14 ms·

OnePlus halts operations in USA and Europe

600 points by pilililo2 3mo ago

Luker88 3mo ago
...but why?
- JustSkyfall 3mo ago
  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.
  - dtech 3mo ago
    There are minor Android players who seem to be standing their ground, so something has to be different here. Nothing, Xiaomi/Redmi, Motorola
    - swiftcoder 3mo ago
      > 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"
      - dtech 3mo ago
        They are minor in the west which is what I replied to
  - rwyinuse 3mo ago
    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.
    - paddim8 3mo ago
      Finland is not one of the most broke countries in the EU...
      - rwyinuse 3mo ago
        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.
- w4yai 3mo ago
  RAMageddon ?
- AndrewThrowaway 3mo ago
  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.
  - nicce 3mo ago
    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.
    - paddim8 3mo ago
      It is true. The OnePlus Nord are really good for the price
  - mrweasel 3mo ago
    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.
  - mdasen 3mo ago
    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.
bux93 3mo ago
>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.
- xnorswap 3mo ago
  If you're going to be pedantic, at least first check you're correct. Conclude - verb - to bring to an end.
  - bux93 3mo ago
    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".
    - deleted 3mo ago
      [deleted]
    - xnorswap 3mo ago
      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.
m00dy 3mo ago
It’s been irrelevant in the market for a while now.
- jcbrand 3mo ago
  I love my OnePlus 9 pro phone. What would be a good replacement?
  - greenavocado 3mo ago
    Any Pixel from the past few years
  - denidoman 3mo ago
    Pixel 10 Pro, if you are not into games and fast charging is not a priority.
  - darkwater 3mo ago
    Fairphone 6 maybe? It's on my radar when my Pixel 6a dies
    - amarant 3mo ago
      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.
      - workingonit3 3mo ago
        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.
      - 3mo ago
methuselah_in 3mo ago
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.
- xiaoyu2006 3mo ago
  They don't sell well in Asia. It's mainly xiaomi, oppo, vivo and huawei.
  - throwa356262 3mo ago
    OnePlus is owned by Oppo, no? IIRC it started as an experiment to understand what works in western markets.
    - nomercy400 3mo ago
      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.
- try-working 3mo ago
  He was made to leave.
alexdns 3mo ago
They were pushing people to OPPO for a long time now its not really a surprise
bearjaws 3mo ago
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.
- setsewerd 3mo ago
  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.
  - bearjaws 3mo ago
    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.
- mgcross 3mo ago
  Yep, I went from a OP7T to P6Pro and it did not feel like an upgrade. I still miss the macro camera.
- amarant 3mo ago
  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.
  - fn-mote 3mo ago
    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.
haunter 3mo ago
"Never Settle" Well it's settled then
- broodbucket 3mo ago
  They settled long, long ago
- nekusar 3mo ago
  "Dont be evil" ...to... "Dont. Be evil"
  - Perz1val 3mo ago
    More like "don't be" for one plus
xbas 3mo ago
[dead]
mellosouls 3mo ago
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.
- maxerickson 3mo ago
  Looks like OnePlus and OPPO are different companies. Shared ownership, but different companies.
  - ChocolateGod 3mo ago
    Oppo owns OnePlus completely. There used to be BBK Electronics that owned both, but it split up and OnePlus got placed under Oppo.
  - petu 3mo ago
    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.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- Grombobulous 3mo ago
  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.
sixhobbits 3mo ago
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
mdrzn 3mo ago
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.
- amarant 3mo ago
  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.
ineedaj0b 3mo ago
RAM prices take down another.
Scene_Cast2 3mo ago
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.
- jabroni_salad 3mo ago
  Every single day I miss my slider switch. They kept the notification LED longer than most others too.
- cmoski 3mo ago
  The loss of the slider switch still breaks my heart. It is my most loved feature on the phone.
- electroglyph 3mo ago
  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
- LorenDB 3mo ago
  My OnePlus 13 has a slider switch. Isn't the 15 the only flagship OnePlus that dropped the slider?
  - Scene_Cast2 3mo ago
    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).
- Stagnant 3mo ago
  EU and NA models still have unlockable bootloaders.
- alias_neo 3mo ago
  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.
lynndotpy 3mo ago
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
- hbs18 3mo ago
  > 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.
  - lynndotpy 3mo ago
    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
  - celsoazevedo 3mo ago
    It's the animations. They're really slow on iOS, at least compared to Android with them at 0.5x (or disabled). This is really noticeable on more recent Chinese devices. Not only we have a +90Hz display, but I believe there's a focus on animation speed because some reviewers over there test how fast it is to open and switch apps. So we end up with something that is smooth and also feels fast.
- fullstop 3mo ago
  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.
throwa356262 3mo ago
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.
- gl0wa 3mo ago
  Before getting one, make sure you can have Play Store and Wallet on it, if that matters for you.
broodbucket 3mo ago
Since they became Oppo in a wig there's really been no reason to buy their products.
takipsizad 3mo ago
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.
skeledrew 3mo ago
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.
- huem0n 3mo ago
  nothing.tech is the spirtual successor to OnePlus
rock_artist 3mo ago
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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Pei [2] https://nothing.tech https://nothing.tech [3] https://nothing.community/d/6047-policies-for-rootingunlocking-boot-loader https://nothing.community/d/6047-policies-for-rootingunlocki...
- roryirvine 3mo ago
  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)
  - harvey9 3mo ago
    Nothing has a physical store in central London. Handy for anyone upgrading from the Wasp T12 Speechtool.
- jstummbillig 3mo ago
  I mean... the major change is that it changed, no? It's kind of unprecedented, or, at least, highly unusual?
- alias_neo 3mo ago
  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.
amarant 3mo ago
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"
- robertlagrant 3mo ago
  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!
  - amarant 3mo ago
    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
- neogodless 3mo ago
  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.)
  - amarant 3mo ago
    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...
spiffytech 3mo ago
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.
- z0mghii 3mo ago
  Which other brands have you switched to?
virajk_31 3mo ago
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.
HelloUsername 3mo ago
Posted yesterday (not source): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48923436 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48923436 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48922412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48922412
ChocolateGod 3mo ago
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.
rickdeckard 3mo ago
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...
corford 3mo ago
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.
danilafe 3mo ago
Still running on OnePlus 5. The ideal phone in my opinion.
surgical_fire 3mo ago
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.
- huem0n 3mo ago
  Nothing.tech is the spiritual successor to OnePlus
nunez 3mo ago
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.
chasil 3mo ago
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.
blenderob 3mo ago
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?
- cpncrunch 3mo ago
  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.
  - K3V1N_FLYNN 3mo ago
    Their nitch in the American market was selling high end devices for mid level prices, now that that is no longer the case, most people would rather get a Samsung for performance, a Pixel for it’s cameras or an iPhone for all of the above.
    - cpncrunch 3mo ago
      Yes, I got that from the comments. But it doesn't explain how they are continuing to sell in other markets. That's the confusing part.
- willchis 3mo ago
  Because their hearts are too heavy and emotional, and their community is too beloved, duh! I really wished companies would just TLDR so you didn't have to read this nonsense every singe time.
- dismalaf 3mo ago
  Because Carl Pei left and the parent company has 3 other phone brands.
- TorKlingberg 3mo ago
  As someone vaguely in the industry: It's because of the huge rise in RAM prices. One of OnePlus' points was high specs at low price. They don't have the margins to eat current RAM prices.
FiddlerClamp 3mo ago
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.
doe88 3mo ago
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.
- speedgoose 3mo ago
  The demand for such phones is very low.
  - doe88 3mo ago
    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.
    - petu 3mo ago
      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.
- Danox 3mo ago
  Someone in China needs to develop a Mobile OS not Android. Until that happens, they ain’t going anywhere long term and the same applies to personal computers too. Eventually, that has to happen if you wanna get to the next level.
  - VibrantClarity 3mo ago
    Already happened with HarmonyOS NEXT
- throwaway27727 3mo ago
amelius 3mo ago
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.
- propaganja 3mo ago
  Wait... I have a OnePlus Pad 3. What nagging about OS updates?
  - amelius 3mo ago
    Maybe you aren't aware because you always agree to the update popups?
lifeisstillgood 3mo ago
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”
pearle 3mo ago
HN headline needs a change. It's North America, not just the USA.
mergy 3mo ago
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.
- xx__yy 3mo ago
  OnePlus are still edgey, get one of their +5YO phone and put Axion on it - Android 16 like it should be, and super snappy
_345 3mo ago
The oneplus open (2023) is such a great phone, what a shame
citrus1330 3mo ago
OnePlus had operations in the USA?
sudb 3mo ago
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.
simonatllocus 3mo ago
This came out of nowhere, I was even considering getting a OnePlus.
bg24 3mo ago
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/lawmakers-want-us-commerce-department-probe-chinese-smartphone-maker-oneplus-2025-06-27/ 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.”
- dopa42365 3mo ago
  >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?)
  - propaganja 3mo ago
    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".
RoryH 3mo ago
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.
driverdan 3mo ago
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.
deaton 3mo ago
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.
satvikpendem 3mo ago
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.
- Danox 3mo ago
  Being quirky isn’t innovation…
  - satvikpendem 3mo ago
    If you think longer battery life through advances like silicon carbon is "quirky" then I don't know what to tell you.
veber-alex 3mo ago
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.
freedomben 3mo ago
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.
- unethical_ban 3mo ago
  This is exactly it. Every competitive advantage they had against larger brands was removed.
- MYEUHD 3mo ago
  > had specs maxxed out Indeed, their 10 year old flagship has 6GB of RAM. https://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_3-7995.php https://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_3-7995.php (for comparison, last year's iPhone 17 has just 8GB or RAM, 9 years later)
  - freedomben 3mo ago
    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
    - 8n4vidtmkvmk 3mo ago
      That's the phone I was using too. Gave it to my wife a couple years ago and she used it until just a couple months ago when it too suffered a fatal drop. Very sad. Good phone. I was worried about that pop up camera failing at some point, but it never did
throwitaway222 3mo ago
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.
vasanthrb 3mo ago
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.
hyperb1iss 3mo ago
OnePlus One (aka "bacon") changed the industry
uneekname 3mo ago
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.
- xx__yy 3mo ago
  Lineage as or AxionOS nowadays. Both are excellent and better than stock 1+ OS
MSkill1 3mo ago
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.
snootypoot 3mo ago
[dead]
felixc 3mo ago
The linked site actually says "North America", which has been incorrectly editorialized to "USA". This is misleading because their announcement appears intended to also cover Canada.
celsoazevedo 3mo ago
I usually don't get attached to brands, but this makes me sad. I bought the OnePlus One in 2015 after Apple killed my iPhone 5's performance and I was told to just buy a new iPhone (this was before they were sued and added a setting to control throttling on "old" batteries). The phone was fast, had more storage than the iPhone, better camera, no bloat (it ran Cyanogen!), had a notification light, felt nice on the hand (sandstone back), and as a nerd, I loved the amount of Android custom ROMs for it. Liked it so much that at one point everyone at home was using OnePlus Ones. Also had my disappointments. The OnePlus 2 kept overheating (mainly due to the terrible Snapdragon 810), the camera on the OnePlus 3 wasn't as good as their social media posts made me believe, the slow/lack of software updates, etc, but they were cheap devices. My last OnePlus was the 8 Pro. By the time I gave it away, it was no longer the same old OnePlus. OxygenOS was replaced by ColorOS (even if they kept the old name), which I never really liked, and prices kept increasing even though some of the weaknesses were still there, etc. It was time to move on. Still have an old OnePlus One "bacon". No longer use it, but during the Covid years I wiped it and installed LineageOS (currently runs LOS 18.1/Android 11 from August 2023). The battery is bad and the display has some discolouration around the edges, but still runs: - https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_front.jpg https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_front.jpg - https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_back.jpg https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_back.jpg
freestanding 3mo ago
[flagged]
burningChrome 3mo ago
Marques Brownlee called this six months ago when he released his video titled "The Downfall of OnePlus will be Studied": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZdbbN3FCzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZdbbN3FCzE
frollogaston 3mo ago
Oh, so I'll finally stop hearing from friends' friends that they have a referral code I can use to get one.
Willish42 3mo ago
I remember the hype around the first OnePlus phone, with the invite system. It was the first time I'd had a device loaded with Cyanogenmod that ran relatively stable without any issues. Eventually the capactive touch home button on my OP2 gave out on me but I was a pretty happy user of the OnePlus One, 2, and 3T. I especially liked the removable backplates that had wood options that were pretty neat and felt nice to hold I suppose Nothing is carrying that torch forward but it's still disappointing to see. Even though most of it was extensions of Oppo tech and ideas into a US/Europe-friendly market position, it still felt like they were innovating and keeping Android ecosystem healthy and interesting beyond simple slab phones. I was considering looking into a OnePlus phone as my next device for Lineage or Graphene OS, but I guess I'm glad I waited...
tgtweak 3mo ago
The cameras on the Pro versions used to be so good, then starting around one-plus 9 they really went downhill. I have photos in my archive from my OP8 Pro that look much better than those taken with the OP13. Coinciding with Samsung nerfing the Ultra (aside from the bloatware) - it's not looking like a great landscape for Android Phones.
- neogodless 3mo ago
  Anecdotally, the OnePlus 7 Pro had decent but super fun cameras. Some color issues. My OnePlus Pro 9 felt like a good step up in photo quality. And my OnePlus 12 takes awesome photos I'm very happy with. I didn't experience the same "downhill" as you.
Marciplan 3mo ago
so they settled?
adamsmark 3mo ago
I worked for OnePlus a few years ago, managing its Amazon account. 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.
- d3Xt3r 3mo ago
  > A submission apparently needed to be “signed” and then “sealed.” ... and delivered?
- noja 3mo ago
  Tell us more about silicon carbide batteries!
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
- michaelmrose 3mo ago
  Signed sealed and delivered?
varispeed 3mo ago
They should make a phone with completely open bootloader. As censorship and surveillance is going to be implemented across the West, that could be a great differentiator from the brands supporting loss of liberty.
xx__yy 3mo ago
I'm not sure why everyone is so up in arms here. Just means you can't buy one in a store. I've bought a lot of 1+ for myself and family, and not once for a physical or online Australian store. Just for overseas sites. That doesn't change. The 1+ store in AU was only offering models a couple years old, never the latest. So this news changes nothing for me. Still great bang for buck and easily mod-able. My family and I have been on OnePlus since the beginning, and I just recently got the 15R (which is a beautiful phone, and awesome bang for buck). I've been recycling all my old OnePlus by putting linageOS or AxionOS, and they feel like new again. The alternative Android firmware space is thriving. I just got Android 16 on a Nord N30 5G "Avicii" - it's blazingly fast. Funnily enough, N30 which is close to 6 years old has 12GB of RAM, which is the same as the latest 15R. I'm still a OnePlus flagship killer fanboy
madhacker 3mo ago
What's the real reason for the exit from USA and Europe?
try-working 3mo ago
I worked at OPPO and OnePlus when OnePlus was being re-integrated into OPPO. It used to be its own org with a separate office, but the team was moved into the new OPPO office. If you want to understand why OnePlus has been destroyed since then, there's a number of factos that I will just quickly list: OPPO was doing a large international push from 2019, and OnePlus was the little sub-brand that was more successful than it's mother brand. OnePlus was an international team, OPPO fully Chinese, with a CEO and the entire upper management not able to speak English. OnePlus continued to succeed while OPPO couldn't do good marketing. This was embarrassing, so of course OnePlus had to be downgraded. Pete Lau became OPPO CPO and decided that OnePlus should be a lower to mid brand, and the product was changed to reflect that. Lots of people left. Ego, incompetent management that knew nothing about the world outside of China and terrible decisions that followed, led to the erosion of OnePlus. It could have made them a real player internationally but they intentionally destroyed it.
maxk42 3mo ago
Shit. This was my last near-stock Android choice with great battery life. What's the alternative now? I hate Pixels and don't really want to give Google my info anyway. Is there something decent left?
- maztaim 3mo ago
  Nothing.
agentically 3mo ago
One of the earliest and had a great run in the android smartphone eco-system. Hard to see them leave these markets. On the other hand, they already have a huge market to focus with around 3 billion smartphone users.
esalman 3mo ago
It's such a shame. OnePlus have been developer-unfriendly for a while and alienated their most loyal customers. I still think their phones provide best bang for the buck performance- even at $700-800 considering the current smartphone market. My last three phones were OnePlus 7T, 8, and 12R. I was looking forward to 15R, but got a Razr Ultra instead since they a made the announcement.
xiaodai 3mo ago
they were such hot property in the past!
rldjbpin 3mo ago
hard to say the company was working the same post 7 series. the headlines is more like lexus leaving the US (ironic) than the parent company (Oppo). those who still love their phones can still get most of the way there by using an equivalent oppo phone and tweak some software.
dielll 3mo ago
My first OnePlus was 12R when it came out. Used it till last month when I got 15 because work was paying for it. In terms of performance, I dont see a difference, guess flagships have matured. However the 15 is a beat when it comes to battery life. I literally get 2-3 days of battery life. Never worry about battery life when going out or at anytime. Pkus it's the flagship Snapdragon soc so it runs anything. Money well spent. Too sad that they are closing shop

600 points by pilililo2 3mo ago

Luker88 3mo ago

...but why?

JustSkyfall 3mo ago
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.
- dtech 3mo ago
  There are minor Android players who seem to be standing their ground, so something has to be different here. Nothing, Xiaomi/Redmi, Motorola
  - swiftcoder 3mo ago
    > 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"
    - dtech 3mo ago
      They are minor in the west which is what I replied to
- rwyinuse 3mo ago
  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.
  - paddim8 3mo ago
    Finland is not one of the most broke countries in the EU...
    - rwyinuse 3mo ago
      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.
w4yai 3mo ago
RAMageddon ?
AndrewThrowaway 3mo ago
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.
- nicce 3mo ago
  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.
  - paddim8 3mo ago
    It is true. The OnePlus Nord are really good for the price
- mrweasel 3mo ago
  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.
- mdasen 3mo ago
  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.

bux93 3mo ago

>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.

xnorswap 3mo ago
If you're going to be pedantic, at least first check you're correct. Conclude - verb - to bring to an end.
- bux93 3mo ago
  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".
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
  - xnorswap 3mo ago
    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.

m00dy 3mo ago

It’s been irrelevant in the market for a while now.

jcbrand 3mo ago
I love my OnePlus 9 pro phone. What would be a good replacement?
- greenavocado 3mo ago
  Any Pixel from the past few years
- denidoman 3mo ago
  Pixel 10 Pro, if you are not into games and fast charging is not a priority.
- darkwater 3mo ago
  Fairphone 6 maybe? It's on my radar when my Pixel 6a dies
  - amarant 3mo ago
    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.
    - workingonit3 3mo ago
      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.
    - 3mo ago

methuselah_in 3mo ago

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.

xiaoyu2006 3mo ago
They don't sell well in Asia. It's mainly xiaomi, oppo, vivo and huawei.
- throwa356262 3mo ago
  OnePlus is owned by Oppo, no? IIRC it started as an experiment to understand what works in western markets.
  - nomercy400 3mo ago
    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.
try-working 3mo ago
He was made to leave.

alexdns 3mo ago

They were pushing people to OPPO for a long time now its not really a surprise

bearjaws 3mo ago

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.

setsewerd 3mo ago
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.
- bearjaws 3mo ago
  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.
mgcross 3mo ago
Yep, I went from a OP7T to P6Pro and it did not feel like an upgrade. I still miss the macro camera.
amarant 3mo ago
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.
- fn-mote 3mo ago
  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.

haunter 3mo ago

"Never Settle" Well it's settled then

broodbucket 3mo ago
They settled long, long ago
nekusar 3mo ago
"Dont be evil" ...to... "Dont. Be evil"
- Perz1val 3mo ago
  More like "don't be" for one plus

xbas 3mo ago

[dead]

mellosouls 3mo ago

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.

maxerickson 3mo ago
Looks like OnePlus and OPPO are different companies. Shared ownership, but different companies.
- ChocolateGod 3mo ago
  Oppo owns OnePlus completely. There used to be BBK Electronics that owned both, but it split up and OnePlus got placed under Oppo.
- petu 3mo ago
  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.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
Grombobulous 3mo ago
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.

sixhobbits 3mo ago

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

mdrzn 3mo ago

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.

amarant 3mo ago
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.

ineedaj0b 3mo ago

RAM prices take down another.

Scene_Cast2 3mo ago

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.

jabroni_salad 3mo ago
Every single day I miss my slider switch. They kept the notification LED longer than most others too.
cmoski 3mo ago
The loss of the slider switch still breaks my heart. It is my most loved feature on the phone.
electroglyph 3mo ago
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
LorenDB 3mo ago
My OnePlus 13 has a slider switch. Isn't the 15 the only flagship OnePlus that dropped the slider?
- Scene_Cast2 3mo ago
  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).
Stagnant 3mo ago
EU and NA models still have unlockable bootloaders.
alias_neo 3mo ago
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.

lynndotpy 3mo ago

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

hbs18 3mo ago
> 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.
- lynndotpy 3mo ago
  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
- celsoazevedo 3mo ago
  It's the animations. They're really slow on iOS, at least compared to Android with them at 0.5x (or disabled). This is really noticeable on more recent Chinese devices. Not only we have a +90Hz display, but I believe there's a focus on animation speed because some reviewers over there test how fast it is to open and switch apps. So we end up with something that is smooth and also feels fast.
fullstop 3mo ago
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.

throwa356262 3mo ago

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.

gl0wa 3mo ago
Before getting one, make sure you can have Play Store and Wallet on it, if that matters for you.

broodbucket 3mo ago

Since they became Oppo in a wig there's really been no reason to buy their products.

takipsizad 3mo ago

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.

skeledrew 3mo ago

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.

huem0n 3mo ago
nothing.tech is the spirtual successor to OnePlus

rock_artist 3mo ago

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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Pei [2] https://nothing.tech https://nothing.tech [3] https://nothing.community/d/6047-policies-for-rootingunlocking-boot-loader https://nothing.community/d/6047-policies-for-rootingunlocki...

roryirvine 3mo ago
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)
- harvey9 3mo ago
  Nothing has a physical store in central London. Handy for anyone upgrading from the Wasp T12 Speechtool.
jstummbillig 3mo ago
I mean... the major change is that it changed, no? It's kind of unprecedented, or, at least, highly unusual?
alias_neo 3mo ago
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.

amarant 3mo ago

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"

robertlagrant 3mo ago
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!
- amarant 3mo ago
  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
neogodless 3mo ago
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.)
- amarant 3mo ago
  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...

spiffytech 3mo ago

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.

z0mghii 3mo ago
Which other brands have you switched to?

virajk_31 3mo ago

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.

HelloUsername 3mo ago

Posted yesterday (not source): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48923436 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48923436 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48922412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48922412

ChocolateGod 3mo ago

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.

rickdeckard 3mo ago

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...

corford 3mo ago

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.

danilafe 3mo ago

Still running on OnePlus 5. The ideal phone in my opinion.

surgical_fire 3mo ago

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.

huem0n 3mo ago
Nothing.tech is the spiritual successor to OnePlus

nunez 3mo ago

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.

chasil 3mo ago

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.

blenderob 3mo ago

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?

cpncrunch 3mo ago
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.
- K3V1N_FLYNN 3mo ago
  Their nitch in the American market was selling high end devices for mid level prices, now that that is no longer the case, most people would rather get a Samsung for performance, a Pixel for it’s cameras or an iPhone for all of the above.
  - cpncrunch 3mo ago
    Yes, I got that from the comments. But it doesn't explain how they are continuing to sell in other markets. That's the confusing part.
willchis 3mo ago
Because their hearts are too heavy and emotional, and their community is too beloved, duh! I really wished companies would just TLDR so you didn't have to read this nonsense every singe time.
dismalaf 3mo ago
Because Carl Pei left and the parent company has 3 other phone brands.
TorKlingberg 3mo ago
As someone vaguely in the industry: It's because of the huge rise in RAM prices. One of OnePlus' points was high specs at low price. They don't have the margins to eat current RAM prices.

FiddlerClamp 3mo ago

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.

doe88 3mo ago

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.

speedgoose 3mo ago
The demand for such phones is very low.
- doe88 3mo ago
  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.
  - petu 3mo ago
    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.
Danox 3mo ago
Someone in China needs to develop a Mobile OS not Android. Until that happens, they ain’t going anywhere long term and the same applies to personal computers too. Eventually, that has to happen if you wanna get to the next level.
- VibrantClarity 3mo ago
  Already happened with HarmonyOS NEXT
throwaway27727 3mo ago

amelius 3mo ago

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.

propaganja 3mo ago
Wait... I have a OnePlus Pad 3. What nagging about OS updates?
- amelius 3mo ago
  Maybe you aren't aware because you always agree to the update popups?

lifeisstillgood 3mo ago

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”

pearle 3mo ago

HN headline needs a change. It's North America, not just the USA.

mergy 3mo ago

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.

xx__yy 3mo ago
OnePlus are still edgey, get one of their +5YO phone and put Axion on it - Android 16 like it should be, and super snappy

_345 3mo ago

The oneplus open (2023) is such a great phone, what a shame

citrus1330 3mo ago

OnePlus had operations in the USA?

sudb 3mo ago

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.

simonatllocus 3mo ago

This came out of nowhere, I was even considering getting a OnePlus.

bg24 3mo ago

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/lawmakers-want-us-commerce-department-probe-chinese-smartphone-maker-oneplus-2025-06-27/ 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.”

dopa42365 3mo ago
>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?)
- propaganja 3mo ago
  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".

RoryH 3mo ago

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.

driverdan 3mo ago

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.

deaton 3mo ago

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.

satvikpendem 3mo ago

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.

Danox 3mo ago
Being quirky isn’t innovation…
- satvikpendem 3mo ago
  If you think longer battery life through advances like silicon carbon is "quirky" then I don't know what to tell you.

veber-alex 3mo ago

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.

freedomben 3mo ago

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.

unethical_ban 3mo ago
This is exactly it. Every competitive advantage they had against larger brands was removed.
MYEUHD 3mo ago
> had specs maxxed out Indeed, their 10 year old flagship has 6GB of RAM. https://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_3-7995.php https://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_3-7995.php (for comparison, last year's iPhone 17 has just 8GB or RAM, 9 years later)
- freedomben 3mo ago
  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
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 3mo ago
    That's the phone I was using too. Gave it to my wife a couple years ago and she used it until just a couple months ago when it too suffered a fatal drop. Very sad. Good phone. I was worried about that pop up camera failing at some point, but it never did

throwitaway222 3mo ago

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.

vasanthrb 3mo ago

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.

hyperb1iss 3mo ago

OnePlus One (aka "bacon") changed the industry

uneekname 3mo ago

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.

xx__yy 3mo ago
Lineage as or AxionOS nowadays. Both are excellent and better than stock 1+ OS

MSkill1 3mo ago

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.

snootypoot 3mo ago

[dead]

felixc 3mo ago

The linked site actually says "North America", which has been incorrectly editorialized to "USA". This is misleading because their announcement appears intended to also cover Canada.

celsoazevedo 3mo ago

I usually don't get attached to brands, but this makes me sad. I bought the OnePlus One in 2015 after Apple killed my iPhone 5's performance and I was told to just buy a new iPhone (this was before they were sued and added a setting to control throttling on "old" batteries). The phone was fast, had more storage than the iPhone, better camera, no bloat (it ran Cyanogen!), had a notification light, felt nice on the hand (sandstone back), and as a nerd, I loved the amount of Android custom ROMs for it. Liked it so much that at one point everyone at home was using OnePlus Ones. Also had my disappointments. The OnePlus 2 kept overheating (mainly due to the terrible Snapdragon 810), the camera on the OnePlus 3 wasn't as good as their social media posts made me believe, the slow/lack of software updates, etc, but they were cheap devices. My last OnePlus was the 8 Pro. By the time I gave it away, it was no longer the same old OnePlus. OxygenOS was replaced by ColorOS (even if they kept the old name), which I never really liked, and prices kept increasing even though some of the weaknesses were still there, etc. It was time to move on. Still have an old OnePlus One "bacon". No longer use it, but during the Covid years I wiped it and installed LineageOS (currently runs LOS 18.1/Android 11 from August 2023). The battery is bad and the display has some discolouration around the edges, but still runs: - https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_front.jpg https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_front.jpg - https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_back.jpg https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/oneplus_one_back.jpg

freestanding 3mo ago

[flagged]

burningChrome 3mo ago

Marques Brownlee called this six months ago when he released his video titled "The Downfall of OnePlus will be Studied": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZdbbN3FCzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZdbbN3FCzE

frollogaston 3mo ago

Oh, so I'll finally stop hearing from friends' friends that they have a referral code I can use to get one.

Willish42 3mo ago

I remember the hype around the first OnePlus phone, with the invite system. It was the first time I'd had a device loaded with Cyanogenmod that ran relatively stable without any issues. Eventually the capactive touch home button on my OP2 gave out on me but I was a pretty happy user of the OnePlus One, 2, and 3T. I especially liked the removable backplates that had wood options that were pretty neat and felt nice to hold I suppose Nothing is carrying that torch forward but it's still disappointing to see. Even though most of it was extensions of Oppo tech and ideas into a US/Europe-friendly market position, it still felt like they were innovating and keeping Android ecosystem healthy and interesting beyond simple slab phones. I was considering looking into a OnePlus phone as my next device for Lineage or Graphene OS, but I guess I'm glad I waited...

tgtweak 3mo ago

The cameras on the Pro versions used to be so good, then starting around one-plus 9 they really went downhill. I have photos in my archive from my OP8 Pro that look much better than those taken with the OP13. Coinciding with Samsung nerfing the Ultra (aside from the bloatware) - it's not looking like a great landscape for Android Phones.

neogodless 3mo ago
Anecdotally, the OnePlus 7 Pro had decent but super fun cameras. Some color issues. My OnePlus Pro 9 felt like a good step up in photo quality. And my OnePlus 12 takes awesome photos I'm very happy with. I didn't experience the same "downhill" as you.

Marciplan 3mo ago

so they settled?

adamsmark 3mo ago

I worked for OnePlus a few years ago, managing its Amazon account. 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.

d3Xt3r 3mo ago
> A submission apparently needed to be “signed” and then “sealed.” ... and delivered?
noja 3mo ago
Tell us more about silicon carbide batteries!
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
michaelmrose 3mo ago
Signed sealed and delivered?

varispeed 3mo ago

They should make a phone with completely open bootloader. As censorship and surveillance is going to be implemented across the West, that could be a great differentiator from the brands supporting loss of liberty.

xx__yy 3mo ago

I'm not sure why everyone is so up in arms here. Just means you can't buy one in a store. I've bought a lot of 1+ for myself and family, and not once for a physical or online Australian store. Just for overseas sites. That doesn't change. The 1+ store in AU was only offering models a couple years old, never the latest. So this news changes nothing for me. Still great bang for buck and easily mod-able. My family and I have been on OnePlus since the beginning, and I just recently got the 15R (which is a beautiful phone, and awesome bang for buck). I've been recycling all my old OnePlus by putting linageOS or AxionOS, and they feel like new again. The alternative Android firmware space is thriving. I just got Android 16 on a Nord N30 5G "Avicii" - it's blazingly fast. Funnily enough, N30 which is close to 6 years old has 12GB of RAM, which is the same as the latest 15R. I'm still a OnePlus flagship killer fanboy

madhacker 3mo ago

What's the real reason for the exit from USA and Europe?

try-working 3mo ago

I worked at OPPO and OnePlus when OnePlus was being re-integrated into OPPO. It used to be its own org with a separate office, but the team was moved into the new OPPO office. If you want to understand why OnePlus has been destroyed since then, there's a number of factos that I will just quickly list: OPPO was doing a large international push from 2019, and OnePlus was the little sub-brand that was more successful than it's mother brand. OnePlus was an international team, OPPO fully Chinese, with a CEO and the entire upper management not able to speak English. OnePlus continued to succeed while OPPO couldn't do good marketing. This was embarrassing, so of course OnePlus had to be downgraded. Pete Lau became OPPO CPO and decided that OnePlus should be a lower to mid brand, and the product was changed to reflect that. Lots of people left. Ego, incompetent management that knew nothing about the world outside of China and terrible decisions that followed, led to the erosion of OnePlus. It could have made them a real player internationally but they intentionally destroyed it.

maxk42 3mo ago

Shit. This was my last near-stock Android choice with great battery life. What's the alternative now? I hate Pixels and don't really want to give Google my info anyway. Is there something decent left?

maztaim 3mo ago
Nothing.

agentically 3mo ago

One of the earliest and had a great run in the android smartphone eco-system. Hard to see them leave these markets. On the other hand, they already have a huge market to focus with around 3 billion smartphone users.

esalman 3mo ago

It's such a shame. OnePlus have been developer-unfriendly for a while and alienated their most loyal customers. I still think their phones provide best bang for the buck performance- even at $700-800 considering the current smartphone market. My last three phones were OnePlus 7T, 8, and 12R. I was looking forward to 15R, but got a Razr Ultra instead since they a made the announcement.

xiaodai 3mo ago

they were such hot property in the past!

rldjbpin 3mo ago

hard to say the company was working the same post 7 series. the headlines is more like lexus leaving the US (ironic) than the parent company (Oppo). those who still love their phones can still get most of the way there by using an equivalent oppo phone and tweak some software.

dielll 3mo ago

My first OnePlus was 12R when it came out. Used it till last month when I got 15 because work was paying for it. In terms of performance, I dont see a difference, guess flagships have matured. However the 15 is a beat when it comes to battery life. I literally get 2-3 days of battery life. Never worry about battery life when going out or at anytime. Pkus it's the flagship Snapdragon soc so it runs anything. Money well spent. Too sad that they are closing shop