Owners of the HTC One Mini 2 are in for some bad news, as the smartphone will not receive an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Last year, when detailing which devices in its lineup would eventually get a taste of Lollipop, HTC said the One Mini 2 would get the treat as well. As it turns out, however, the company changed its mind somewhere along the way.
Although it's not even a year old, the HTC One Mini 2 is no longer invited to the Lollipop party. HTC has officially confirmed that the One Mini 2 will not receive an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop, arguing that it has tested the software and it does not deliver a good experience on the handset.
"We determined that Lollipop on the One mini 2 will not provide an optimal experience," HTC announced on Twitter last week, replying to a question from an HTC One Mini 2 owner. "It isn't scheduled to receive the update."
This announcement triggered a firestorm of criticism from HTC One Mini 2 owners, as no one expected the company to deny them the Lollipop update, especially since the smartphone only launched in 2014. Many called HTC unprofessional and said they would switch to other OEMs following this decision.
"We want the best possible experience for our customers. Unfortunately, bringing Lollipop to that device is not currently possible," HTC added in response to some user criticism.
Considering that other OEMs such as LG and Motorola have already proved that Android 5.0 Lollipop can provide a good experience on lower-end devices as well, even with a Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM, it's understandable why HTC One Mini 2 owners are baffled and angry that they will not receive the update.
One of the key goals of Android 5.0 Lollipop was to provide a stable and smooth experience even on lower-end devices, and it has achieved its goal in many cases. HTC did not detail just what exactly provided a bad experience when testing the software on the One Mini 2, it just announced its decision not to push the update.
The HTC Advantage program, meanwhile, had promised that each and every device in the HTC One series would get the latest Android updates for at least two years since their release, and that's obviously not the case here.
"Unprofessional, disrespectful, unthoughtful; literally abandoning those who don't use a flagship," reads just one of the user comments in response to HTC's announcement, but there are many others who feel cheated by this decision.
HTC has sometimes changed its mind in the past when it came to such situations, but for now the company offered no clues that it may be rethinking this decision. If it doesn't change its mind, however, the company will most likely lose many Android users who opt for mid-range devices.
