OnePlus today is not where it was a few years before. I can definitely think of the OnePlus 7 series as the peak for OnePlus. In terms of innovation, and design, the OnePlus 7 Pro was excellent, and way ahead of competition. Then came the OnePlus 8 series, and the first instances of green line issues. No one expected this from OnePlus. It didn’t just affect the OnePlus 8 series, but also the OnePlus 9 series and the OnePlus 10 Pro. OnePlus has addressed the issue headon, and did something no brand did to resolve it. OnePlus now offers lifetime warranty on displays, and if there’s any green line issue, the change will be completely free. This is cool. Along with it, the recent OnePlus devices don’t even get the green line issues, which is another good thing.
OnePlus dropped the ball for a few years in between, but the company started picking back up again with the OnePlus 12 series. I am not saying the OnePlus 11 wasn’t good, but the OnePlus 12, now that’s a phone I can still work well with in 2026. Then came the OnePlus 13 series, which is also just excellent. OnePlus 15, again, good.
When the green line issues started popping up, that eroded customer trust in the brand. OnePlus started out as the flagship killer, and that’s what made it different from the competition. The company truly embodied the ‘Never Settle’ spirit. Over the years, as what naturally happens with corporates, OnePlus also had to distribute focus, and expand offerings in the market to garner a larger share. Thus came the Nord devices. Now, Nord promised a more affordable entry to the OnePlus ecosystem, but it didn’t embody the ‘Never Settle’ spirit, at least not for the first few years. The OnePlus Nord 4 and Nord 5 are excellent devices, but I can’t say the same for the Nord devices that came before these.
The initial Nord devices also contributed to the erosion of a great premium brand. Amidst all this, over the years, OnePlus did one thing right – focus on software. The hardware can come and go with different generations, but software, now that’s something people interact with every day for hours. So getting software right is very important for every brand. OnePlus managed to do this. The OxygenOS is simply my favourite operating system (OS). It is smooth, powerful, gives you control, and also integrates AI (artificial intelligence) brilliantly.
I think OnePlus has got many things right over the last two to three generations of its flagship phones – display, processor, software, battery, performance, and design. However, one thing which has seen a slight miss with the OnePlus 15 especially is the camera. The OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 13 have excellent cameras. The OnePlus 15 drops the ball slightly. But that’s alright. OnePlus is trying to find its own indentity back again. The partnership with Hasselblad was dropped. Now, the focus is on using proprietary software and image processing engine. This will take some time to pick up, but the company has definitely shown its potential in the past to get it right. So we believe, over time, OnePlus will make a comeback, and would become the Android king in India.
Regardless of the missteps the company took in the last years, OnePlus still has a very strong and active community in India. This community will also grow in European and North American markets in the coming years. So it will be exciting to see what OnePlus does with the OnePlus 16.
