Okay, so before I start,
I'd like to say sorry for the shitty lights,
sorry for the shitty audio,
this is just going to be a quick,
kind of unstructured rant
and I didn't have time to set anything up.
So..
Whatever...
Let's just get going.
But, before I start talking,
You should probably make sure to watch the launch event of OnePlus,
and you should probably make sure to watch the special Verge video
that they released.. I think one day before the phone
was released,
because I'll be referencing both of them, quite a lot.
Links are in the description, check them up,
and let me start my rant!
So if you've watched both videos,
you've heard something along the lines of:
'Oh my God, We're just a small company,
we just want to create the perfect smartphone,
and then sell it cheaper than the competition.'
And that sounds like a great story, except for at this point,
all of those things are just carefully constructed myths,
that I think are designed to bend the truth a little.
Let's get the phone out of the way first:
It is basically just flagship Android specifications,
running pretty much Stock-Android on,
what looks to be an iPhone copy.
And all this is of course sold for a little bit less, than the competition.
It's fine.
I don't think anyone should get away with
copying something as thoroughly,
as this did to the iPhone in 2017.
I really hoped it would be past this point already,
but it did, and whatever... It's fine.
My problem is more with the hype,
that the company managed to create around this product, again.
So this hype is carefully manufactured,
and honestly, my regards to OnePlus for doing such an amazing job at it.
But I can't believe that you people,
the 'tech enthusiasts' and especially the tech media
are falling for the same stuff again, and again.
So OnePlus created a myth with the following components:
Them being a small, but apparently super agile company,
then, somehow magically, heroically never settling
while everyone else does,
then, somehow caring more about their consumers,
while apparently nobody else cares about consumers,
and then, selling their phones cheaper than the competition.
And I would like to deconstruct these myths,
and let me start with the first one:
Apparently, OnePlus is just a small company.
So, I remember when they first launched:
they had terrible customer service.
Truly, appalling customer service.
And the excuse was basically, something along the lines of:
'Oh, well, you know we're a small company,
well, that's just the way it is.'
When they had terrible marketing campaigns, like
when you have to smash your actual phone to maybe
get an invitation for their new phone, they were like:
'Oh, well-well, we're just small.'
And now, as the launched the OnePlus 5,
they anticipated in advance, that people will be
criticizing the company for not doing anything, amazingly new with the phone,
so they invited The Verge, to China,
and they got them to make an 8 minute video,
pretty much just explaining to The Verge, to the viewers of The Verge:
Why they shouldn't expect new features,
breakthrough new features like.. i don't know.. a bezel-less screen from the device.
(Source: The Verge) 'But OnePlus doesn't have the resources or
supply chain management of the bigger players.
So might not be able to secure the latest and greatest tech advancements
you might get from Apple or Samsung.
OnePlus isn't quite a start-up,
but it is tiny, compared to the likes of Samsung or Apple.'
(Back to TechAltar) Because OnePlus is small.
Essentially, throughout the history of OnePlus,
whenever something went wrong, or
whenever something didn't happen that should have happened,
Well, poor little OnePlus, they're small.
Now, if you don't know me or my background,
I actually worked for a company called OPPO.
Which is a tight to OnePlus in many, many different ways.
Now OPPO actually currently the world's fourth largest smartphone maker.
It actually sells more phones than companies like Xiaomi, LG, Sony,
or many others that you'd never consider to be a small company.
Now, I obviously can't just release inside-knowledge here,
but let me just remind you of a few publicly available, pieces of information that shows that those companys,
they work together.
Let's start with employees:
all of OnePlus' founding employees came from OPPO.
I actually worked with a couple of them, because they were still there when I joined the company.
All right, how about OnePlus' office
being in the same office building,
in Shenzhen, as OPPO's, just one floor below.
Or how about OnePlus' first phone looking nearly identical to
OPPO's phone back then.
Or how about DashCharging.
How can that it has the exact same properties as
OPPO's very own, very proprietary, patented,
secret, super important, super amazing
VOOC Charging Technology.
And I'll just stop there.
There are a ton of other reasons to think
that these companies work together,
but when you hear, that they actually share product designs,
and their most important technologies with each other,
you should know that
there is a pretty tight cooperation
between the two companies.
And so, the whole myth of OnePlus being this a small,
independent company, is just not true.
And even if it was, how long should a company get away
with being 'small' and 'young'.
Oneplus is actually releasing its 4th generation of products.
Now to give you some context, Xiaomi, the company
who OnePlus modeled its entire business around,
When they released the 4th generation of their products,
they became the largest smartphone maker in all of China.
So did Xiaomi, who by the way
didn't have big daddy OPPO standing over its shoulders,
ever use being 'small' or 'young',
as an excuse to get away with it?
I can't remember!
So the next part of the myth is that OnePlus,
somehow 'never settles' for good enough,
while apparently everyone else just does.
(Source: The Verge) 'There's a lot of companies on the market, that can make good products, and
if that were their goal, we don't need to be around
because this need can be fulfilled by many others.
But there's not a lot of people,
who are willing to go the extra mile,
and going from something good, to something great.
'Cuz oftentimes, it's very painful to make something,
is a lot of time debating it. And then, you have to re-do it over and over again.'
(Back to TechAltar) Never settle is pretty much their slogan, right?
I mean, i remember it was their founding mantra, that
they founded this company, because they wanted
to create an Android phone that wouldn't suck,
because all the other phones sucked.
So I imagine that with all this not settling
while everyone else was settling,
they would have created some amazing new technology,
that you know, none of those settlers could ever touch, right?
Quick reality check:
(Source: The Verge)
Wait. So in the same video,
they basically also say,
that they wait until companies like
Samsung make bezel-less screens a commodity,
until companies like Apple educate people on the
value of dual camera setups.
They take those things, they also take.. just for good measure an existing design from Apple,
and they'll sprinkle a little of.. You know two-year-old
OPPO breakthrough technology on top of it,
and they're done!
Okay, so maybe the Samsung's and the Apple's,
and OPPO's of this world are the companies who do most of the heavy lifting!
While OnePlus spends most of their time recycling the best ideas from last year,
and putting them together into a package,
and then pointing fingers at the big guys,
at the innovators, and complain that not all of their innovations always workout.
Well to me, that sounds like a bunch of settling.
Right. And the next part of the myth is that
OnePlus is an enthusiast brand,
and it cares more about its consumers than
all of 'the others'.
Look no further than the OnePlus 2. As soon,
as the phone didn't sell as well to enthusiasts
as the company was hoping for,
OnePlus simply bailed on it and switched to the OnePlus X.
As soon as the OnePlus X didn't sell as well to regular consumers,
as the company expected it to,
the company bailed on that, too.
Neither of these phones have released Android updates up to Nougat,
and I'm sure that's because users demanded not to have updates!
I mean any company who listens to their enthusiastic users,
would know that they don't want updates!
Or just think of the OnePlus 5.
I'm sure the company listened to its many forum and
social media users, and the one consistent feedback
they got from all of them was that they really liked their phones,
but they wished they looked a little bit more like iPhones.
Or maybe not.
I mean I think it is much more likely that OnePlus is actually
targeting the 5 at a whole new type of customer and so
suddenly, their existing customer base isn't as important anymore, as it was.
Which is fine.
Companies reposition themselves all the time,
and they listen to their existing consumers when it is
in their business interest to do so.
The difference is just that other companies don't try to convince you of the opposite.
And the last piece of the puzzle was that of an affordable phone,
and I remember when OnePlus launched, they were so cheap that
we all just decided that they basically sold their phone for half as much as the competition.
But is that still the case?
Every OnePlus flagship is more expensive than the previous one was.
And we've come to a point where even at the starting price,
the phone is at most maybe a hundred or two hundred dollars cheaper
than even the most expensive devices out there.
But the biggest difference is that a Galaxy S8,
or an iPhone 7 aren't your only options
for a premium device anymore.
Depending on where you live,
there are a bunch of different alternative to the OnePlus.
Just take a look at Xiaomi.
They actually kept their prices low, unlike OnePlus,
So now they're a whole lot cheaper than OnePlus!
So if anything, OnePlus is currently in the middle.
And that is not even considering
that premium phone makers actually drop the prices of their flagship phones over time,
while OnePlus usually keeps it pretty stable.
So I can for example right now buy the LG G6,
which is the company's flagship phone,
It's pretty much brand new,
its three months old,
I can buy it online, unlocked for 490 € here in Germany.
The OnePlus 5 will cost me 499.
So no, the OnePlus 5 just
isn't somehow magically affordable anymore.
So I think if you add all of those things together,
you will realize that OnePlus has created a sort of myth.
A reality distortion field.
Is the company really so small,
that we can't hold it accountable for any of its problems?
No.
Does the company never settle?
Hell no.
I think it settles all the time.
Does the company really care that much about its enthusiasts consumers?
I think only one it really means their business needs,
or OnePlus product really that affordable?
I think it all depends on how you count things!
I think it is time to realize that OnePlus
isn't this magical, small edgy startup that it wants you
to think it is.
It is just a smartphone maker that decided
to reuse last year's tech innovation
and with this generation even last year's design,
and then create a phone that it can sell a little bit cheaper than the competition.
And thats it!
It is this a fair business model?
I guess, apart from the copying, it probably is!
I mean the phones are fine, have no problem with those,
but the crazy amount of hype
as if this company was reinventing the tech industry,
I think it just needs to die.
And the really good place to start would be
for the media to stop drooling about OnePlus like they do.
Like for example not going to Shenzhen and then making an 8 minute ad,
that is disguised as a sort of special feature like The Verge did.
Come on, Verge. You have journalistic values, you can do better than this.
I mean, you could always trust The Verge to point out if something copied the iPhone,
But oh wait! Now they forgot.
Come on guys! See, just... just get over it. And you guys you the viewers,
the people, the tech enthusiasts, just don't give into the hype.
This is just a phone. This is just a phone company, and it just borrowed a little too much from another phone.
That's it!
This is the story.
If you like the phone, go ahead and buy it.
Over.. my rent is over. I guess thanks for watching, thanks to subscribe, like bye!
(Subtitle by.: Dominik Highlander)