OnePlus is one of the saddest stories out there. It was the hacker's choice for a while. It was originally the "Never Settle" phone that ran mostly stock android, had specs maxxed out, price was great, and bootloader was unlocked plus they provided factory images. Those were all reasons I bought a lot of OnePlus phones in the early years.
Then they flushed nearly all of it down the toilet. The day they stopped posting factory images was the day I saw the writing on the wall. Such a shame.
"Hacker's choice" phones don't appear to sell enough to justify the costs, although they can be a decent strategy for building the initial brand awareness.
Financially speaking, OPPO was right to gut OnePlus all those years ago and streamline their production into selling the same models (with minor tweaks) under the brands that are more known in this or that region. Saves on hardware and software development costs a lot, and once OnePlus was a household brand among the general public it no longer had to appeal to the hacker crowd anyway.
Sad as it is. I bought the One when they were still invite-only and mained it for years, amazing device for the time. Went a bit full circle and using a Nord 3 right now, but I didn't get it because of the brand (just needed a basic secondary smartphone for traveling and got a good deal on it, it's clearly just a generic OPPO brick).
You're probably right, but I would have been willing to tolerate price increases if they hadn't compromised all the other things though (especially factory images, which heavily chilled rooting/mods). I wonder what would have happened if they'd stuck with high end devices (with maybe a low-end line too) and not compromised on the hackability. For me at least I'd still be using them today as long as the price didn't get ridiculous (i.e. stayed in the ballpark with other flagships)
Yeah I remember buying a OnePlus 7 Pro with 12 GB (!) of RAM like 7 years ago. The processor was also bleeding edge and that sucker ripped. It combined with stuff like termux was so capable that I used it to run all kinds of stuff that makes little sense on a normal phone. The day that phone retired (from drop damage) was heartbreaking*.
* It actually ran even longer after that as various utilities but not a daily driver, but when I didn't have it with me all the time the convenience slowly waned and it got forgotten
Not an apples to apples comparison#. iOS uses way less ram than android, plus has memory compression. That’s why Apple gets away with less ram and much smaller batteries with equal or better performance.
Editorialised! No new products, not halts operations. Please be more careful.
OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America.
The difference matters for those of us on OnePlus devices:
Though we will no longer launch new products in Europe, our commitment to you remains unchanged. Backed by OPPO, existing OnePlus devices will continue to receive scheduled software updates and security patches within the support periods originally committed for each device model.
After two years your battery will be almost unusable so genuinely it doesn't matter.
My only issue with oneplus phones, and I owned several of them already, is that they are running incredibly hot on normal usage, and battery capacity detoriates quickly over time.
They do have a great sleek UI and great hardware, not to mention fantastic supercharging capabilities which is a life saver sometimes, but all under the big cost.
Hmm my OnePlus 12 is 26 months old and battery is still phenomenal. I charge it to 80% and easily get a day of use, plugging in each night at 30-40%. I have not experienced it running hot yet.
I did not have battery issues with my OnePlus 7 Pro or OnePlus 9 Pro either. The 7 Pro gave me 3 days of battery! (I upgraded for camera improvements and faster screen refresh rate.)
My last one was 10 pro and battery is essentially dead after 2.5 years of usage. Can't make half of a day, literally unusable, and I'm not a big phone user. Case is made of some really good material, which feels very premium, but runs son fckn hot that you can't hold it in your hands anymore, this is especially true during hot summers, and it got only worse with the last major OS update. This is a heat dissipation issue caused by the materials used, large battery, and hi performance CPU cores so I don't think my case was any special than the others.
I see that the OnePlus 15 follows the same route, and although it has good reviews, and they claim they solved the battery heat dissipation and detoriation issues with some new kind of cells, it seems that it still runs hot according to some reviews I've seen on the yt.
Before that I had OnePlus 7 and more budget friendly Nord, and they were much better than 10 Pro, although 7 shared similar type of issues as 10 Pro. Nord is a bit different because case is not premium, and the battery is not so large, and the CPU is not premium nor the supercharging as well. However, it doesn't run hot and battery after few years of usage is still able to give you a full day without the problem.
I'm pretty convinced that all their flagships with hi performance CPUs, premium case, large battery, and fast charging suffer from the same issues.
Maybe mixed CPU core architecture is an answer to that issue, which might suggest why is so prevailing in other phone manufacturers but I have not dig that deep into the topic
I am not an idiot, I am not keeping my phone on direct sunlight neither do I run on "very high brightness". The phone runs hot on normal circumstances, and in summer when the temperatures are getting higher it becomes unbearable. I hope you understand now.
Oneplus 15 uses a Si/C battery like other higher end Chinese phones currently. It doesn't get hot during normal operation (I don't play games on it) and since I don't use fast charging, for now it looks like it will work for a long time. Still get easily 2 days on a 80% charge.
I had a similar issue with OnePlus 7 but not at this scale. It lasted me for 3, 3.5 years. I think this is becoming a problem more increasingly because of a beefier and beefier hardware that is put into these phones, and the heat dissipation problem hence becomes larger and larger problem which doesn't get automagically solved. I think that the best bet today is to take one with "subpar" CPU and larger battery and not so crazy supercharging capabilities
Interesting -- I thought OnePlus batteries were supposed to wear down LESS than other phones specifically because of their "High amp" charging technique versus "High voltage". After some quick research it seems this is mostly due to the heat generated during charging happens in the charger brick instead of the phone, keeping the heat away from the battery. But I suppose in real world situations it may not have a huge effect.
> After two years your battery will be almost unusable
After two years increasingly complex web apps will have made your hardware obsolete. Batteries can be swapped, bad web development at scale cannot be fixed.
Please see my other comment wrt Nord. What I am talking about is that flagship phones from OnePlus are suffering from the issues I described. I can't say every one of each suffers since my N=1 but the ones with the same characteristics and features I described above I am pretty sure that they do. There's a fundamental design flaw or we may call it a tradeoff.
Sad I have a 6 year old oneplus and was looking for a new phone somewhat soon, would've considered them again for sure. Any alternatives? They always had a reputation for me for being a great no fuss, little bloat and simply fast android phone.
Google’s phones are pretty good nowadays, I feel like they carry that ethos more than modern OnePlus phones anyway. Plus they can be unlocked trivially, which is officially supported, and you can install GrapheneOS on them.
I just got a new phone a month ago. I wanted a Pixel so I could run GrapheneOS. After researching the hardware I ended up with a OnePlus 13. Google's hardware is far behind, buggy, and overpriced.
I have a OnePlus 13. Best hardware ever. Running lineage with microg + magisk and use nix on top of termux to install stuff using sudo, including AI harnesses - it's my portable AI workstation now.
The Pixel can run Graphene, which means you can permanently take control of the phone and give Google the boot. The iPhone is entirely controlled by Apple, and you are one OTA away from a hostile update. By default, everything on your phone is sent to Apple for "backup" too.
I always wonder what people who say things like this are doing with their phones.
Two generations of phones ago, these performance parameters were fine. What software has come out on Android phones since then that's made that performance level unacceptable?
I wanted an Android phone without bloatware and ads so my 2 options were OnePlus and Nothing. I ended up buying the OnePlus because I disliked the huge back camera on the Nothing 3a Pro.
Oppo is great, same company as OnePlus. I have the base Find X9 and I'm super happy with it. It's fast, it stays cool, and the battery lasts forever(had it for 8 months now and I still haven't finished a single day with less than 50% battery left, it's nuts)
> will continue to receive scheduled software updates and security patches
but wasn't this after they upgrade you to ColorOS? Where you then can reinstall the old one you're using right now, but will then no longer have updates?
It doesn't make sense because OnePlus is much more known in the West than either Oppo, Vivo or Realme. OnePlus also just sounds like more of a Western brand.
It would have made much more sense to kill those other brands in the West and unify everything under the OnePlus banner.
I mean, in a vacuum, yes. But it made a huge splash with the OnePlus One, and they had some pretty nice phones since.
Oppo, Vivo and Realme sound like those weird dropshipping Amazon brands. Or the whitelabel brand Android phones you can buy on AliExpress. If I didn't know they are legit brands I would genuinely think you'd be trying to sell me a scam phone that fake-advertised having 12GB memory or a Snapdragon.
The branding logic actually makes sense from BBK's internal perspective — OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme were originally separate fiefdoms under the BBK umbrella, each with its own P&L and channel strategy. When BBK restructured and put OnePlus under Oppo's management, the decision was driven by domestic Chinese market dynamics, not Western brand equity. Oppo's management likely saw maintaining a separate Western-facing brand as an operational cost that didn't justify the diminishing returns, especially once OnePlus lost its 'flagship killer' positioning and became just another rebranded Oppo. Chinese conglomerates often prioritise internal restructuring efficiency over international brand preservation — it's a recurring pattern you see across sectors, not just smartphones.
it's a frustrating pattern for sure. makes it so you can't reward good companies with return business. instead, we get the amazon-seller-experience: an ever-churning alphabet soup of fly-by-night companies hocking low-quality stuff.
As someone who was a big OnePlus fan from the 3 era to the 9 Pro, I saw the decline, I moved over when Nexus died, and had used a mixed bag before then.
OnePlus was on the decline and it was clear it wouldn't be a contender for much longer here in the UK, especially when they merged OSs with the OPPO (?) OS, and software quality went through the floor. I moved to Pixels and currently have a Pixel 9 Pro XL which I'm looking to change as they destroyed the battery life with the march update and it still hasn't been resolved. The Pixel has been solid otherwise and performance is still excellent, but I can't abide having my phone entering battery saver every day by late afternoon.
Nothing(TM) looks like it could be a decent choice, but they're generally weak hardware compared to a 9 Pro XL class device, and I'm not a fan of Samsung any more as a company, though it seems a S2X Ultra might be the only real option.
Nothing looks like a decent replacement for OnePlus for phones, but it doesn’t look like they’ve tackled tablets yet which is unfortunate. Though I never bought one, OnePlus’ tablets have long been on my radar because they’re one of the few Android tablets that use a sensible, more squarish aspect ratio (similar to that of iPads) instead of the awkwardly tall/skinny 16:9/16:10 shape popular in the industry.
The headline "Oppo stops sale under OnePlus brand in US and Europe" would be more appropriate.
OnePlus products were mostly slightly redesigned Oppo products for the past years, built on the same hardware and running the same OS.
Early-on it was an impressive corporate experiment to observe: The giant company Oppo gave one of its members Carl Pei the chance to create an agile sub-brand with an own OS and access to Oppo's supply chain.
Carl Pei succeeded and OnePlus became a disruptive force in many markets for several years.
But Carl Pei already left (to start the UK-based tech company 'Nothing'), the OnePlus OS was discontinued and product development was largely folded into Oppo many years ago already...
This is sad. I had a couple of one plus phones. I'm developing an app on one right now, and I told my mom to get one. She had it for eight years, and it's still working. Well, this is the final push, I guess, that I needed to get a Pixel and install GrapheneOS.
Loved my OnePlus One and ran nightlies of Cyanogenmod on it for quite a while. I had that bamboo wood backing on the phone that was really nice to the touch. Premium feel and a hacker phone.
It was quality and lasted for many years. I got it after I left the Apple ecosystem and my HTC One (M7) had become pretty banged-up.
I shifted away from OnePlus as it became more pricey and went with Samsung models over the last many years. I also no longer have as much time to play with LineageOS and nightlies anymore.
I did go back to OnePlus around the 10 series but wasn't impressed enough to keep it very long. I still use the red USB-C cables though.
I feel this is just a case where innovation eventually gives way and the Opportunity acquisition along with the data breach just made it less risk-adverse to innovate on features and pricing which has led to the pull-back.
OnePlus was fun when Cyanogenmod was edgy, etc. and you had the fight against the overwhelming crapware telcos forced on Android users. Still happening, sure, but unlocked phones and cleaner flavors of Android have mitigated a lot of that now.
I still have my OnePlus 9 Pro, sadly I smashed the screen on day 2. Despite the broken screen it still feels and looks like a more premium device than my Pixel 9 Pro XL in terms of hardware, but the software really went down hill after the switch to the OPPO software.
Now I want rid of the pixel because they destroyed battery life with an update in march they've still not fixed.
The software is the differentiator these days with all the flagship hardware being basically the same.
I would love to de-Google, but I need my banking apps, tap-to-pay and Android Auto and a top-quality camera that just works flawlessly.
If Graphene can do all of those I'll move, but the friction is high, I have passkeys and apps that have to be "migrated" such as banking apps, and various other stuff that is nigh impossible without a second device.
i just today pulled the back off my old oneplus 8 pro and put a new battery in it after putting lineageos on there. i decided i was tired of using my locked down Samsung that's full of crap
When they increased prices to $900 for roughly the same quality as Samsung it was doomed.
The OnePlus 7 was such an amazing phone and honestly I remember buying a Pixel after it and realizing how crappy Tensor was and well optimized OnePlus was.
I had the exact opposite experience. I replaced my pixel 1 with a OnePlus 8t and I've been kicking myself ever since for not going with a new pixel. This phone is awful! My original pixel was so much better than the several years newer 8t. I absolutely long for the day I can finally, in good conscience, replace this piece of trash with a new pixel phone. I think the day is near. Finally.
The issues are legion. First thing I noticed was the addition of bloat. The "stock android"was a main selling point for me, but I do not feel they delivered. The ultra fast charging has been nice on occasion, but I think it's done more harm than good: the battery deteriorated faster than any phone I've had before it. I've had lots of issues with the usb-c port, it keeps spitting out cables, occasionally doesn't connect properly. The behind-the-screen fingerprint reader is a really cool feature, unfortunately it's so unreliable I've stopped using it completely since it's faster to use the pin code than doing 8 scans of my finger. Lately the power button has stopped working which is super annoying, if I run out of batteries my phone is dead until an alarm rings, which turns it on again. The sound slider is a cool idea, unfortunately it interacts weirdly with several apps. The worst of which is it opens "find in page"in my web browser any time I touch it. Oh and it became loose and occasionally switches on its own, but that's wear and tear I guess...
Besides a mix of older Pixels and other phones, in the past few years I went OnePlus 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and currently OnePlus 13. I was completely underwhelmed by the 8 Pro. If felt like a marginal improvement over the OnePlus 8 for a premium price. The back cracked, water got in, and it stopped working. The OnePlus 13 feels like a significantly better phone in every way.
I'm using a OnePlus 8T with LineageOS and it's been great for me. I replaced the stock OS day 1, after getting the latest firmware update. I got it off eBay for a decent price a few years ago when AT&T made a bunch of old phones stop working via a whitelist. My OnePlus 5 I had at the time supported VoLTE on paper but didn't make the whitelist for some reason so I had to get a newer model. I don't really see the appeal of Pixel phones. I think I'd still wanna replace the stock OS right away to get the experience I'm used to if I had one. Not even sure I'd wanna go with Graphene.
I was on Pixels since the first generation, and only I recently switched from the Pixel 8 Pro to the OnePlus 15, so I was very late to the game here and missed the peak OnePlus days.
But even so, I've been way happier with the OnePlus than the Pixel. Only thing I miss is the camera quality of the Pixel.
Yeah I recently went to a Find N6 and the battery life is quite literally 40% more than a Pixel. Not to mention the performance is significantly better.
Obviously as a folding phone it's more expensive, but it's leagues ahead of the Pixel Fold as well.
It all started when Carl Pie left i suppose. Nothing devices are good but aren't cheap as one plus. They will i guess continue to move in Asia for now i guess.
It wasn't even an experiment for western markets. It was a small team that convinced leadership to try and sell for the international market. The initial focus was China. And then it became an unexpectedly large international success.
Can someone explain the reason? I think I understand the "WHAT". I don't understand the "WHY". Why are they not going to launch new products in US and EU?
Even reading through all the comments above yours I'm still in the dark. Everyone is talking about how they sabotaged their own business, and Carl Pei leaving, but none of that explains why specifically they aren't launching new products in Europe and the US (but still will in other parts of the world?) Something isn't quite adding up here.
I had a OP1, OP3, OP5 and OP7 pro or something before I switched back to Samsung. In the beginning they were flagship phones being sold for half prices, lately I've even forgotten about them.
Good call. I've got the 8t and it's horrendous. I bought because I kept hearing good things about their earlier models and figured it would translate. It didn't.
What a shame, the OnePlus 15 is an excellent phone, especially due to one of the longest battery lives of any I've seen recently, easily lasting 2 days without charging and even acts as a powerbank for reverse charging my wireless earbuds.
I guess I'll have to import Chinese phones now for the US, that's where the innovation is rather than the Apple Samsung duopoly currently present in the US.
Its a pretty big loss for people who care about bootloader unlocking on devices. even the typically bootloader unlocking friendly companies (this includes oneplus in china at least) restricting bl unlocking, i dont know what happens next neither do i want to find out.
“The lawmakers said a recent analysis by a commercial company provided to the committee indicates that these devices may potentially collect and transmit extensive user data -- including sensitive personal information to servers under Chinese jurisdiction without explicit user consent.”
They could do that according to an unspecified "commercial company", as reported in an article titled, "Lawmakers want US Commerce Department to probe Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus".
The OnePlus One was exciting because I think it genuinely was an Android-flagship-competitor at a much lower price. Prices crept up though, and the last OnePlus I owned was the 5 which was still pretty excellent!
After a brief, very annoying stint using the Fairphone 4 (underpowered & expensive, though I did actually replace both the battery and the usb c port myself and it was exactly as easy as promised), I'm now finally on a Samsung S25+, though I did really really consider the newest OnePlus.
Sad to know that it won't even be an alternative for my next phone, though hopefully by then, memory/silicon prices will have settled and Nothing will have their own flagship alternatives.
Is this leading to shutting down OnePlus in a global market? I was an early consumer of OnePlus and how it distrupted the market on those time. Sad to see, they cannot sustained with new innovations and ended up being generic in the current market.
I've owned four OnePlus phones, but I've been buying other brands lately.
1. OnePlus became nearly as expensive as flagships but wasn't as good
2. The official software used to be almost-stock Android but they bloated it up
3. The ROM scene came to steadily lag several generations behind phone releases
4. Android/OnePlus ROMs are a worse experience than they used to be (dealing with proprietary camera drivers, SafetyNet)
5. They didn't keep pace when other brands committed to longer OS updates
They used to be a good bargain, a clean OS, and a good modding target if you wanted a ROM anyway.
The first two haven't been true for a while now, and the third became a lot less appealing on OnePlus.
I'm disappointed to see OnePlus go but the brand I loved has been gone for years.
LOL, I wondered why their EU store had basically no stock and remaining items (which I may have snagged only yesterday!) were listed at firesale prices.
I don't even feel about this as I think I should feel. I've owned the OnePlus One, 2, 6 and now 12. Since I got it I haven't been fond of the restrictions which I guess piled up over 7-11, particularly the hell I faced when I wanted to update (but am now avoiding any more updates due to the Anti-Rollback Protection thing they're rolling out). It's still a very sturdy and performant device and I don't intend to upgrade for maybe another 8 years, but I'm already looking to move to another brand (NOT Samsung nor Google) when the time inevitably comes.
Why none of these Chinese brands doesn't try to set themselves apart, and dare i say innovate by making a true open phone, documented hw, etc, with at least an open version of android, i don't even ask for one of the true Linux OSes.
You're likely right but i think if you had to fail at least fail for something meaningful. It was crazy thinking it could work anyway, same for makers like Nothing, i feel their fate is written in stone, at least try something really different instead of gimmicks.
Nowhere close to what you asked, but Nothing already seems to be one of the most "open" devices today.
That's for simple fact of having offline/unsigned EDL (Qualcomm's Emergency DownLoad) and files for it getting consistently "leaked". So at least exploratory work on custom ROMs should never leave you with a irrecoverable brick.
It doesn't really matter for One plus/Oppo/Vivo/Realme/IQOO they all share the same parent BBKE, even they share same OS (at least for some variants), and hardware is very identical across the models, its better they if they reduce it to two sub-brands instead this will atleast reduce consumer's confusion and dilemma while making the purchase.
The OnePlus 3 was my first proper smartphone and the best phone I ever used. Running Lineage, it's faster and more responsive, even today, than a $1000 iPhone from 2024. The quality was amazing. It's a shame to have seen their slow decline over the years as they chased expensive and unpopular hardware trends. RIP
I had a OnePlus 3. It was fantastic for the time, but the limited radio bands really hampers it now. The screen is falling off of it and the battery is not what it was, but it's a decade old.
I used it for about 4 years, then my oldest, and then my youngest. Such a great little piece of hardware.
With animations and transitions disabled, the OnePlus 3 is much faster to navigate through and do the same tasks than an iPhone 16 Pro. And I suspect the touchscreen digitizer is doing less hysteresis / debouncing / 'smart' mapping of presses than an iphone. It really is so much more responsive, it almost boggles my mind
Almost 5 billion humans have smartphones - as a species wide achievement its utterly incredible. And yet there are two major manufacturers and not even ten with 100M plus handsets (apple, Samsung, xiaomi, oppo, vivo, huawei)
This is a strategic risk right up there with AI ans starlink - and while we don’t want it to stay this way, it’s even harder to imagine how to fix it.
we are descending into a balkanised world of trade wars and threats. Imagine huawei, or apple being told by their respective governments to turn off security services for phones in europe, for example.
It’s not just an AI arms race.
(My tentative solution is governments start to handout devices that provide NFC digital IDs and start growing from there… but that’s a long way from “as good as apple”
I remember when OnePlus marketed themselves as the sort of inexpensive flagship. These past few cycles they've certainly been flagship phones but I don't think there's really been a differentiator.
That's too bad. Had exactly 2 OnePlus devices in the past 8 years.
My current one is a 4 year old Nord 2T still going strong, and in fact K am surprised it still received a recent security update when EOL has been reached.
Time is approaching to switch to a new device. Not sure where to go next. Perhaps I'll wait for the GrapheneOS device.
My wife had fair phone 4, and it was unusable. It was only time she replaced a phone prematurely. She cares a lot about camera though, and likes to take pictures. Her main complaint was that the camera took like 5 seconds to start, so she'd miss the moment. And when it did finally start the quality was really bad.
I tried using it a bit but I couldn't stand how unresponsive it was.
I don't know if their later phones have gotten better,I hope so, because I love everything about that company except their (previous) products.
I think Gen6 should be good enough for basically everything from what I read, but I haven't tried one live yet. The other option is a Pixel 9-something once the 11 is out. but I like the e/OS support of the Fairphone and at some point I want to jump ships.
The fairphone 6 is much better! I've found it to be pretty snappy and the screen quality is nice. Can't speak to the camera quality, but the startup time is not slow.
I think they lost their direction and at the same time customer appeal. When OpnePlus started it was something new, now I have no reason to choose OnePlus for some time already.
When OnePlus started, they were considerably cheaper than flagship phones from others. At $299, the OnePlus One was a ton less than the $650 you'd pay for an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S5. You were getting a 95% flagship phone at half the price. You could get a OnePlus One with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon or you could get a Samsung with 30% the performance and a 640x480 low-res display for the same price.
I feel like the "something new" was price. Over time, that price kept creeping up. Yes, it went from being a 95% flagship to being a 100% flagship, but it also went from being half price to full price.
It was also cool that it used Cyanogenmod which meant you got a community OS that actually got updates, but over time other manufacturers started offering updates for their phones (rather than abandoning them soon after manufacturing). And that was something new other than price. But I think the big thing was that it was a half-price phone when it launched. In 2014, it was just such an amazing deal. Today, it's the same price as Samsung phones.
I bought many of the first models. They were good and very competitive with price and features. Custom ROMs everywhere. But I guess this is not so true anymore.
OnePlus was always a strange proposition to me. I remember debating it with colleagues when the hype started around their first phone. A lot of people and reviewers went crazy over the OnePlus phone, to me it seemed, and still does, as a pretty standard Android phone. The last review I saw was Linus Tech Tips reviewing the latest OnePlus, and Carl Pei commented that maybe Linus issue was that he was used to flagship phones and his expectations was a bit to high.
That really sums it up to me, then OnePlus phones are pretty standard Android phones, they are not really special, at least not to the extend where the brand means all that much to all but a minority of people.
If I had to guess, it's because the phone market is largely dominated by Apple and Samsung, and so it'd be/has been very hard for OnePlus to actually sell their phones there.
Where I'm from OnePlus has actually sold pretty well, competing with price. But then again Finland is one of the most broke countries in EU, so lots of people are price-conscious. Hopefully Oppo will bring some replacement models with equally good price-performance ratio.
I paid 130 euros brand new for my Nord CE 5 with 8GB/128GB configuration. Couldn't be happier with the purchase. All I care is about price/performance ratio and the years of updates promised.
We have the highest unemployment rate in EU, and fast growing public debt (7th highest right now). Trust me, ordinary people here are quite broke after we consider the living expenses.
It's expected that in 4 years our debt to GDP ratio will reach that of Spain right now. And Spain's ratio is decreasing. We'll be right there with Greece, Italy and France soon enough, and I doubt unemployment will get any better.
>As part of the proactive global strategy adjustment, OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America.
So.. they will roll out new products, conclusively? They will sell the same new products globally, including in Europe and North America? They will.. stop selling new phones because they can't form an intelligible sentence? That's the one.
I'm not being pedantic, I'm saying their word salad is hard to read. As demonstrated by half of the messages in here arguing about what actually happened and whether the headline is correct.
It's not hard to say "We will not launch new models of OnePlus phones in Europe and NA. Current models will remain on sale, will still be supported and your warrantee is unchanged."
A pedant might say that telling people to use simpler words is the opposite of being "ostentatiously scholarly".
I probably shouldn't even engage, so hopefully this doesn't come across as too patronising.
If you're genuinely confused about the statement in question, let's break it down.
> OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America
Replace "to conclude" with the definition "to bring to an end". This becomes:
> OnePlus has decided to bring to an end new product rollouts in Europe and North America
That is a very clear message, that there will be no new products released in Europe and North America.
The arguments about the headline elsewhere in this comment section is because the HN headline doesn't reflect that clear message. The HN headline says "halts operations", which implies an immediate end of support.
Good. I have a OnePlus 8t and it's the worst phone I've ever owned. I've hated it since day one, but I'd feel bad replacing a new phone, so I've kept it all these years anyway. It's now old enough for me to consider a replacement (finally!). This announcement doesn't really change anything for me, I'd never buy OnePlus again anyway, but at least it keeps others from making the same mistake I did.
They seem to have a lot of goodwill from customers. I'll never understand why.
Did I miss something, or did you not list any reasons why you do not like the phone? They have a lot of good will from customers because they like their phones...
(great screens, high refresh rate, great photos with a much lighter touch of automatic processing compared to Samsung, awesome physical switch, excellent battery life, fast charging.)
The issues are legion. First thing I noticed was the addition of bloat. The "stock android"was a main selling point for me, but I do not feel they delivered. The ultra fast charging has been nice on occasion, but I think it's done more harm than good: the battery deteriorated faster than any phone I've had before it. I've had lots of issues with the usb-c port, it keeps spitting out cables, occasionally doesn't connect properly. The behind-the-screen fingerprint reader is a really cool feature, unfortunately it's so unreliable I've stopped using it completely since it's faster to use the pin code than doing 8 scans of my finger. Lately the power button has stopped working which is super annoying, if I run out of batteries my phone is dead until an alarm rings, which turns it on again. The sound slider is a cool idea, unfortunately it interacts weirdly with several apps. The worst of which is it opens "find in page"in my web browser any time I touch it. Oh and it became loose and occasionally switches on its own, but that's wear and tear I guess...
There is so much wrong with this phone...
I've had a few OnePlus phones - currently a Nord 4 - and have always found them good value for money. Early OnePluses (I think I had a 2 or 3 originally) were incredible value. Also, very fast charging and almost stock Android are lovely features.
I don't understand why you don't like them, because you haven't said!
Yeah I've also heard good things about their early devices, which was why I got this one. Maybe they used to be good? As of the 8t, they definitely weren't good anymore though
OnePlus is one of the saddest stories out there. It was the hacker's choice for a while. It was originally the "Never Settle" phone that ran mostly stock android, had specs maxxed out, price was great, and bootloader was unlocked plus they provided factory images. Those were all reasons I bought a lot of OnePlus phones in the early years.
Then they flushed nearly all of it down the toilet. The day they stopped posting factory images was the day I saw the writing on the wall. Such a shame.
"Hacker's choice" phones don't appear to sell enough to justify the costs, although they can be a decent strategy for building the initial brand awareness.
Financially speaking, OPPO was right to gut OnePlus all those years ago and streamline their production into selling the same models (with minor tweaks) under the brands that are more known in this or that region. Saves on hardware and software development costs a lot, and once OnePlus was a household brand among the general public it no longer had to appeal to the hacker crowd anyway.
Sad as it is. I bought the One when they were still invite-only and mained it for years, amazing device for the time. Went a bit full circle and using a Nord 3 right now, but I didn't get it because of the brand (just needed a basic secondary smartphone for traveling and got a good deal on it, it's clearly just a generic OPPO brick).
You're probably right, but I would have been willing to tolerate price increases if they hadn't compromised all the other things though (especially factory images, which heavily chilled rooting/mods). I wonder what would have happened if they'd stuck with high end devices (with maybe a low-end line too) and not compromised on the hackability. For me at least I'd still be using them today as long as the price didn't get ridiculous (i.e. stayed in the ballpark with other flagships)
> had specs maxxed out
Indeed, their 10 year old flagship has 6GB of RAM.
https://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_3-7995.php
(for comparison, last year's iPhone 17 has just 8GB or RAM, 9 years later)
Yeah I remember buying a OnePlus 7 Pro with 12 GB (!) of RAM like 7 years ago. The processor was also bleeding edge and that sucker ripped. It combined with stuff like termux was so capable that I used it to run all kinds of stuff that makes little sense on a normal phone. The day that phone retired (from drop damage) was heartbreaking*.
* It actually ran even longer after that as various utilities but not a daily driver, but when I didn't have it with me all the time the convenience slowly waned and it got forgotten
Not an apples to apples comparison#. iOS uses way less ram than android, plus has memory compression. That’s why Apple gets away with less ram and much smaller batteries with equal or better performance.
# pun intended
This is exactly it. Every competitive advantage they had against larger brands was removed.
Editorialised! No new products, not halts operations. Please be more careful.
OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America.
The difference matters for those of us on OnePlus devices:
Though we will no longer launch new products in Europe, our commitment to you remains unchanged. Backed by OPPO, existing OnePlus devices will continue to receive scheduled software updates and security patches within the support periods originally committed for each device model.
Etc.
Curiosly, they only say this to their European customers. It isn't clear that they plan to continue supporting North American customers.
Either way, eventually operations will halt, because existing products will be out of their update commitments.
Headline would be more accurate if it said "is winding down".
The headline would be more appropriate if it said "Oppo stops Sales under OnePlus brand"
For the past years OnePlus wasn't much more than a sub-brand for slightly redesigned Oppo devices anyway...
Americans get another message that's similar: https://www.oneplus.com/us/adjustment
I agree, title should have been done a lot better than that.
I think we can read between the lines of the PR speak, though. That’s the rosiest possible way to put this news.
No new devices, support during warranty periods, they’re going to basically stop existing within a year or two.
They're also shuttering their (US) community site in 30 days.
https://www.oneplus.com/us/adjustmentSupport period != warranty period. The OnePlus 15 will get 4 years of Android updates and 6 years of security patches.
Phone != The OS
After two years your battery will be almost unusable so genuinely it doesn't matter.
My only issue with oneplus phones, and I owned several of them already, is that they are running incredibly hot on normal usage, and battery capacity detoriates quickly over time.
They do have a great sleek UI and great hardware, not to mention fantastic supercharging capabilities which is a life saver sometimes, but all under the big cost.
Hmm my OnePlus 12 is 26 months old and battery is still phenomenal. I charge it to 80% and easily get a day of use, plugging in each night at 30-40%. I have not experienced it running hot yet.
I did not have battery issues with my OnePlus 7 Pro or OnePlus 9 Pro either. The 7 Pro gave me 3 days of battery! (I upgraded for camera improvements and faster screen refresh rate.)
My last one was 10 pro and battery is essentially dead after 2.5 years of usage. Can't make half of a day, literally unusable, and I'm not a big phone user. Case is made of some really good material, which feels very premium, but runs son fckn hot that you can't hold it in your hands anymore, this is especially true during hot summers, and it got only worse with the last major OS update. This is a heat dissipation issue caused by the materials used, large battery, and hi performance CPU cores so I don't think my case was any special than the others.
I see that the OnePlus 15 follows the same route, and although it has good reviews, and they claim they solved the battery heat dissipation and detoriation issues with some new kind of cells, it seems that it still runs hot according to some reviews I've seen on the yt.
Before that I had OnePlus 7 and more budget friendly Nord, and they were much better than 10 Pro, although 7 shared similar type of issues as 10 Pro. Nord is a bit different because case is not premium, and the battery is not so large, and the CPU is not premium nor the supercharging as well. However, it doesn't run hot and battery after few years of usage is still able to give you a full day without the problem.
I'm pretty convinced that all their flagships with hi performance CPUs, premium case, large battery, and fast charging suffer from the same issues.
Maybe mixed CPU core architecture is an answer to that issue, which might suggest why is so prevailing in other phone manufacturers but I have not dig that deep into the topic
> it seems that it still runs hot according to some reviews I've seen on the yt.
Never noticed it being even warm in normal use, consistently cold.
> this is especially true during hot summers
Sounds like not a phone problem -- very high screen brightness and/or direct sun would make any phone hot.
I am not an idiot, I am not keeping my phone on direct sunlight neither do I run on "very high brightness". The phone runs hot on normal circumstances, and in summer when the temperatures are getting higher it becomes unbearable. I hope you understand now.
Oneplus 15 uses a Si/C battery like other higher end Chinese phones currently. It doesn't get hot during normal operation (I don't play games on it) and since I don't use fast charging, for now it looks like it will work for a long time. Still get easily 2 days on a 80% charge.
> After two years your battery will be almost unusable so genuinely it doesn't matter.
Is this a new thing with newer OnePlus phones? We've had a OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 8 in our house for years and their batteries still work fine.
I had a similar issue with OnePlus 7 but not at this scale. It lasted me for 3, 3.5 years. I think this is becoming a problem more increasingly because of a beefier and beefier hardware that is put into these phones, and the heat dissipation problem hence becomes larger and larger problem which doesn't get automagically solved. I think that the best bet today is to take one with "subpar" CPU and larger battery and not so crazy supercharging capabilities
Interesting -- I thought OnePlus batteries were supposed to wear down LESS than other phones specifically because of their "High amp" charging technique versus "High voltage". After some quick research it seems this is mostly due to the heat generated during charging happens in the charger brick instead of the phone, keeping the heat away from the battery. But I suppose in real world situations it may not have a huge effect.
> After two years your battery will be almost unusable
After two years increasingly complex web apps will have made your hardware obsolete. Batteries can be swapped, bad web development at scale cannot be fixed.
My iPhones' batteries have all lasted a minimum of 5 years.
Having said that, my Nokia E71 and Communicator batteries are still usable after 20+ years.
Are you all making sure to set charge limits at night?
> After two years your battery will be almost unusable so genuinely it doesn't matter.
My Nord 2T battery is still perfectly fine after 4 years.
I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.
Please see my other comment wrt Nord. What I am talking about is that flagship phones from OnePlus are suffering from the issues I described. I can't say every one of each suffers since my N=1 but the ones with the same characteristics and features I described above I am pretty sure that they do. There's a fundamental design flaw or we may call it a tradeoff.
Sad I have a 6 year old oneplus and was looking for a new phone somewhat soon, would've considered them again for sure. Any alternatives? They always had a reputation for me for being a great no fuss, little bloat and simply fast android phone.
Google’s phones are pretty good nowadays, I feel like they carry that ethos more than modern OnePlus phones anyway. Plus they can be unlocked trivially, which is officially supported, and you can install GrapheneOS on them.
I just got a new phone a month ago. I wanted a Pixel so I could run GrapheneOS. After researching the hardware I ended up with a OnePlus 13. Google's hardware is far behind, buggy, and overpriced.
I have a OnePlus 13. Best hardware ever. Running lineage with microg + magisk and use nix on top of termux to install stuff using sudo, including AI harnesses - it's my portable AI workstation now.
But a pixel is quite a bit more expensive no? At that point you can consider an iPhone?
The Pixel can run Graphene, which means you can permanently take control of the phone and give Google the boot. The iPhone is entirely controlled by Apple, and you are one OTA away from a hostile update. By default, everything on your phone is sent to Apple for "backup" too.
If you'd prefer an Iphone if it weren't for price, you should probably have a look at refurbished Iphones.
If you are the kind of person who unlocks the bootloader and installs GrapheneOS, then definitely not.
I got a pixel 10 for 350 a few weeks ago.
Be sure not to buy any 'branded' variant, though (e.g. from Verizon etc.)!
Nah the hardware is still crap. CPU performance that's genuinely like two generations behind being sold as a flagship somehow.
I always wonder what people who say things like this are doing with their phones.
Two generations of phones ago, these performance parameters were fine. What software has come out on Android phones since then that's made that performance level unacceptable?
I wanted an Android phone without bloatware and ads so my 2 options were OnePlus and Nothing. I ended up buying the OnePlus because I disliked the huge back camera on the Nothing 3a Pro.
Today I'd go for the Bothing 4a/4a Pro.
Oppo is great, same company as OnePlus. I have the base Find X9 and I'm super happy with it. It's fast, it stays cool, and the battery lasts forever(had it for 8 months now and I still haven't finished a single day with less than 50% battery left, it's nuts)
> will continue to receive scheduled software updates and security patches
but wasn't this after they upgrade you to ColorOS? Where you then can reinstall the old one you're using right now, but will then no longer have updates?
Looks like OnePlus and OPPO are different companies. Shared ownership, but different companies.
Oppo owns OnePlus completely.
There used to be BBK Electronics that owned both, but it split up and OnePlus got placed under Oppo.
As other commenter said OnePlus is subsidiary of Oppo. Over past few years they were loosing autonomy / reusing more and more work by Oppo.
If you're worried about the firmware, then current day OxygenOS is just rebadged ColorOS. They just wont be pretending it's different now.
Only question/risk I see is Oppo trying to kill bootloader unlocking with an update.
For now. They'll reneg down the line
Does oneplus have that much market share in the US?
I'm not sure as others why others feel this is a major change.
OnePlus was always a subsidiary by Carl Pei [1] who eventually left the brand to create a new gadgets/tech company.
Nothing [2] is the next project he started that keeps many of the ideas started with OnePlus, good value for money and aim for quality Android.
Bootloader also seems to allow unlocking [3]
In recent years OnePlus was just another Chinese phone.
But if I've misunderstood something, I'll appreciate me being corrected.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Pei
[2] https://nothing.tech
[3] https://nothing.community/d/6047-policies-for-rootingunlocki...
> I'm not sure as others why others feel this is a major change.
Because the phones where available in US and Europe and now they won’t be?
That’s a major change. You can say the company was changing over time, but a move like this is a major change.
I don’t understand how you’d think this wasn’t a major change.
It doesn't make sense because OnePlus is much more known in the West than either Oppo, Vivo or Realme. OnePlus also just sounds like more of a Western brand.
It would have made much more sense to kill those other brands in the West and unify everything under the OnePlus banner.
To my ears, OnePlus sounds like a low-quality western brand. Along the lines of "Best Value" or "Farmer's Choice"
And Apple sounds like a fruit. The point is they spent big marketing dollars to make the brand not sound low quality anymore.
Then I've never received that marketing from OnePlus.
Also I think the iPhone and MacBook brands are much stronger than Apple.
If you're not in the market for Android phone alternatives to Samsung then you probably were not in their marketing sphere.
I mean, in a vacuum, yes. But it made a huge splash with the OnePlus One, and they had some pretty nice phones since.
Oppo, Vivo and Realme sound like those weird dropshipping Amazon brands. Or the whitelabel brand Android phones you can buy on AliExpress. If I didn't know they are legit brands I would genuinely think you'd be trying to sell me a scam phone that fake-advertised having 12GB memory or a Snapdragon.
Oppo and Vivo sound like actual brands, not words slapped together, and also not BFBRJEXGDB
Realme is literally an ID verification system and a terrible choice for a brand.
The branding logic actually makes sense from BBK's internal perspective — OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme were originally separate fiefdoms under the BBK umbrella, each with its own P&L and channel strategy. When BBK restructured and put OnePlus under Oppo's management, the decision was driven by domestic Chinese market dynamics, not Western brand equity. Oppo's management likely saw maintaining a separate Western-facing brand as an operational cost that didn't justify the diminishing returns, especially once OnePlus lost its 'flagship killer' positioning and became just another rebranded Oppo. Chinese conglomerates often prioritise internal restructuring efficiency over international brand preservation — it's a recurring pattern you see across sectors, not just smartphones.
it's a frustrating pattern for sure. makes it so you can't reward good companies with return business. instead, we get the amazon-seller-experience: an ever-churning alphabet soup of fly-by-night companies hocking low-quality stuff.
As someone who was a big OnePlus fan from the 3 era to the 9 Pro, I saw the decline, I moved over when Nexus died, and had used a mixed bag before then.
OnePlus was on the decline and it was clear it wouldn't be a contender for much longer here in the UK, especially when they merged OSs with the OPPO (?) OS, and software quality went through the floor. I moved to Pixels and currently have a Pixel 9 Pro XL which I'm looking to change as they destroyed the battery life with the march update and it still hasn't been resolved. The Pixel has been solid otherwise and performance is still excellent, but I can't abide having my phone entering battery saver every day by late afternoon.
Nothing(TM) looks like it could be a decent choice, but they're generally weak hardware compared to a 9 Pro XL class device, and I'm not a fan of Samsung any more as a company, though it seems a S2X Ultra might be the only real option.
I had the same issue with Pixel 9 Pro battery. Clearing cache of "Device Health Service" fixed the issue.
Thanks, will try that now!
Nothing looks like a decent replacement for OnePlus for phones, but it doesn’t look like they’ve tackled tablets yet which is unfortunate. Though I never bought one, OnePlus’ tablets have long been on my radar because they’re one of the few Android tablets that use a sensible, more squarish aspect ratio (similar to that of iPads) instead of the awkwardly tall/skinny 16:9/16:10 shape popular in the industry.
Playing in slightly different markets, though - OnePlus targetted gamers / power users, whereas Nothing is much more fashion-focussed.
(And seem to be doing so successfully - certainly, you see a lot more Nothings than OnePluses in London)
Nothing has a physical store in central London. Handy for anyone upgrading from the Wasp T12 Speechtool.
I mean... the major change is that it changed, no? It's kind of unprecedented, or, at least, highly unusual?
The headline "Oppo stops sale under OnePlus brand in US and Europe" would be more appropriate.
OnePlus products were mostly slightly redesigned Oppo products for the past years, built on the same hardware and running the same OS.
Early-on it was an impressive corporate experiment to observe: The giant company Oppo gave one of its members Carl Pei the chance to create an agile sub-brand with an own OS and access to Oppo's supply chain.
Carl Pei succeeded and OnePlus became a disruptive force in many markets for several years.
But Carl Pei already left (to start the UK-based tech company 'Nothing'), the OnePlus OS was discontinued and product development was largely folded into Oppo many years ago already...
This is sad. I had a couple of one plus phones. I'm developing an app on one right now, and I told my mom to get one. She had it for eight years, and it's still working. Well, this is the final push, I guess, that I needed to get a Pixel and install GrapheneOS.
Loved my OnePlus One and ran nightlies of Cyanogenmod on it for quite a while. I had that bamboo wood backing on the phone that was really nice to the touch. Premium feel and a hacker phone.
It was quality and lasted for many years. I got it after I left the Apple ecosystem and my HTC One (M7) had become pretty banged-up.
I shifted away from OnePlus as it became more pricey and went with Samsung models over the last many years. I also no longer have as much time to play with LineageOS and nightlies anymore.
I did go back to OnePlus around the 10 series but wasn't impressed enough to keep it very long. I still use the red USB-C cables though.
I feel this is just a case where innovation eventually gives way and the Opportunity acquisition along with the data breach just made it less risk-adverse to innovate on features and pricing which has led to the pull-back.
OnePlus was fun when Cyanogenmod was edgy, etc. and you had the fight against the overwhelming crapware telcos forced on Android users. Still happening, sure, but unlocked phones and cleaner flavors of Android have mitigated a lot of that now.
They were one of the brands with unlockable bootloaders and slide switches for mute. Unfortunately the Oppo takeover didn't preserve either.
Written on a OnePlus 8 Pro.
I still have my OnePlus 9 Pro, sadly I smashed the screen on day 2. Despite the broken screen it still feels and looks like a more premium device than my Pixel 9 Pro XL in terms of hardware, but the software really went down hill after the switch to the OPPO software.
Now I want rid of the pixel because they destroyed battery life with an update in march they've still not fixed.
pixels are fine, just put graphineOS on there.
only gripes I have are mapping apps are slow to initialize. i don't drive uber tho, so it's not terribly inconvenient
The software is the differentiator these days with all the flagship hardware being basically the same.
I would love to de-Google, but I need my banking apps, tap-to-pay and Android Auto and a top-quality camera that just works flawlessly.
If Graphene can do all of those I'll move, but the friction is high, I have passkeys and apps that have to be "migrated" such as banking apps, and various other stuff that is nigh impossible without a second device.
You get all of that except tap to pay in America. In Europe, you get all of them.
Practically all banking apps are supported, and they have a thorough list so you can check beforehand.
Thanks for that. I just looked up the banking app list and all of my (UK) banks are supported.
What's the alternative to Google Wallet for tap to pay and loyalty cards?
EU and NA models still have unlockable bootloaders.
i just today pulled the back off my old oneplus 8 pro and put a new battery in it after putting lineageos on there. i decided i was tired of using my locked down Samsung that's full of crap
My OnePlus 13 has a slider switch. Isn't the 15 the only flagship OnePlus that dropped the slider?
I meant that they're increasingly converging to be Oppo phones (now running the same OS, hardware is a slightly tweaked Oppo phone variant, etc).
Every single day I miss my slider switch. They kept the notification LED longer than most others too.
The loss of the slider switch still breaks my heart. It is my most loved feature on the phone.
This is written on a OnePlus 13 with a slider running lineage os. Amazing phone.
Wow. I love my OnePlus 15 and plan to use it as long as I can. I guess it'll be some sort of GrapheneOS setup next.
When they increased prices to $900 for roughly the same quality as Samsung it was doomed.
The OnePlus 7 was such an amazing phone and honestly I remember buying a Pixel after it and realizing how crappy Tensor was and well optimized OnePlus was.
I had the exact opposite experience. I replaced my pixel 1 with a OnePlus 8t and I've been kicking myself ever since for not going with a new pixel. This phone is awful! My original pixel was so much better than the several years newer 8t. I absolutely long for the day I can finally, in good conscience, replace this piece of trash with a new pixel phone. I think the day is near. Finally.
I would be so much happier with this comment if it gave any detail about what was worse.
As it is, it’s just a rant not a contribution to dialog.
The issues are legion. First thing I noticed was the addition of bloat. The "stock android"was a main selling point for me, but I do not feel they delivered. The ultra fast charging has been nice on occasion, but I think it's done more harm than good: the battery deteriorated faster than any phone I've had before it. I've had lots of issues with the usb-c port, it keeps spitting out cables, occasionally doesn't connect properly. The behind-the-screen fingerprint reader is a really cool feature, unfortunately it's so unreliable I've stopped using it completely since it's faster to use the pin code than doing 8 scans of my finger. Lately the power button has stopped working which is super annoying, if I run out of batteries my phone is dead until an alarm rings, which turns it on again. The sound slider is a cool idea, unfortunately it interacts weirdly with several apps. The worst of which is it opens "find in page"in my web browser any time I touch it. Oh and it became loose and occasionally switches on its own, but that's wear and tear I guess...
There is so much wrong with this phone...
Besides a mix of older Pixels and other phones, in the past few years I went OnePlus 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and currently OnePlus 13. I was completely underwhelmed by the 8 Pro. If felt like a marginal improvement over the OnePlus 8 for a premium price. The back cracked, water got in, and it stopped working. The OnePlus 13 feels like a significantly better phone in every way.
I'm using a OnePlus 8T with LineageOS and it's been great for me. I replaced the stock OS day 1, after getting the latest firmware update. I got it off eBay for a decent price a few years ago when AT&T made a bunch of old phones stop working via a whitelist. My OnePlus 5 I had at the time supported VoLTE on paper but didn't make the whitelist for some reason so I had to get a newer model. I don't really see the appeal of Pixel phones. I think I'd still wanna replace the stock OS right away to get the experience I'm used to if I had one. Not even sure I'd wanna go with Graphene.
I was on Pixels since the first generation, and only I recently switched from the Pixel 8 Pro to the OnePlus 15, so I was very late to the game here and missed the peak OnePlus days.
But even so, I've been way happier with the OnePlus than the Pixel. Only thing I miss is the camera quality of the Pixel.
Bummed that I won't have the option next time.
Yeah I recently went to a Find N6 and the battery life is quite literally 40% more than a Pixel. Not to mention the performance is significantly better.
Obviously as a folding phone it's more expensive, but it's leagues ahead of the Pixel Fold as well.
Yep, I went from a OP7T to P6Pro and it did not feel like an upgrade. I still miss the macro camera.
Maybe that's the true cost of these devices, and the discounts we enjoy on other platforms reflect just how much they make selling our data and apps?
It all started when Carl Pie left i suppose. Nothing devices are good but aren't cheap as one plus. They will i guess continue to move in Asia for now i guess.
They don't sell well in Asia. It's mainly xiaomi, oppo, vivo and huawei.
OnePlus is owned by Oppo, no?
IIRC it started as an experiment to understand what works in western markets.
It wasn't even an experiment for western markets. It was a small team that convinced leadership to try and sell for the international market. The initial focus was China. And then it became an unexpectedly large international success.
Can someone explain the reason? I think I understand the "WHAT". I don't understand the "WHY". Why are they not going to launch new products in US and EU?
Even reading through all the comments above yours I'm still in the dark. Everyone is talking about how they sabotaged their own business, and Carl Pei leaving, but none of that explains why specifically they aren't launching new products in Europe and the US (but still will in other parts of the world?) Something isn't quite adding up here.
"Never Settle"
Well it's settled then
They settled long, long ago
"Dont be evil"
...to...
"Dont. Be evil"
I have a OnePlus Pad 3, bought for about $600, and it's great because it can show books and papers at approximately their real intended sizes.
Absolutely great value for the money.
The only downside is the constant nagging about OS updates.
If this one breaks, I guess it is time to learn Mandarin.
Wait... I have a OnePlus Pad 3. What nagging about OS updates?
Maybe you aren't aware because you always agree to the update popups?
I had a OP1, OP3, OP5 and OP7 pro or something before I switched back to Samsung. In the beginning they were flagship phones being sold for half prices, lately I've even forgotten about them.
Good call. I've got the 8t and it's horrendous. I bought because I kept hearing good things about their earlier models and figured it would translate. It didn't.
Next will be a pixel for sure.
What a shame, the OnePlus 15 is an excellent phone, especially due to one of the longest battery lives of any I've seen recently, easily lasting 2 days without charging and even acts as a powerbank for reverse charging my wireless earbuds.
I guess I'll have to import Chinese phones now for the US, that's where the innovation is rather than the Apple Samsung duopoly currently present in the US.
Being quirky isn’t innovation…
Its a pretty big loss for people who care about bootloader unlocking on devices. even the typically bootloader unlocking friendly companies (this includes oneplus in china at least) restricting bl unlocking, i dont know what happens next neither do i want to find out.
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulat...
“The lawmakers said a recent analysis by a commercial company provided to the committee indicates that these devices may potentially collect and transmit extensive user data -- including sensitive personal information to servers under Chinese jurisdiction without explicit user consent.”
>indicates that these devices may potentially
Translation: they could do that (just like everything else connected to the internet), but they don't? (hence you never heard of that probe again?)
They could do that according to an unspecified "commercial company", as reported in an article titled, "Lawmakers want US Commerce Department to probe Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus".
The OnePlus One was exciting because I think it genuinely was an Android-flagship-competitor at a much lower price. Prices crept up though, and the last OnePlus I owned was the 5 which was still pretty excellent!
After a brief, very annoying stint using the Fairphone 4 (underpowered & expensive, though I did actually replace both the battery and the usb c port myself and it was exactly as easy as promised), I'm now finally on a Samsung S25+, though I did really really consider the newest OnePlus.
Sad to know that it won't even be an alternative for my next phone, though hopefully by then, memory/silicon prices will have settled and Nothing will have their own flagship alternatives.
Man, I flippin loved the OnePlus One. Such a bold device. I still miss that sandstone back all these years later. It made the phone a breeze to hold.
Loved my oneplus2, the rest were mediocre at best.
Went from great value hardware with open, minimalist software to overpriced hardware and shitty bloated software.
Great example of how chasing short term wins can bleed you dry over a few years
All my phones for the past 12 years were OnePlus - but I don't buy anything over $450/500. Last few years it seems like everything was $700 or more.
Since they became Oppo in a wig there's really been no reason to buy their products.
I had a OnePlus 6 before switching to iphones. Great device.
But the company was doomed the moment they started raising prices to Samsung levels. Lost any reason to buy them.
Is this leading to shutting down OnePlus in a global market? I was an early consumer of OnePlus and how it distrupted the market on those time. Sad to see, they cannot sustained with new innovations and ended up being generic in the current market.
I've owned four OnePlus phones, but I've been buying other brands lately.
1. OnePlus became nearly as expensive as flagships but wasn't as good 2. The official software used to be almost-stock Android but they bloated it up 3. The ROM scene came to steadily lag several generations behind phone releases 4. Android/OnePlus ROMs are a worse experience than they used to be (dealing with proprietary camera drivers, SafetyNet) 5. They didn't keep pace when other brands committed to longer OS updates
They used to be a good bargain, a clean OS, and a good modding target if you wanted a ROM anyway.
The first two haven't been true for a while now, and the third became a lot less appealing on OnePlus.
I'm disappointed to see OnePlus go but the brand I loved has been gone for years.
Which other brands have you switched to?
It has been known for a while that they were going to do this. They have multiple brands and sales aren't strong enough to keep them all.
LOL, I wondered why their EU store had basically no stock and remaining items (which I may have snagged only yesterday!) were listed at firesale prices.
OnePlus One (aka "bacon") changed the industry
I don't even feel about this as I think I should feel. I've owned the OnePlus One, 2, 6 and now 12. Since I got it I haven't been fond of the restrictions which I guess piled up over 7-11, particularly the hell I faced when I wanted to update (but am now avoiding any more updates due to the Anti-Rollback Protection thing they're rolling out). It's still a very sturdy and performant device and I don't intend to upgrade for maybe another 8 years, but I'm already looking to move to another brand (NOT Samsung nor Google) when the time inevitably comes.
nothing.tech is the spirtual successor to OnePlus
Never good when a highly innovative player disappears. Maybe they lost their northern star when Carl left.
I had heard a lot of good things about their smartwatches and was planning to get one. I guess I will have to import one via Chinese stores now.
Before getting one, make sure you can have Play Store and Wallet on it, if that matters for you.
Still running on OnePlus 5. The ideal phone in my opinion.
Why none of these Chinese brands doesn't try to set themselves apart, and dare i say innovate by making a true open phone, documented hw, etc, with at least an open version of android, i don't even ask for one of the true Linux OSes.
The demand for such phones is very low.
You're likely right but i think if you had to fail at least fail for something meaningful. It was crazy thinking it could work anyway, same for makers like Nothing, i feel their fate is written in stone, at least try something really different instead of gimmicks.
Nowhere close to what you asked, but Nothing already seems to be one of the most "open" devices today.
That's for simple fact of having offline/unsigned EDL (Qualcomm's Emergency DownLoad) and files for it getting consistently "leaked". So at least exploratory work on custom ROMs should never leave you with a irrecoverable brick.
It doesn't really matter for One plus/Oppo/Vivo/Realme/IQOO they all share the same parent BBKE, even they share same OS (at least for some variants), and hardware is very identical across the models, its better they if they reduce it to two sub-brands instead this will atleast reduce consumer's confusion and dilemma while making the purchase.
Posted yesterday (not source): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48923436 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48922412
The OnePlus 3 was my first proper smartphone and the best phone I ever used. Running Lineage, it's faster and more responsive, even today, than a $1000 iPhone from 2024. The quality was amazing. It's a shame to have seen their slow decline over the years as they chased expensive and unpopular hardware trends. RIP
I had a OnePlus 3. It was fantastic for the time, but the limited radio bands really hampers it now. The screen is falling off of it and the battery is not what it was, but it's a decade old.
I used it for about 4 years, then my oldest, and then my youngest. Such a great little piece of hardware.
> Running Lineage, it's faster and more responsive, even today, than a $1000 iPhone from 2024
As someone who has both I strongly disagree with that claim, though the 3 and 3T have certainly aged well.
With animations and transitions disabled, the OnePlus 3 is much faster to navigate through and do the same tasks than an iPhone 16 Pro. And I suspect the touchscreen digitizer is doing less hysteresis / debouncing / 'smart' mapping of presses than an iphone. It really is so much more responsive, it almost boggles my mind
Almost 5 billion humans have smartphones - as a species wide achievement its utterly incredible. And yet there are two major manufacturers and not even ten with 100M plus handsets (apple, Samsung, xiaomi, oppo, vivo, huawei)
This is a strategic risk right up there with AI ans starlink - and while we don’t want it to stay this way, it’s even harder to imagine how to fix it.
we are descending into a balkanised world of trade wars and threats. Imagine huawei, or apple being told by their respective governments to turn off security services for phones in europe, for example.
It’s not just an AI arms race.
(My tentative solution is governments start to handout devices that provide NFC digital IDs and start growing from there… but that’s a long way from “as good as apple”
Wondering what's going on with Canada. I checked out their site yesterday out of curiosity and most products were listed as out of stock.
I have a OnePlus 3t, a 5, and a Nord N200.
The last model was quite difficult to unlock and reload with LineageOS.
Had that not been the case, this announcement may not have been necessary.
I preferred OnePlus over Oppo simply because OnePlus phones visually look cleaner, despite likely being from the same design team.
It seems Oppo (and Chinese OEMs in general) are allergic to symmetrical camera bumps.
They were pushing people to OPPO for a long time now its not really a surprise
Sad :( I love my OnePlus 13R. The battery life is amazing and the stock skin is close enough to pure Android that it doesn't bother me.
HN headline needs a change. It's North America, not just the USA.
The oneplus open (2023) is such a great phone, what a shame
OnePlus had operations in the USA?
This came out of nowhere, I was even considering getting a OnePlus.
I remember when OnePlus marketed themselves as the sort of inexpensive flagship. These past few cycles they've certainly been flagship phones but I don't think there's really been a differentiator.
That's too bad. Had exactly 2 OnePlus devices in the past 8 years.
My current one is a 4 year old Nord 2T still going strong, and in fact K am surprised it still received a recent security update when EOL has been reached.
Time is approaching to switch to a new device. Not sure where to go next. Perhaps I'll wait for the GrapheneOS device.
Nothing.tech is the spiritual successor to OnePlus
It’s been irrelevant in the market for a while now.
I love my OnePlus 9 pro phone. What would be a good replacement?
How about Nothing phones? I'm considering those, when my OP7 will die.
Not quite worth its high price
Pixel 10 Pro, if you are not into games and fast charging is not a priority.
Fairphone 6 maybe? It's on my radar when my Pixel 6a dies
My wife had fair phone 4, and it was unusable. It was only time she replaced a phone prematurely. She cares a lot about camera though, and likes to take pictures. Her main complaint was that the camera took like 5 seconds to start, so she'd miss the moment. And when it did finally start the quality was really bad.
I tried using it a bit but I couldn't stand how unresponsive it was.
I don't know if their later phones have gotten better,I hope so, because I love everything about that company except their (previous) products.
I think Gen6 should be good enough for basically everything from what I read, but I haven't tried one live yet. The other option is a Pixel 9-something once the 11 is out. but I like the e/OS support of the Fairphone and at some point I want to jump ships.
The fairphone 6 is much better! I've found it to be pretty snappy and the screen quality is nice. Can't speak to the camera quality, but the startup time is not slow.
Apple Phones are the best by a huge distance.
Any Pixel from the past few years
RAM prices take down another.
...but why?
I think they lost their direction and at the same time customer appeal. When OpnePlus started it was something new, now I have no reason to choose OnePlus for some time already.
When OnePlus started, they were considerably cheaper than flagship phones from others. At $299, the OnePlus One was a ton less than the $650 you'd pay for an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S5. You were getting a 95% flagship phone at half the price. You could get a OnePlus One with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon or you could get a Samsung with 30% the performance and a 640x480 low-res display for the same price.
I feel like the "something new" was price. Over time, that price kept creeping up. Yes, it went from being a 95% flagship to being a 100% flagship, but it also went from being half price to full price.
It was also cool that it used Cyanogenmod which meant you got a community OS that actually got updates, but over time other manufacturers started offering updates for their phones (rather than abandoning them soon after manufacturing). And that was something new other than price. But I think the big thing was that it was a half-price phone when it launched. In 2014, it was just such an amazing deal. Today, it's the same price as Samsung phones.
I bought many of the first models. They were good and very competitive with price and features. Custom ROMs everywhere. But I guess this is not so true anymore.
It is true. The OnePlus Nord are really good for the price
OnePlus was always a strange proposition to me. I remember debating it with colleagues when the hype started around their first phone. A lot of people and reviewers went crazy over the OnePlus phone, to me it seemed, and still does, as a pretty standard Android phone. The last review I saw was Linus Tech Tips reviewing the latest OnePlus, and Carl Pei commented that maybe Linus issue was that he was used to flagship phones and his expectations was a bit to high.
That really sums it up to me, then OnePlus phones are pretty standard Android phones, they are not really special, at least not to the extend where the brand means all that much to all but a minority of people.
If I had to guess, it's because the phone market is largely dominated by Apple and Samsung, and so it'd be/has been very hard for OnePlus to actually sell their phones there.
Where I'm from OnePlus has actually sold pretty well, competing with price. But then again Finland is one of the most broke countries in EU, so lots of people are price-conscious. Hopefully Oppo will bring some replacement models with equally good price-performance ratio.
I paid 130 euros brand new for my Nord CE 5 with 8GB/128GB configuration. Couldn't be happier with the purchase. All I care is about price/performance ratio and the years of updates promised.
Finland is not one of the most broke countries in the EU...
We have the highest unemployment rate in EU, and fast growing public debt (7th highest right now). Trust me, ordinary people here are quite broke after we consider the living expenses.
It's expected that in 4 years our debt to GDP ratio will reach that of Spain right now. And Spain's ratio is decreasing. We'll be right there with Greece, Italy and France soon enough, and I doubt unemployment will get any better.
There are minor Android players who seem to be standing their ground, so something has to be different here. Nothing, Xiaomi/Redmi, Motorola
> minor Android players ... Xiaomi
Xiaomi appears to be the 3rd largest smartphone manufacturer in the world (behind Samsung and Apple). Not sure I'd call them a "minor player"
RAMageddon ?
>As part of the proactive global strategy adjustment, OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America.
So.. they will roll out new products, conclusively? They will sell the same new products globally, including in Europe and North America? They will.. stop selling new phones because they can't form an intelligible sentence? That's the one.
If you're going to be pedantic, at least first check you're correct.
Conclude - verb - to bring to an end.
I'm not being pedantic, I'm saying their word salad is hard to read. As demonstrated by half of the messages in here arguing about what actually happened and whether the headline is correct.
It's not hard to say "We will not launch new models of OnePlus phones in Europe and NA. Current models will remain on sale, will still be supported and your warrantee is unchanged."
A pedant might say that telling people to use simpler words is the opposite of being "ostentatiously scholarly".
I probably shouldn't even engage, so hopefully this doesn't come across as too patronising.
If you're genuinely confused about the statement in question, let's break it down.
> OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America
Replace "to conclude" with the definition "to bring to an end". This becomes:
> OnePlus has decided to bring to an end new product rollouts in Europe and North America
That is a very clear message, that there will be no new products released in Europe and North America.
The arguments about the headline elsewhere in this comment section is because the HN headline doesn't reflect that clear message. The HN headline says "halts operations", which implies an immediate end of support.
Good. I have a OnePlus 8t and it's the worst phone I've ever owned. I've hated it since day one, but I'd feel bad replacing a new phone, so I've kept it all these years anyway. It's now old enough for me to consider a replacement (finally!). This announcement doesn't really change anything for me, I'd never buy OnePlus again anyway, but at least it keeps others from making the same mistake I did.
They seem to have a lot of goodwill from customers. I'll never understand why.
Written from my OnePlus 8t.
I think the t is for "trash"
Did I miss something, or did you not list any reasons why you do not like the phone? They have a lot of good will from customers because they like their phones...
(great screens, high refresh rate, great photos with a much lighter touch of automatic processing compared to Samsung, awesome physical switch, excellent battery life, fast charging.)
The issues are legion. First thing I noticed was the addition of bloat. The "stock android"was a main selling point for me, but I do not feel they delivered. The ultra fast charging has been nice on occasion, but I think it's done more harm than good: the battery deteriorated faster than any phone I've had before it. I've had lots of issues with the usb-c port, it keeps spitting out cables, occasionally doesn't connect properly. The behind-the-screen fingerprint reader is a really cool feature, unfortunately it's so unreliable I've stopped using it completely since it's faster to use the pin code than doing 8 scans of my finger. Lately the power button has stopped working which is super annoying, if I run out of batteries my phone is dead until an alarm rings, which turns it on again. The sound slider is a cool idea, unfortunately it interacts weirdly with several apps. The worst of which is it opens "find in page"in my web browser any time I touch it. Oh and it became loose and occasionally switches on its own, but that's wear and tear I guess... There is so much wrong with this phone...
And these were issues you had with the phone on day one?
Some unsolicited life advice: don’t feel bad about getting rid of stuff that you don’t like (or in the words of Marie Kondo, doesn’t “spark joy”).
If you had sold that phone to someone else it wouldn’t be wasted. Someone else would have continued to use it.
I don’t claim to know your financial situation but it probably would have been worth the loss.
I've had a few OnePlus phones - currently a Nord 4 - and have always found them good value for money. Early OnePluses (I think I had a 2 or 3 originally) were incredible value. Also, very fast charging and almost stock Android are lovely features.
I don't understand why you don't like them, because you haven't said!
Yeah I've also heard good things about their early devices, which was why I got this one. Maybe they used to be good? As of the 8t, they definitely weren't good anymore though