OnePlus series : flagship for the masses

OnePlus is one of those companies that started with a bang! Founded in December 2013 by Pete Lau and Carl Pei (though this is in reality a sub brand of BBK Electronics) to kill flagships, OnePlus had its own share of ups and downs. OnePlus releases just one top of the line smartphone per year and they update that phone regularly. It all started with the OnePlus One smartphone that came with killer price and with insanely popular Cyanogen (now defunct) OS at that time. Lets take a look at how OnePlus lineup evolved over these years.

OnePlus One

Back in 2014, ‘do you have an invite?’ was one of the most commonly heard phrases in offices and colleges in North American and in Europe (and it later spread to India too). The invite was not for a gig or for a house party. The invite was to buy a phone that was termed ‘flagship killer’. The phone was such a hit that it was one of the most imported phones in countries like India. OnePlus One is one of those phones for which end users did all the necessary advertising. The phone looked different, has amazing specification, was insanely fast and it came with Cyanogen OS. The killer feature was the price. OnePlus One was able to match flagship phones like iPhone 5S or Galaxy s5 in performance and was priced at $299/$349. But, to buy an OnePlus One, one needed to request for invite and wait or keep taking part in weird contests to win an invite. Given the limited production capacity of OnePlus, they had to rely on these to roll out just enough number of OnePlus One units. It took nearly a year for OnePlus to put One on ‘open sale’ that does not require invites. It all worked brilliantly and paved way for one of the most heard success stories of this decade.

Key Highlights

• One of the most reliable phones
• Insane pricing
• Sandstone finish turned out to be super hit
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 and 3GB RAM
• 5.5″ IPS panel display has accurate color reproduction
• Cyanogen OS had lot of customization, was fluid and got updated regularly

OnePlus Two

OnePlus had to create something spectacular that could match the OnePlus One and offer more. The expectations were super high and they fell like flat on their face. Released in 2015, OnePlus 2 was uninspiring, has poor display quality. OnePlus Two was not priced like OnePlus One and companies like Apple and Samsung went nuclear in design changes (Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6). To make it worse, OnePlus launch event turned out to be absolutely boring (VR launch blah blah). Another issue was OnePlus using ‘2016 flagship killer’ tagline on the OnePlus 2 and blogosphere hung them dry over this tagline. Another blow was the fight with Cyanogen (not OnePlus’s fault) and Micromax in India. This made them ditch Cyanogen for in-house made Oxygen OS which, even in 2017 is buggy and boring. Forget about killing 2016 flagship, the OnePlus Two could not even kill direct competition. Overall OnePlus 2 had nothing inspiring about it and it showed in sales. I have seen lot of OnePlus One phones in offices and in public spots but I could barely find OnePlus Two devices.

Key Highlights

• Price
• New notification control slider
• Sandstone back plat that can be swapped with stylish back plates
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and 4GB RAM
• 5.5″ IPS panel display has accurate color reproduction
• Among the first phones with USB Type-C port

OnePlus 3/3T

Without any doubt, the OnePlus Three is the best looking OnePlus phone till date. There was no point in continuing to sell generic looking low cost flagship phones. Oppo and Vivo were doing that pretty well for BBK and OnePlus took over the role to deliver a solid flagship phone that has no strings attached. The end result was spectacular. Released in 2016, the OnePlus 3 looked absolutely gorgeous thanks to uni-body aluminum design. The talking point was insane 6GB of RAM which was never heard of in smartphones. Whether it was useful of not is a different story. The Dash Charge (alternative to Qualcomm’s Quick Charge) turned out to be very good and kept the phone cooler while charging. OnePlus got rid of invite system completely with OnePlus 3 and they released this phone in multiple countries. The phone was available from day 1 without any flash sale or invite circus. Even though the OnePlus 3 was priced much higher, thanks to the quality and feature improvement, it turned out to be the best selling OnePlus phone. Not even half a month later, OnePlus made subtle changes to OnePlus (faster processor SD821, bigger battery, better front camera etc). The limited edition midnight black color variant was a head turner.

Key Highlights

• Gorgeous looks, industrial design
• Optic AMOLED
• Screaming fast and efficient Snapdragon 820 (821 for 3T), 6GB of RAM
• Dash Charge was faster than Quick Charge and it did not heat the phone while charging
• Very good camera quality
• No invite or flash sale circus

OnePlus 5

One step forward, two steps back. The OnePlus 5, announced recently turned out to be uninspiring and price closer to the flagships that it cannot match on merit. The talking point again was amount of RAM. OnePlus has crammed 8GB of RAM (something that even modern day workhorse laptops use in common). The design looks a lot like that of iPhone 7 Plus and the dual camera setup is more of a gimmick. The OnePlus 5 came with metal body but it could not match the aesthetics of OnePlus 3/3T. Overall, the OnePlus 5 is inferior to OnePlus 3/3T in aesthetics but is way ahead when it comes to sheer power.

Key Highlights

• Optic AMOLED
• Screaming fast and efficient Snapdragon 835
• Insane 8GB of RAM
• Dash Charge was faster than Quick Charge and it did not heat the phone while charging
• Dual camera setup
• No invite or flash sale circus