July 21, 2020. The OnePlus Nord launched today and the press framing is generous: OnePlus returning to its roots, flagship specs at affordable prices, the brand reconnecting with the value positioning that made it famous. The Snapdragon 765G, 8GB of RAM, 6.44-inch AMOLED at 90Hz, 4115mAh battery with Warp Charge 30T. £379 in the UK, €399 in Europe. This is priced $150-$200 below the OnePlus 8. The specifications are competitive at the tier. The question is whether “OnePlus at £379” is the return to roots it is being framed as, or whether there is something more complicated happening here.
The case for the Nord
The original OnePlus community has been growing older and more affluent since 2014, and the flagship price escalation is not losing those buyers. It is losing the people who were about to become OnePlus buyers: the next generation of tech-curious consumers in their early twenties who in 2014 would have bought a $299 One but in 2020 cannot justify a $799 OnePlus 8 Pro. The Nord addresses that gap with a product that is genuinely good at its price. For a buyer who cares about smooth performance, a good display, and clean software at £379, the Nord is the right recommendation.
The concern I have going in
My concern is not today. My concern is six months from now. The OnePlus X in 2015 tried the same move, price expansion downward, and the software support commitment for the X was lighter than for the main lineup. Buyers who purchased the X based on the brand’s established software quality reputation received a product that did not carry the same update commitment. I need to see the explicit software update guarantee for the Nord before I am confident this is different. OnePlus’s reputation is built on fast updates and long support windows. If the Nord gets second-tier update commitment, the buyers who encounter OnePlus for the first time through the Nord are learning the wrong lesson about the brand.
There is also the question of where this goes. If the Nord leads to a Nord CE, a Nord N10, a Nord N100 with different chips and different update schedules, the clear brand identity that “Never Settle” built becomes a portfolio of devices across multiple price tiers with inconsistent promises. That is a different company from the one Carl Pei founded. Whether that is the right company for OnePlus to become in 2020 is the more important question than whether the Nord itself is a good phone. It is a good phone. Whether it is a good strategy takes longer to know.
Part of OnePlus: The Complete Story, my full history of OnePlus from founding to the Realme merger.