From the Editor’s Desk: Charting the OnePlus 10 and beyond

This week’s launch of the OnePlus 9 collection is a crucial milestone for what was as soon as a plucky upstart model. With these Hasselblad co-branded handsets, OnePlus has reached an vital milestone on the journey it started two years in the past with its first true premium flagship, the OnePlus 7 Pro. It’s now a fully-fledged, big-boy cellphone firm competing in the identical area as Samsung, producing a few of the best Android phones on the market.

Sure, you could possibly argue that any area of interest smartphone model will finally fizzle out or go mainstream — and as such, that OnePlus would inevitably, in time, both die out or flip into what it’s right now. (YouTuber TechAltar made this case in a video from approach again in 2017, entitled “Why enthusiast brands will betray you”.) But nonetheless, the firm’s evolution over the previous few years has been compelling to look at. OnePlus has definitely modified greater than another cellphone model throughout that interval — although not all the time for the higher.

For its first three years, it dropped only one main product yearly, with a spotlight undercutting the competitors on the steadiness of value and specs. In 2021, OnePlus presents not simply the flagship OnePlus 9 Pro with its close to four-figure beginning value, but additionally an in depth loadout of cheaper Nord units and numerous “T” fashions, together with numerous equipment. And they’re offered not simply on to a small variety of followers however by way of service partnerships round the world.

On the one hand, OnePlus is more successful right now, flexing with premium handset designs and making main strides in cellular images — even before the recent Hasselblad partnership. But it has arguably regressed in different areas. Its telephones usually obtain solely bi-monthly safety patches and are assured Android platform updates for simply two years, versus three years for Samsung and Google, which push out safety patches each month. Some cheaper OnePlus telephones will see only one platform replace of their lifespan and the naked contractual minimal of 1 safety patch each three months as mandated by Google.

What’s extra, many in the Twittersphere have identified that even OnePlus flagships are sometimes forgotten as soon as they’re now not the new hotness. After one fast platform replace — for instance, Android 10 on the OnePlus 7 collection — even high-end fashions are left to languish on older variations of the OS for longer than many rivals.

Samsung runs rings round OnePlus by way of software program assist

So over the subsequent twelve months, OnePlus wants to point out that it could compete with the big-name cellphone manufacturers not simply by way of design, specs, and hype, however long-term software program assist throughout its whole product vary. While costs differ from nation to nation, a big chunk of the world pays simply as a lot for a OnePlus 9 Pro as they’ll for a Galaxy S21 Ultra. In return, they will get an inferior assist lifespan from the OnePlus cellphone. With Qualcomm, Samsung, and Google already working collectively to make sure some Snapdragon 888-powered telephones are supported by way of Android 14, a lot of the technical heavy lifting in the Android code base can have already been completed.

The bar is even decrease for cheaper OnePlus Nord units like the N10 and N100, which shipped on Android 10 and have but to obtain their one promised improve to Android 11. These telephones, launched in late 2020, won’t obtain any platform updates beyond the model of Android launched of their yr of launch.

Needless to say, there’s ample room for OnePlus to enhance by way of assist throughout its whole vary of telephones, and few excuses stay for it to proceed dragging its ft.

Where OnePlus has proven the biggest enchancment over the previous yr is, indubitably, in images. As we have proven in our OnePlus 9 Pro review, the firm’s newest flagship matches Samsung in lots of key areas like low-light images and video.

These developments have been a very long time coming, little doubt helped alongside by the agency’s digicam lab in Taipei, arrange in 2019. And the relationship with Hasselblad — which a supply tells me is simply over six months previous — may even assist in the future. As we all know from the comparatively gradual tempo of Huawei’s partnership with Leica, this stuff will be gradual to bear fruit. So maybe the OnePlus 10 and OnePlus 11 can be the actual check of this three way partnership.

At the identical time, OnePlus is pooling photographic assets with its sister model Oppo. In reality, of the two, OnePlus appears to have been pushed as the main camera-centric cellphone model this yr. That’s a big growth provided that Oppo’s model is synonymous with the time period “digicam cellphone” in a lot of its adverts throughout Asia.

High-quality cellular imaging is one among a small variety of remaining justifications for a $1,000 smartphone, as evidenced by Samsung’s present flagship and its spectacular quad-camera setup. And so, if OnePlus is about on making a reputation for itself in the tip-top premium section, it has to nail images subsequent yr and yearly after. The firm has made strides in the direction of that aim over the previous twelve months, however its continued success in 2022 and beyond will depend upon catching as much as Samsung and Huawei in telephoto images, the place it at the moment lags behind.

OnePlus additionally faces challenges in the U.S., the place its new telephones aren’t but licensed for 5G on one among the three main carriers. And OnePlus’s newest units are comparatively costlier in the states, too, with the 9 Pro lining up proper subsequent to the lately discounted Galaxy S21 Ultra. (Compare that to the identical cellphone’s £829 beginning value in the UK.) These teething issues will must be ironed out if OnePlus is to keep away from dropping its foothold in the U.S. market.

Nevertheless, OnePlus has outlasted a lot of its extra established opponents over the previous seven years and has its strongest high-end lineup ever with the 9 collection. As it branches out into smartwatches, headphones, and different devices, it should be fascinating to see how the story continues.

dial your 9 as much as 11

First 9 things to do with the OnePlus 9 or 9 Pro

After the pleasure of ordering your new cellphone subsides, you continue to have the thrill of setting it up and customizing it simply the approach you prefer it. Here are the first 9 issues you need to do with the OnePlus 9 or 9 Pro when you get ahold of one among these sizzling new telephones.