One of the biggest reasons why people are flocking to Samsung’s new flagships right now is because of the brand’s ambitious promise to provide 7 years’ worth of updates for their new S series flagship. That lengthy support period is mirrored by Google, which offers 7 years’ worth of software updates for its Pixel phones. These long, multi-year updates sound great on paper, but may not be the best strategy according to OnePlus, which is shunning the idea of providing 7 years of updates for their phones. At least according to OnePlus head honcho Kinder Liu in an interview with Tom’s Guide.

And despite having one of the longest device software update guarantees in the market – up to four years of Android updates and an additional year for security updates – OnePlus isn’t interested in offering 7-year updates like its biggest competitors. According to Liu, offering longer software update policies “misses the point”.

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“It’s not just software update policies that are important to the user, it’s the fluency of your phone’s user experience too,” he said.

Liu is referring to your phone’s hardware, and while it sounds good on paper to offer such a long period for updates, there’s a chance that the hardware in your phone may not be able to handle the higher computational requirements of future Android versions.

Imagine your phone is a sandwich,” he said. “Some manufacturers are now saying that the filling in their sandwich — their phone’s software — will still be good to eat in seven years. But what they’re not telling you is that the bread in the sandwich — the user experience — might be moldy after four years. Suddenly a seven-year software update policy doesn’t matter, because the rest of your experience with the phone is terrible,” he added.

Another big sticking point for Liu is your phone’s battery health. 4 years of charges and discharges is going to take a toll, and Liu knows it. When our competitors say their software policy will last seven years, remember that their phone’s battery may not,” he added.