Are OnePlus a Genuine Threat to the Market?

When it comes to thinking about technology, we all know the big brands that dominate the market. You can’t go far without coming across someone who has an iPhone or a Samsung smartphone, for example, such is the extent to which those two companies rule the roost.

You can still get devices made by companies such as Nokia, who were once the biggest around, but they don’t offer the same kind of brand recognition that they once did.

It means that customers looking for an alternative don’t have a heap of choices, but might OnePlus be a genuine threat to Apple and Samsung’s domination?

Who Are OnePlus?

Back in the December of 2013, Pete Lau and Carl Pei created a new company that was aimed at offering high-end smartphones for a cheaper price. The company that they launched was called OnePlus, with the first device that hit the market being known as the OnePlus One.

It ran Cyanogen as its operating system, essentially being an Android OS without a lot of the bloatware that you might have come to expect from something such as Samsung. Instead, the entire point was to keep things pared back and be much closer to the kind of experience that Google phones offer.

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Lau had previously been a Vice-President of Oppo, the Chinese consumer electronics organisation, and denied that OnePlus was a subsidiary of Oppo. Although there is no direct link to Oppo, OnePlus devices do use their manufacturing lines and part of the supply chain resources, with Oppo being a major investor.

What it is, however, and has been from the start, is a Chinese company that has its headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Lei’s job was to oversee the design and marketing of the products, which he continued to do until he left in order to found the company Nothing.

Great Phones

By the end of 2024, OnePlus had released the OnePlus 13, which is a phone that operates on the Android OS but continues to stick with the company’s idea of not putting too much bloatware on top of the operating system.

If you are an Android user, it is worth at least looking at OnePlus as a possible phone for you to use moving forward on account of the fact that they offer excellent value for money and tend to be much cheaper than the top-end models from companies such as Samsung. You are likely to enjoy a better user experience, just without the name recognition.

OnePlus have worked hard to ensure that their phones offer a genuine alternative to other Android-based smartphones, in being relatively cheap and yet still work brilliantly. You can still do things such as opt for a colour that you like, even if the number of colours available aren’t that numerous, whilst the battery life tends to be much more impressive than other smartphones.

The company has sent out cases with the phone too, meaning that you can get protection straight away and buy a case that you like more further down the line. Such is the nature of the phone that other companies might be forced to offer longer battery life to compete.

iPad Challenging Tablets

If you have used Android tablets before after previously having used an iPad, you will no doubt have felt that the entire experience was a little bit buggy. The problem is, Android users are generally doing so because they don’t want to get trapped into the Apple ecosphere, which means that pairing an iPad with their Samsung, OnePlus or other phone is being seen as a great big ‘no-no’.

The good news is that the OnePlus Pad 3, which is reasonably new on the market, is a decision that offers a genuine alternative to whatever device Apple has to offer, for a much cheaper price.

It is 5.97 millimetres thick and weighs a mere 675 grams, which is impressive for a device as powerful as the OnePlus Pad 3. The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor will be more than enough for the vast majority of tasks that you’re likely to put it through, whilst the battery will last all day and then some.

The 13.2-inch display has a 144Hz refresh rate, all with an eight-speaker array for top-quality sound. The price comes in at an extremely reasonable figure, which is why, as with other OnePlus devices, there is a genuine chance that this could be considered a threat to the big boys.