OnePlus died with a whimper, not a bang
OnePlus is dead – actually for real this time. It’s got me looking back on my experiences with the brand’s smartphones, the absolute roller coaster that it was, and how OnePlus briefly sparked joy in a way that no one else way, resulting in two of my favorite Android phones of all time. And dang it, I’m a little sad now.
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To quickly recap this week’s news, OnePlus is dead. At least in the US and Europe, that is. Oppo is pulling the plug and India is apparently next on the chopping block despite what OnePlus has said. Software updates will continue, but OxygenOS is going away and all OnePlus devices will move to ColorOS starting with Android 17.
- OnePlus officially shuts down in the US and Europe, but not India (yet)
- OnePlus will continue software updates, all devices move to ColorOS with Android 17
The writing has been on the wall here for a long time. The “enthusiast brands will betray you” video came true. OnePlus long ago abandoned its roots and effectively turned into Oppo for the rest of the world. As a result, many of the things everyone liked about OnePlus in the early days were diluted to the point of being borderline unrecognizable – remember how OnePlus started with CyanogenMod (aka enhanced stock Android) before turning into Oppo’s clone? Those were the days, and they’re long gone.
There were some highlights, and they’ll vary from person to person. Some adored OnePlus’ hardware, others the software.
For me, what I loved and will miss about OnePlus boils down to two releases in particular, both during the little hot streak that I’d hoped would reignite OnePlus as a brand – womp womp.
The OnePlus Open was, and frankly still is, one of the best foldables ever released. At the time it was on the absolute bleeding edge of hardware, offering a form factor that was thin enough without sacrificing battery capacity or even camera hardware – I’d argue the Open’s camera still outclasses Samsung’s latest foldables. It also brought some new ideas to life, such as “Open Canvas” which lives on in Oppo’s foldables, and is still the best way to multitask on a foldable screen. The whole idea there is to pretend there’s more screen than there actually is, and let the user quickly swap back and forth between apps. It’s brilliant, and while Android has implemented a version of this, but it’s not quite the same.
Close behind that is the OnePlus 13.
For the first time in roughly a decade, this is a device where OnePlus convinced me they could build an inherently good smartphone. Years of missteps on software, cameras, pricing, or any other number of factors always left OnePlus smartphones in this weird spot where I never preferred to use them over others. But the OnePlus 13 really changed my mind.
The OnePlus 13 was really just a winner across the board. Absolutely stellar battery life that, even now, no other Android flagship in the US can match. Excellent performance and thermal management, with the Oppo-fication of OxygenOS in a pretty good spot prior to everyone racing to copy Apple’s Liquid Glass. Shockingly great cameras that had an actual opinion and some life to them, all at a time where my usual Pixel was just draining the life out of every shot. And, to top it all off, hardware that both looked and felt incredible.
As I said in my review, this is the one that finally lived up to the whole “Never Settle” mantra.
There are other highlights over the years. The OnePlus 7T stands out to me as a good memory, as does the OnePlus 3. But these two in particular really hit the nail on the head. One last hurrah, you could say, as Oppo later ended up keeping its increasingly excellent foldables to itself, while the OnePlus 15 was a noticeable downgrade in everything but battery life. Really, the OnePlus 13 was the end of the OnePlus we wanted to love as everything quickly started going downhill quickly after.
And now it’s just over. No final sendoff, nothing to really “end” the brand’s legacy. Just a flagship that was widely dismissed as a misfire.
This is how OnePlus ends; “not with a bang, but a whimper.”
The writing has been on the wall for years. OnePlus was constantly stepping further and further out of the spotlight, and the US, the one thing that made OnePlus stand out amongst Oppo’s other brands, was less and less of a priority – no one needed a sloppy AI to confirm it, but as the signs became all the more clear, we were always headed for this outcome.
So, RIP OnePlus.
As the US market for Android phones looks bleaker than ever, I’ll certainly miss OnePlus, especially following that hot streak between the Open and the 13.
What do you think of the shutdown? Do you still use a OnePlus device?
