The rise and fall of OnePlus’ merger with Oppo

It’s been nearly 8 years since OnePlus was first founded. Indeed, OnePlus has left its stamp on the market, particularly the affordable flagship segment. Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to notice how OnePlus has strayed from its nimble and agile former self to become one of the bigger manufacturers in the mainstream market. It could be argued that OnePlus could only achieve its mainstream status under the guidance of its sister company Oppo. Many of its employees used to work at Oppo beforehand, with many of OnePlus’ latter phones taking a lot of cues from other Oppo phones, particularly in terms of design. To many of the tech-savvy consumers, it was only a matter of time before the OnePlus/Oppo partnership would be officially announced. Fast forward to this year, and the inevitable has happened. Pete Lau, now the Chief Product Experience Officer at Oppo, has confirmed that OnePlus will be further integrating with its sister company Oppo to “capitalize on the additional shared resources.” So how did that go? So far, well, not so well.

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OnePlus 9 series: too expensive

Earlier this week, OnePlus announced its all-new OnePlus 9 Pro, its fully-fledged no-frills flagship, along with its slightly toned-down sibling, the OnePlus 9. Naturally, with a Hasselblad badge on the back, the OnePlus 9 Pro claimed all the headlines, with the promise of providing a much-improved camera system to its consumer base. However, with yet another incremental price hike seeping through, OnePlus might have punched a bit over its weight. At $969, OnePlus is no longer undercutting the competition, instead further reinstating its status as a competitive flagship smartphone vendor. Sniffing at the heels of other household names such as Samsung is no easy task, but perhaps OnePlus feels ready enough to compete with the likes of the Korean behemoth. That seems to be the case on paper, but in reality, OnePlus might need to up the ante a bit to swing the balance in their favor. Here’s why I think OnePlus might need to step up to prove its worth.

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