For many years the mantra that the brand has transmitted around it has been that of a manufacturer that only launches high-end mobiles at a better price than its rivals, coining the famous phrase of «Flagship Killer»Describing his phones, a business concept that has been faltering in recent months.
What happened to that promise?
After several successful models, OnePlus launched in 2015 the OnePlus X, the brand’s first mid-range mobile. This was something that many users liked, in fact it had good sales, and many awaited the arrival of its second generation. But it was not like that, since the brand scrapped the project and announced with great fanfare that they would not launch a mid-range mobile again, and that they would only focus on the Flagships, the high-end mobiles that had characterized it until then. There were no criticisms at the time, because the product offered by the brand was really very good, and it had a very competitive price, practically half that of its competitors.
But as you know, in the last two years the brand has turned its strategy 180 degrees, and practically all the essence of the brand has been lost. Now its range not only has the heirs of those Flagships, but also many other mid-range mobiles that according to that promise should never have reached the market, but there they are.
Carl Pei, the brand’s co-founder, and its visible face, left the firm last year to undertake a new project, although many have blamed it precisely on that change in strategy, which has completely blurred the essence of OnePlus. To top off this change in OnePlus principles, OxygenOS is merging with ColorOS, which is practically the end of another of its hallmarks, one of the layers most valued by Android users.
And now that?
The truth is that it is difficult to define or give some sense to the current strategy of OnePlus. Their “Flagships” are nowhere near cheapIn fact, they cost twice as much as its first models, and it is no longer any different in this regard. And its mid-range does not have its own character either, what little it had left was that layer of software, which is now at serious risk of disappearance to mix with those of the rest of the BBK group to which it belongs.
So as you can see, that OnePlus promise to only manufacture and sell «Flagship Killer»It has been diluted a long time ago, and now it will be difficult to recover it, since other brands have taken its place, such as Realme within the same group to which it belongs and Poco, which, as you know, belongs to Xiaomi.