Ten flagship smartphones in almost ten years. And in the middle at least three changes of direction that have changed the face and identity of OnePlus. The former Chinese startup founded in late 2013 by Pete Lau and Carl Pei, presents the 10 Pro, the latest high-end model. A phone similar in features to Realme’s Gt 2 Pro and especially to Oppo’s Find X5 Pro. Moreover, the three companies, together with Vivo, are headed by the giant BBK. Indeed, to be more precise, OnePlus from June 2021 has joined with Oppo to optimize processes and research, however losing even more that character that at the beginning had made it so different from the rest.
The OnePlus 10 Pro, for sale on Oneplus.com e Amazon starting from April 5 in the 8 + 128Gb version at 919 euros and in the 12 + 256Gb version at 999 euros, it is halfway between the Gt 2 Pro and the Find X 5 which cost 850 and 1300 euros respectively. Of the three models, all with 6.7-inch 2K displays (1440 by 3216 pixels), the Oppo is the most refined and advanced. But slightly compared to the latest OnePlus. The Gt 2 Pro, on the other hand, has the best relationship between features and price, having the same power as the other two but something less in details and materials, as well as a screen that is not curved on the edges.
Our test of the 10 Pro lasted a little over a day, so these are only first impressions. It is a very fast phone that, like the other two, uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor at four nanometers.. The triple camera, very similar to the one seen on the OnePlus 9 Pro with 48, 50 and 8 megapixel sensors, performs slightly worse than that of the Oppo. But to notice it you have to open the shots on PC with Photoshop and enlarge the images a lot. The software, like that on the Find X 5 Pro, is optimized by Hasselblad with regards to colors. A collaboration that was OnePlus to start first. The front one, on the other hand, is 32-megapixel, as per the order on all the top models of the brands linked to Bbk.
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We also tried to see if it flexes, as it literally broke in the hands of the American youtuber Zack Nelson, known under the pseudonym of Jerry Rig Everything, who puts new smartphones online to the delight of his eight million. spectators. In fact it is less rigid than the other two, yet to break it you have to apply a lot of force and we stopped first. The screen is of excellent quality, perhaps slightly below that of Oppo’s Find X 5. For the lovers of the acronyms it is a fluid amoled with a billion colors and a refresh rate of 120Hz, in addition to having the HDR 10+ and brightness peaks of 1300 nits. Also in this the characteristics are roughly the same for the other two models. It also has a large battery, 5000 mAh and fast charging, also here substantially in line with the other two.
It is a peculiarity of this new generation of Chinese smartphones to conquer market slices with brands linked together. Equipped with a certain degree of independence, they coordinate covering the entire spectrum to undermine the highest and most lucrative end occupied by Apple and Samsung. But while the first has its own proprietary ecosystem and therefore plays a different game, the second is facing a constant decline because it is the one that suffers the most from the commercial aggression of the two Chinese phone groups, Bbk on the one hand and Xiaomi on the other. , which controls Poco and Black Shark. The results in some cases are surprising. According to the market analysis company Canalys, Realme in Europe and Italy is in fifth place, having totaled respectively more 1365 and 3611 percent in the last quarter of the year of 2021.
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Once an advanced but affordable phone like the Gt 2 Pro would probably have had the OnePlus branding. When the company was born nine years ago, it had made itself known for its choice of wanting to be the star of the flagship models of large companies, “flagship killer”. It offered the best possible quality at the lowest possible price. Online sales only, a single model per year as well as an enhanced version in iPhone and iPhone S style, and great attention to detail, quality, power and speed. Success came through word of mouth: OnePlus was the David against the Goliaths of the smartphone world, which in the early years made its way into the technological community from this one as well as across the ocean. Both Pei and Lau, interviewed several times, in those years told how they found it absurd to be forced to spend a thousand euros for a good phone. Davide, however, had a Goliath behind him, the Bbk, through which he was able to obtain the most expensive components, processor and screen in the first place, at relatively low prices since the parent company dealt with large quantities of them.
Thanks to such an identity, Apple made a fortune 25 years ago. Do you remember the “think differently”, “think different”, of 1997? On that slogan and on that attitude Steve Jobs built the rebirth, personal and of Apple itself, once back at the helm of him. Tim Cook, current CEO of Apple, has traded the aura of an innovative and irreverent company for an exclusive and luxury brand. A significant leap, made possible by the ecosystem of the Apple which is proprietary and therefore unique. If you are used to using an iPhone, there are practically no alternatives, unless you are willing to change radically by moving to Google’s Android world where all other smartphone manufacturers compete. And it is a field in which finding one’s own uniqueness is complicated, like skin changes.
Halfway through its history, OnePlus wanted to launch a series of other products all over the world with the same philosophy of smartphones, from televisions to computers, united by ease of use, power, the excellent relationship between price and features. Instead, it changed its mind by focusing on a line of mid-range phones, the Nord series, while it had already begun to raise the prices of the flagship model. It is no coincidence that Carl Pei left the company in 2020 to found Nothing which has taken up the discourse of a series of devices sharing the attitude, earphones and phones for now, while OnePlus joined Oppo taking another step away from origins.
In the short term, the strategy worked: in 2021 it placed 11 million smartphones on the market, the best year ever, of which 10 million belonged to the Nord series. Today, however, it is a company that produces excellent phones but very similar to those of the competition, without a real distinctive trait, as in the case of the 10 Pro. It is difficult to calculate the economic value of a unique identity built from the bottom. However, the doubt arises that in the long term it is one of the few weapons to survive in a sector where by now everything that is produced is so similar that it appears in fact indistinguishable.