OnePlus has carved out a nice piece of the global smartphone sales pie with devices packed with top-tier specs and beating the competition with lower prices. While that second point hasn’t been as much of a factor recently as prices have crept up, the company has found ways to continue offering exceptional experiences.
There have been bumps along the road as the company matured and worked to find its footing in a space with ever-increasing competition. Yet, we seem to be in a place where OnePlus has found its groove since the OnePlus 11, releasing some of the best Android smartphones, as well as the OnePlus Pad and OnePlus Watch 2.
As we race toward the end of 2024, it has me thinking that 2025 could be the year OnePlus hits the next tier of Android OEMs.
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Trending in the right direction
And I love it
For as much as I liked the OnePlus 11, the OnePlus 12 checked even more boxes for me. I can’t pick a singular feature or function of the phone that particularly stood out to me, which I see as a good thing; it has been such a complete device, from performance to design, and I love the Flowy Emerald color. Plus, the OnePlus 12 was the first phone from the OEM where the camera system wasn’t a caveat.
I wasn’t too surprised that OnePlus could produce a great slab phone, but what did surprise me was how complete its first folding phone was in the OnePlus Open. I was, and still am, super impressed with it every time I use it, and it’s still one of Android Police’s top picks for the best foldable phone. That said, it has been over a year since its release, and I’m now looking ahead to the OnePlus Open 2.
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Perhaps the most surprising device by OnePlus was the OnePlus Pad, which arrived in April 2023. The Android tablet breathed new life into the stagnant category by offering great performance, solid design, and an affordable price. It was replaced by the new OnePlus Pad 2 in August 2024, which introduced some great improvements and continues to show how the brand is working to evolve into a complete Android OEM.
As further proof that OnePlus has figured out what it’s doing, look at the OnePlus Watch 2, which succeeded when the OnePlus Watch failed. While I feel there is still plenty of work to do on the Watch 2 for me to consider it a top-tier Android smartwatch, it is still a great device, and the evolution from the first model is monumental. Now, with rumors about the OnePlus Watch 3 picking up, it’s another chance for the brand to establish a complete device ecosystem.
Potential derailment
I wish it didn’t worry me
I’ve been a fan of OnePlus since its first phone came out over a decade ago, but I didn’t get my hands on one of its devices until the OnePlus 7 Pro. At the time, OnePlus phones weren’t known for having great cameras, and I was a new parent at the time who needed a reliable camera. Even more so, you couldn’t get a OnePlus phone through a carrier, though the 7 Pro did make it to T-Mobile, providing me with my first opportunity to get one.
Yes, I was still getting my phone from my carrier back then, but not anymore, as OnePlus hasn’t offered its flagship phones through a carrier for a while now.
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Aside from completely deviating from the path it has been on for the past couple of years, the thing that I believe will keep OnePlus in the boutique or as an enthusiast-only brand is carrier availability, at least in the US. Unfortunately, consumers in the US won’t consider anything, mostly phones, from a brand they don’t know. Topping it off, most consumers in the United States are getting that info from the folks at their cell service provider.
If we don’t see OnePlus phones on the shelves at carrier stores, I’m afraid it may deter the brand from offering its suite of devices here in the US. That would be a shame as it would remove another option for consumers, and OnePlus phones and others have become some of the best around.
