system damage, or some other reason OTA can not be carried out normally, in theory, you can also go to the official after-sales point for repair to solve.
But on the one hand, "manual system updates" are obviously far more convenient solutions for some skilled users than after-sales. Whether to provide convenience for this part of the user can also be regarded as a manifestation of the manufacturer's sincerity.
On the other hand, more importantly, we all know that most of the current mobile phone systems are deeply implanted in the manufacturer's respective "ecology". In fact, they are not just a set of systems, but an important way for manufacturers to make subsequent profits after selling mobile phones.
But because of this, in our view of Sanyi Life, giving users choice, allowing them to refuse system updates according to their own wishes, rolling back the system version, or choosing the system version that they think is the best to use for installation, will be more respectful of consumers' choice. Instead of using a "one-size-fits-all" OTA update, all users are bound to the manufacturer's own system update rhythm, forcing everyone to use the latest version of the system and services.