OnePlus phones and the OxygenOS software that used to be the entire reason to buy one. A brand that spent years working out whether it wanted to be the flagship killer or just another flagship, and I still think that unresolved tension is the most interesting thing about it.
Carl Pei left OnePlus on October 16, 2020. He was 30 and had been there since the founding. He went on to build Nothing…
Carl Pei left OnePlus on October 16, 2020, after seven years building one of the most effective challenger brands in consumer tech. The 103…
The OnePlus Nord in July 2020 returned the brand to the mid-range with good hardware at £379. It was a rational portfolio decision and…
The OnePlus 7 Pro at $669 in 2019 was a true flagship: 90Hz before Samsung, better specs than the Galaxy S10 at $230 less.…
The OnePlus 6T's T-Mobile launch in 2018 gave OnePlus US carrier distribution and gave T-Mobile leverage over hardware design. The price reached $549. The…
OnePlus 5 at $479 in 2017, 5T at $499. The numbers seem small but they traced the beginning of a line: $299 in 2014…
The OnePlus 3 in June 2016 was the purest expression of the Never Settle philosophy: the best hardware at the fairest price with software…
The OnePlus 2 was supposed to be the "2016 Flagship Killer." Instead it was the first sign that the company could disappoint its community…
The Cyanogen breakup forced OnePlus to build OxygenOS in 2015. OxygenOS was excellent for six years and then became a ColorOS reskin. The thread…
BBK Electronics was present in OnePlus from day one as its only institutional shareholder. The community that rallied behind OnePlus as a challenger brand…
The OnePlus invite system was the most effective word-of-mouth marketing in consumer tech history and simultaneously a customer service failure at scale. It worked…
April 23, 2014. Snapdragon 801, 3GB RAM, CyanogenMod, $299. The OnePlus One undercut every flagship on the market by $400 and sold 1.5 million…
December 16, 2013. Pete Lau and Carl Pei founded OnePlus with six people and a philosophy: don't settle for the Android compromise. The OPPO…