Posted by pilililo2 10 hours ago
The culture leaned heavily toward 996: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. I was there during a particularly tumultuous period, and by that point a lot of the staffing had already been hollowed out.
That said, the OnePlus 11, 12, 13, and 15 are great phones. The 13 and 15 in particular have insane battery life. I have never managed to drain either one to zero in a single day.
As far as I know, OnePlus and Motorola are also the only major companies selling phones with silicon-carbon batteries in the United States. It is ridiculous that Samsung and Apple still have not adopted them.
One of my biggest frustrations at OnePlus was how much of the internal tooling remained in Chinese or used poor English translations. Most of the management was also based in China and often did not seem to understand the US market very well.
Probably the most ridiculous example was an internal invoice or payment-submission portal. It was awful to use, but the terminology was even stranger. A submission apparently needed to be “signed” and then “sealed.”
I never asked anyone what the original Chinese term was, but I assumed it referred to the use of a Chinese name chop or company seal. Name chops are stone stamps bearing a person’s or company’s name that are pressed into ink and applied to documents as a form of authorization.
It was a small thing, but it captured the broader problem pretty well: internal processes designed around Chinese business practices were translated literally and then handed to US employees with very little localization.
... and delivered?
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.
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)
* 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
Good phone. I was worried about that pop up camera failing at some point, but it never did
Obviously these cameras themselves were potato cameras compared to modern ones, but this design was still a great innovation and unique. We rarely get many design ideas that are that different today, as everyone mainly just wants to look like an iPhone, and Apple for its part only sits around obsessing on how they can make the iPhone's form more and more featureless and pure.
# pun intended
FYI, Android has had zRAM support since KitKat, which is from (checking notes) 2013. Same year as iOS.
iOS uses way less ram than android
Common measurements I have seen is around 40%, I wouldn't say way less, but it is definitely less. Still, 3x more for a model in the same year is impressive (and more than needed to be competitive with iOS) and we should give OnePlus credit for it.
Sadly a lot of low-ish to midrange phones are going back or sticking to 6-8GB today, thanks to the RAM squeeze and the efficiency of iOS is certainly helping Apple here. Certainly nobody is going to complain about the performance of the iPhone 17, despite only having 8GB RAM.
In Android, Samsung doesn't seem to suffer as much. You can pick up an S26 here with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for 623 Euro, which is a nice midrange price. I guess there are benefits if you can produce your own memory.
How did we get here?
Which is 30% less than the original iPhone accounting for inflation.
Given inflation and the increased utility of the smartphone, we're almost certainly at the lowest cost per hour of use ever for most people.
For most people, salaries have not kept up with inflation
Yeah, by aggressively purging all my Safari tabs (and Apps) unexpectedly, during the most convenient times, like when I'm going through a tunnel on the train and my cellular connection is at its best. Still infuriatingly common on my 17 Pro with 12GB of RAM.
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).
Other than that, I guess it's also not necessary to fill every casual store like MediaMarkts, etc. because unlike my grandma, tech savvy people can order online.
But I'm not knowledgable on these things, so it's mostly just me thinking out loud.
For me, it was when the killed the headphone jack with the OnePlus 6T. Around the time OP6 was released, the then CEO Carl Pei posted a poll around the headphone jack - a overwhelming majority of users said they used/wanted the jack - something like 80%+). Then they go ahead and release the 6T (and subsequent models) with no jack. At this point most of the OG fans (including myself) felt incredibly betrayed and vowed to never buy another OnePlus again. And soon, Carl Pei himself left the company and it's been downhill ever since.
The OP6 was their last good phone which actually lived up to their "flagship killer" premise without compromising on features.
The overall experience turned terrible, and so many aspects of the OS were changed or worsened for all the wrong reasons. Everything from pulling the notification drawer and managing notifications, to the castrated home screen functionality, was such a disappointment.
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.
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".
For the past years OnePlus wasn't much more than a sub-brand for slightly redesigned Oppo devices anyway...
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.
Q: When will the communityus.oneplus.com close?
A: The communityus.oneplus.com will close on 11:59PM ET,August 16, 2026.
I think they could easily argue successfully that post-sale software updates were always contingent on continuing operation of the company.
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.
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.)
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
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.
If it's just 10 Pro, then google says Qualcomm was having bad years (I've heard about Snapdragon 888 fiasco, but apparently it extended to 8 Gen 1 in OP10)
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.
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.
Having said that, my Nokia E71 and Communicator batteries are still usable after 20+ years.
My Nord 2T battery is still perfectly fine after 4 years.
I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.
I would only recommend Pixel if you want to run GrapheneOS. GrapheneOS is stellar and until next year, getting a Pixel is the only way to run it. Also, wait until midway the cycle of a model to get a large discount.
If you do not want to run GrapheneOS, do yourself a favor and either:
1.) Get a Samsung S series (or maybe A5x). It's the only phone besides Pixel that does reliable monthly updates, QPR2 and rolls out major updates fairly quickly. They have a separate secure enclave (Knox Vault). Also, after a few months the pricing is really good (e.g. an S26 with 256GB storage costs 620 Euro here now). You can pretty much remove all of the bloat, including Gemini, Google hot words, Bixby, etc. with UAD. The SoC, battery life, etc. will blow Pixels out of the water.
2.) Get an iPhone. The most secure phone after GrapheneOS and the hardware is well worth the price. Their support is stellar, easy to reach a human by phone, generally easy to get repairs.
I'm hoping the Moto GrapheneOS phones will be solid. They will be my new primary option if so.
They put up such a shit show and had us run through so many hoops with my wife's phone that it ended up being out of warranty by the time they agreed it was broken and needed repaired. The support experience was so painful I reluctantly let them get away with their bullshit, bought a new phone (oneplus) for my wife, and swore not to buy another Pixel phone despite having a strong preference for them and the pure Android experience.
Bought a Pixel 10 Pro XL for myself and had to return it. Connectivity issues (WiFi connected, but no internet), screen losing colors (white would turn gray), ghosting issues (scrolled/hidden content would stay on screen for a period of time).
It did cross my mind, and I did buy it for the possibility to do that in the future if necessary, but I just wasn't in the position to actually do so.
I mean, I don't particularly understand how "caring about warranty" goes against what you've written after that. Replacing something for free is surely better than doing so for $300 dollars, no?
Are you saying I should have installed GrapheneOS on the phone, possibly discovered that the phone has hardware issues and then go out to buy another phone because I have an emergency fund? Or stick with a new phone that had issues?
Or maybe I have made a mistake by buying a phone more expensive than $300? I can see this one actually, but I was going for something that didn't have ads in every menu as the cheap Chinese phones I was using up until this point.
Outside of the used market, which I tend to ignore due to battery/performance degradation, there's no way for me to buy a Pixel for less than $300 anyways.
I wasn't really risking being denied, as long as I didn't break any rules.
Eating out is there. Power Tools are there. Land is beyond that and Housing has been there for 6 years now.
I'm not surprised. The March of inflation has been a wreckening this decade.
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?
This is the assumption I'm challenging. What are people doing on their phones that makes a two year old phone feel two years old?
Maybe it's 3d gaming, I don't do any of that on my phone but for any productivity apps, I don't think I've noticed an effective difference in my phone for years.
Prices usually get ok halfway the cycle, though this year not as much due to the RAM/SSD squeeze.
Today I'd go for the Bothing 4a/4a Pro.
I cannot activded a EU acquired Pixel for instance. Verizon no longer needs to carrier unlock phones after 60 days too :}
Theres multiple carrier that will auto disable you sim if you move it and charge you a fee for it too !
https://www.howardforums.com/threads/is-metro-charging-to-sw...
https://www.reddit.com/r/MetroPCS/comments/1maa4rt/how_much_...
All of this was such a mind fuck.
https://www.theverge.com/23803460/nothing-phone-2-verizon-wo...
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?
There used to be BBK Electronics that owned both, but it split up and OnePlus got placed under 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.
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
[3] https://nothing.community/d/6047-policies-for-rootingunlocki...
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 would have made much more sense to kill those other brands in the West and unify everything under the OnePlus banner.
Also I think the iPhone and MacBook brands are much stronger than Apple itself.
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.
Realme is literally an ID verification system and a terrible choice for a brand.
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.
Somewhere along the way, the Pixel caught up, and the other quirks of the OnePlus diminished the relative benefit (I recall having some issues with their Android variant, and their charging system not actually following the USB-C spec in a way that was causing me issues). As someone who generally doesn't care about smartphone specs aside from "can it last all day?" and "can I take decent pictures without giving it much thought" the OnePlus line was briefly a great option, but hasn't done anything to make me want to try another one in a decade now.
I can't speak much to other flagship phones; I'll never own an Apple product and my experiences with Samsung's software across other devices means I'll likely never consider them either.
Even the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is getting close to the price of an S26 here and the S26 will absolutely blow it out of the water when it comes to pretty much every facet of the hardware.
Pixel 9/10 Pro XL is a midrange SoC sold at flagship prices. Even the A57, which is a midrange Samsung model that will soon hit 350 Euro is faster single core than the Pixel 9 Pro and on par multi-core. Also has better battery life and despite only being 0.1" smaller weighs 42g less and is much thinner. Gets supported for 6 years and also gets monthly updates. Also doesn't die frequently with spicy pillows, camera bars that drop off, etc.
I still buy Pixels because it has an unlockable bootloader and can run GrapheneOS, but Google's pricing is insane and I wish that they would go back to the old price points. The 10a is the only Pixel with somewhat reasonable pricing for what it provides, but unfortunately they made the hardware differences larger than in the past (e.g. be not upgrading to the latest Tensor SoC).
(And seem to be doing so successfully - certainly, you see a lot more Nothings than OnePluses in London)
I also think of Essential and Poco when this kind of thing comes up.
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...
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.
Written on a OnePlus 8 Pro.
Now I want rid of the pixel because they destroyed battery life with an update in march they've still not fixed.
only gripes I have are mapping apps are slow to initialize. i don't drive uber tho, so it's not terribly inconvenient
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.
Practically all banking apps are supported, and they have a thorough list so you can check beforehand.
What's the alternative to Google Wallet for tap to pay and loyalty cards?
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.
As it is, it’s just a rant not a contribution to dialog.
There is so much wrong with this phone...
You've probably got some fluff in the port. Scrape it out with a pin and see if there's a fair bit of crap comes out.
I usually use the pointy end of a plastic flosser.
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.
Obviously as a folding phone it's more expensive, but it's leagues ahead of the Pixel Fold as well.
IIRC it started as an experiment to understand what works in western markets.