OnePlus, the sub-brand of Oppo is well known for providing powerful devices at the cost of mid-rangers. The usage of Qualcomm's flagship SOC and their proprietary charging technology known as Dash Charging have always been their main selling point. The OnePlus One debuted way back in 2014 paved the way for them in terms of hype since at that time it offered flagship specs for just about $280 or Rs. 19000 which was insane considering the tier 1 brands offered such specs at a pricing of above Rs. 40000. Since then there have been many ups and downs for them surrounding the hype however one parameter has always seen a rise and that is the Pricing.
OnePlus ONE
Recently OnePlus announced the 5th iteration (excluding the T and X series) known as the OnePlus 6 (they skipped the 4 hence its 6 now). The OnePlus 6 has all the 2018 features inherited from Apple i.e the notch however they have luckily retained the headphone jack. It comes with a 6.28 inch Optic AMOLED display with 19:9 aspect ratio, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SOC, 6/8GB RAM with upto 256 GB storage along with 3300 mAh battery and dash charging. The rear houses 16+20 MP sensors and the front houses a 16MP sensor within the notch. No doubt, it is a flagship product with top - Notch (ahem!!) specs however here we will be taking a look at the pricing and product trend that OnePlus has resorted to, since the beginning.
As said earlier, OnePlus is a sub-brand of Oppo and they do share many resources with each other such as the Dash charging dubbed from Oppo's Vooc charging technology and even the design elements. Ultimately, Oppo has always resorted to pricing their products much higher which kept them in all together a different league. Anyways coming back to OnePlus, the 'One' did shake the market and proved to be a gateway for many other Chinese brands too since Indian market was seen as an opportunity. Just a year earlier, Xiaomi had debuted with their Mi3 in India - no doubt it was a grand success and the Mi4 also retained the hype. The OnePlus One faced a direct competition from Xiaomi's Mi4 which also housed similar specs like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SOC and 3 GB RAM.
OnePlus TWO
After the success of OnePlus One, the hype for the next iteration was real which lead to the OnePlus 2 to be unveiled. The device was priced at Rs.22999 which is about $340. Here, it can be seen that there is an increment of Rs. 4000 from the predecessor. Well!! OnePlus did strike an opportunity through HYPE to get their profits. Unfortunately, the Snapdragon 810 powering the device was notorious for many reasons which lead them to underclock it and hence was not well received among the critics in the tech world. Ultimately, the hype was slightly cold. Now, it was time for them to get back and mould a device that would be a breakthrough. During this time, they also announced the experimented OnePlus X which had flagship grade specs of the year earlier. With the X they tried to change the material to Glass making it fragile. The device was not very well received ultimately making them realize to stop the X series and focus on just 1 device a year which ultimately saw contradiction with the 'T' series i.e 3T and 5T.
OnePlus 3/3T
The OnePlus 3 came with a bang since it was indeed a complete phone from OnePlus after the OnePlus 2 however this time the pricing started from Rs. 27999 which is a full 9000 rupees hike from the first iteration. This device made use of metal and indeed had a great industrial design which was simplistic yet unique. The device was received very well which again raised the bar for hype. Next, within a few months, OnePlus announced an updated version with higher resolution front camera, bigger battery and the Snapdragon 821 SOC replaced the Snapdragon 820. This device was dubbed as the OnePlus 3T which officially made them to focus on not one but two devices in a year. The 3T was priced slightly higher at Rs. 30000.
Then came the OnePlus 5 within about 7 months of 3T's release and this time OnePlus shared the design with Oppo's R11 which ultimately took inspiration from the iPhone 7 Plus. Ultimately, there were many allegations and critics complaining about the design being copied. However, the OnePlus 5 came with its own share of problems since the screen showed a Jelly like effect on scrolling which was ultimately touted to the screen which was placed upside down to what it should have been. Anyways the OnePlus 5 was priced at Rs. 32999 which is a full Rs. 4000 increase from the 3. Ultimately, the 5T also got announced by the end of 2017 with different secondary camera utility at the rear and a larger screen along with 18:9 aspect ratio. The rear design was refreshed since the fingerprint sensor was placed to the rear. This time OnePlus decided to maintain the pricing at Rs. 33000 for the base 6-64 variant.
From here we can conclude that the once affordable FLAGSHIP KILLER has actually Killed the affordablity although no doubt they do provide better value for money and offering than most other brands. It can be seen that the overall hike in pricing from the OnePlus One to the 5T is Rs. 14000 within 4 years and with the release of the OnePlus 6 at Rs. 35000, the gap has further widened to Rs. 16000. Ultimately, we can assume that the 6T, if it ever comes should be priced the same as the 6 or slightly higher and the next iteration i.e 7 can be priced much higher since the 6 itself misses on many features.
OnePlus 6
The OnePlus 6 has no wireless charging inspite of having Glass at the rear. Usually brands do a material change from metal to Glass in order to incorporate wireless charging for e.g LG, HTC however here they could have stick to metal for better grip if they were not into adding wireless charging capability. Also, OnePlus claims that the 6 is splash proof that means it has no official IP rating. Probably that's reserved for the 'T', although we cannot confirm yet. The graph below should provide a clearer picture of the pricing of every OnePlus phone till date.
This analysis was done to provide insight into various trends including pricing that OnePlus has implemented. OnePlus as a brand has not always been into good books since they were accused of tampering with the benchmarks i.e boost the parameters for higher score which was misleading also their initial devices suffered from lack of updates rather Android upgrades. Anyways, we are not here to rant about the pricing trends or design choices of OnePlus yet the analysis was important to predict the future trends or at least guess as to what will be the next step. Like most brands they have also used the increased pricing strategy (of course we do consider that the manufacturing cost can be higher each year) like Samsung or any other Tier 1 brands however they have always been within the optimum range like for Samsung the S5 was priced at Rs. 51000 and the S9 is priced at Rs. 58,000 which is just a Rs. 7000 increase as against Rs. 16000 considering OnePlus. Similarly, Honor has been into pricing its devices aggressively and have always hovered around the Rs. 30,000 mark. This implies that the pricing strategy used by OnePlus is exponential.
What do you feel about OnePlus as a brand and even the newly launched OnePlus 6 ? Is it worth the Rs. 35000 or will you prefer an alternative ? Do let us know.
Images taken from Wikipedia and OnePlus's official website except the pricing chart which is prepared by us. Do remember that we have considered the pricing of all the base variants at launch.