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It's been a little over two weeks since Chinese phone maker OnePlus officially lifted the lid on its ninth smartphone.
After months of leaks and teasing, the flagship product of OnePlus 6T offered few surprises at its launch event in New York. We already knew that this player would have a built-in fingerprint reader and that it would not have a headphone jack. We did not know its price, but we knew it would probably be a lot cheaper than its competitors – and as we wrote at the time of the announcement, that turned out to be the case.
Using a sample of other recently launched phones, such as Samsung, Huawei and Apple, we have shown that while OnePlus phones have skyrocketed, their price has gone from less than $ 300 to about $ 550 today. They are still about 25 to 30% cheaper than their rivals in space. Thus, whatever the specifications, the OnePlus 6T still enjoys a very important competitive advantage in the field of high-end phones.
However, this is about to change.
Enter Xiaomi
Last week, Xiaomi launched its smartphone offensive in Western markets, starting with the UK. Historically, Xiaomi has focused on its China, a region of origin, and on other Asian markets, such as India, but has regularly deployed phones to new regions. , including Latin America. Northern Europe and East. The UK launch of its flagship Mi 8 Pro, among a handful of other low-end phones, precedes a wider push in Western Europe, and is also gearing up for the official launch of its first phones in the United States on next month.
The UK is the first market outside of China to get the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro. It meets all expectations for what we expect from phones nowadays. Unlike the standard, the device has a transparent glass bottom that allows you to see inside the phone, which is very neat in reality.
Above: Mi 8 Pro
But the thing that stands out the most is the price. The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro starts at £ 499 ($ 653), which is exactly the same price as the entry-level OnePlus 6T. It's clear that Xiaomi is serious about hurting OnePlus by targeting what matters most to many customers.
And this is perhaps indicative of what happened at OnePlus – it may be losing its competitive edge.
OnePlus 6T
After spending most of the week with the OnePlus 6T, there is no doubt that this is a charming phone: it displays a gigantic AMOLED screen of 6.41 inches, a larger battery of 3 700 mAh, a night-time camera mode similar to Night Sight mode. Google's Pixel Phones maintain the physical alert slider that lets you put your phone to sleep without taking it out of your pocket.
Above: OnePlus 6T
Image Credit: Paul Sawers / VentureBeat
Above: OnePlus 6T: Cursor Alert
Image Credit: Paul Sawers / VentureBeat
However, most of what exists on the OnePlus 6T is not particularly new in the grand scheme. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro certainly has its flaws, but it also has some truly remarkable features, such as the Sin City color-insulated cinema effect, a built-in wireless charger and a remarkable camera.
On the other hand, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a terribly wide notch that hides all your notifications in the status bar at the top. OnePlus took note of it and did its best to minimize the impact of its notch by offering a small drop-shaped cut that leaves plenty of time for alerts.
Above: OnePlus 6T: discreet notch
Despite these differences, both devices are actually high-end phones. All areas in which the OnePlus 6T is lower than the Huawei Mate 20 Pro can be countered by the price: the entry-level OnePlus 6T costs about half the price of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. And it was always the best argument of OnePlus's defense every time criticism was made against the specifications of its phones.
Now that Xiaomi gets into the fray, OnePlus has one less "ah but …"Trump in his sleeve.
Me too
Ignoring prices, what we saw last month in the world of high-end smartphones is a "me too" compliance that has led to a set of identical devices with notches, fingerprint readers at the same time. screen and no headphone jack.
Above: Where is the headphone jack? Oh … it's gone.
Image Credit: Paul Sawers / VentureBeat
CEO and co-founder of OnePlus, Pete Lau, previously said that one of the main reasons she had finally decided to remove the headphone jack was due to an informal survey done by the company. The poll found that 59% of his community already owned wireless headphones, a figure high enough to make him make the decision to remove the headphone jack. This meant that he could integrate a fingerprint reader into the OnePlus 6T's screen, while allowing a bigger battery.
That's fine, but a headphone jack can be a real competitive advantage, and OnePlus has gone to great lengths in the past to explain why it kept the 3.5mm hole in place on previous devices. Now, here we go.
My colleague Emil had written a few weeks ago that 2018 was the year in which OnePlus was starting to ignore his fans. There may be an element of truth in that, but what is clear is that it will have to regain its competitive advantage. Xiaomi is the price of OnePlus, while OnePlus is simultaneously compliant with questionable design decisions that have disrupted the industry in recent years.
Differences remain between all the phones mentioned here, but the gap is clearly narrowing. More importantly, it's getting harder and harder to choose an amazing OnePlus feature. This is a problem that society will have to tackle.
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