How OnePlus Settled: The rise and fall of the cult favourite
I promise my next post will have absolutely nothing to do with smartphones (I had completely forgotten about Galaxy Unpacked when I originally planned this post), but I think it's worth telling a little story. OnePlus is due to launch the OnePlus 11 in a few days, so let's discuss how we got here.
The fall from grace for once cult-icon OnePlus has somehow been both abrupt and expected. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment the soul of a company that banded around the phrase “Never Settle” truly died, however, it is now undeniable that they not only have settled but also that in doing so they have slowly sunk to the bottom of the pile.
The First OnePlus
OnePlus, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer under the umbrella of BBK, rose to fame in the early 2010s with its flagship-level smartphones at affordable prices. Those low prices, along with the description "flagship killer" meant that OnePlus quickly gained a cult following among tech enthusiasts, with many praising its high-end specs. The OnePlus One was the first phone I bought with my own money!
Their early success was primarily due to their aggressive marketing strategies. Whether it be an invite-only system to purchase the first few phones, or their unique marketing campaigns. It wasn't all good though, "Smash the Past" received backlash for encouraging people to destroy phones they already had in exchange for a OnePlus One. Ignoring the fact that this would generate e-waste by destroying functioning phones (OnePlus even had a list of acceptable phones, so they had to be recent), they also received backlash because people started destroying their phones without being "accepted" onto the promotion, meaning they were destroying their phones for no reason. Somehow, that wasn't even OnePlus' worst idea.
Their "Ladies First" campaign encouraged women the skip the line for the OnePlus One by drawing the OnePlus logo on themselves (or a piece of paper they would hold), and then the forum would vote for the "top 50". Those 50 people would then get the opportunity to buy the OnePlus One. Ignoring the fact that it was a sexist popularity contest... Oh wait, no need, I think that's reason enough to shoot this idea down. Luckily, OnePlus saw the error of their ways (as soon as thousands of people pointed it out to them), and this was all chalked up to a small company trying everything it could to be different.
How did it all go wrong?
With every subsequent phone, OnePlus would slowly raise the price of admission. The OnePlus One launched at an astonishing $299 for a phone with flagship specs. The OnePlus 5, which launched three years later, would make a dent of $479 in your wallet.
It made sense though, every passing phone would up the quality ever so slightly, whether it be going to a full-metal body, or adding better cameras and an AMOLED display. Somewhere in amongst it all though, OmePlus lost its way.
Maybe it was with the OnePlus 6T - their first phone without a headphone jack, or maybe it was the OnePlus 9T - a phone that was initially planned on using Oppo's ColorOS, with a move away from the popular OxygenOS. The specific point in time doesn't matter, what does is that OnePlus had clearly moved away from its "Never Settle" mentality to one being just another Android manufacturer.
At the end of 2020, Carl Pei announced he was leaving OnePlus. This wasn't a massive surprise, however, as BBK had been slowly taking control of the brand back. Oppo had always shared a lot with OnePlus, all you had to do was look at the phones. The OnePlus 5 and Oppo R11, or even the OnePlus 6 and Oppo R15 Pro, looked practically identical.
It wasn't all that though, most people didn't even know who Oppo was anyway. OnePlus got into a cycle of releasing a flagship phone every 6-months. June 2016 saw the release of the OnePlus 3, and November 2016 saw the release of the OnePlus 3T. Why "T"? Because it's the letter after "S", making it one step better than Apple with their upgrades... obviously. The only meaningful difference between the two phones was that the OP3 featured the Snapdragon 820, and the OP3T had the Snapdragon 821.
This vicious cycle meant that consumers always had a phone that immediately felt out of date. Has the OnePlus 7 been out for a couple of months? Just wait for a few more for the OnePlus 7T! But if you're waiting a few months anyway, may as well wait for a few more and just get the OnePlus 8 instead...
Where are we now?
The OnePlus 11 is now set to launch in a fairly murky landscape. Sure, it has some general appeal, but the brand is now seen as little more than just another Android manufacturer. Nothing, Carl Pei's new company, may not sell anywhere near as many units as OnePlus, but their desire to make truly exciting devices (from a design standpoint, at least) has shown that Pei represented the heart and soul of the company.
The OnePlus 10T was widely criticized for removing the alert slider; the one thing that made OnePlus unique (at least in the Android space), but the OnePlus 11 is set to bring it back.
It's at this point that I'd make a snarky joke about Apple never doing that, how they'd never listen to customer dissatisfaction and bring back features they wanted - but the Apple Silicon MacBook Pros brought back MagSafe and real ports, and the new HomePod has a removable power cable!
It leaves OnePlus in a weird place. Want a truly incredible smartphone with reliable software support? Look at Samsung, Google, or Apple. Want to be on the quirky side with a bunch of tech geeks and a phone that is actually great value for money? Look at Nothing, Xiaomi, or even Oppo.
Hell, none of this even talks about the 2 new lines of smartphone they now make, with the OnePlus Nord line being their budget-focussed phones, but who on Earth actually knows what the name "OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G" means?
Further Reading
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OnePlus One “Smash the Past” is a Pretty Bad Contest - Droid Life
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OnePlus asks women to participate in degrading contest to get a smartphone - The Verge
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OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirms he has left the company - Tech Crunch
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OnePlus Merges With OPPO: Is It the End of OnePlus? - Make Use Of
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OnePlus and Oppo announce partnership, like they weren't the same company already - Android Police