Crazy Phones: OnePlus won't make a mid-range phone until at least 2021

Wednesday, 30 May 2018

OnePlus won't make a mid-range phone until at least 2021

It looks like you won't be able to buy a follow-up device to 2015's OnePlus X, or at least not until 2021.

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has told Gadgets 360 the company intends to only offer one flagship device at a time for the next three years, following the release of the OnePlus 6.

That means the company has no intention of revealing a second mid-range phone alongside future flagship handsets. That has been the situation since June 2016 when Lau confirmed to TechRadar the company didn't plan to make a OnePlus X2, but now he has confirmed it's still the case.

Currently OnePlus ensures stock is depleted for models at the end of the six month life cycle before releasing a new product, and the company intends to keep doing that.

For three more years

Lau explained, “The feedback is very much 'we want to have the latest device’, and there’s not a lot of community giving feedback ‘we would have an interest or a demand in being able to purchase an older device'.

“Another key issue with this is that we very much have a focus and a commitment to not dropping prices across the lifecycle of a device. That would then very much be a strange situation if you were to introduce a new device, which would be close to the price of the former device, but they are roughly at the same price point.

"Then you would likely have no one going for the older device.”

OnePlus operates on slim profit margins and has a lot of factors to consider when pricing up its new phones, so it makes sense the company wants to keep focusing on the flagship level for the next few years.

Lau also explained how he believes the notch on the front of phones such as the OnePlus 6 will gradually start to slim down over phone generations with the aim of a full-screen experience in the future.

To achieve that, Lau thinks we'll see the introduction of in-display cameras to allow for selfies without a notch at the top of your screen.

Yesterday we heard about an always-on display mode for the OnePlus 6 that was removed at the last moment before release to ensure the phone had suitable battery life.