How does everyone feel about Oneplus phones?

Previously on Lemmy: Motorola

Maybe we should just make this a series now.

Never settle for Oneplus.

I've always felt that Oneplus is a brand that I should like on principle of having clean software with barebones but powerful hardware, but in reality, every single Oneplus phone I've seen always had some sort of big BUTs attached to them, so buying Oneplus always feels like settling.

Take the Oneplus One for example, that sandstone textured cover was THE most creative material I felt a phone could have had, and I'm honestly shocked nobody has ever done it again. But along with that of course, comes with the cringy "smash your phone" marketing campaign, the half-hearted attempt to distance themselves from their parent company Oppo, the whole software mess with CyanogenMod/OxygenOS, etc.

Had a Oneplus 3T for a while, same deal: Great phone when it works as intended, but they raised their price without making the phone better, and the inexplicable random restarts/battery drain is so irritating, never had another phone that does that.

Recently they've dropped all pretense of not being Oppo and abandoned their core audience, choosing to have the "courage" to drop the headphone jack. Mediocre Chinese phones with flagship specs are a dime a dozen, I just don't see a reason to buy them anymore.

verysoft,

They used to be great value, good specs for affordable prices, then slowly turned into premium shit when they got more popular. Same happening with Nothing now.

HidingCat,

Exactly that, they were great until 4 or 5, I think. Then they became premium. It's kinda a version of enshittifcation for hardware makers: Pander to enthusiast community at the start, get some marketshare and mindshare, then go premium and raise prices, abandoning the original group of fans.

ArghZombies,

Used to be high spec and a low price. Now they're average spec and an above-average price.

Nowadays phones are all pretty similar in price and spec, so I'd rather get a slightly more expensive phone from a company with proven, accessible warranty.

YoFrodo,

What do you use now, or what would you recommend instead?

ArghZombies,

I have a Samsung at the moment and have had Samsung's for 6 or 7 years. I've only had minor issues with a few of them, and I've been able to visit a Samsung retailer / service centre to actually get them looked at in person.

So, proven reliability for my experience and ability to get it looked at in person is something that means I'm happy to pay more for the phone than I would be for other brands.

demonmariner,

I’m using a OnePlus 6 right now. I’ve never had a problem, and I’ll probably stick with the brand.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

I think Oneplus is a proven company, it's just that they've always proved themselves to be mediocre.

applejacks,
@applejacks@lemmy.world avatar

I used to love them.

I "won" the opportunity to get the OnePlus One.

Was such a great device, I love flashing ROMs on it, even got the bamboo back.

Pretty much every device since the first has been just a slow transition into being your average phone OEM.

They are nothing special anymore.

And now that other OEMs have less crappy skins (and OnePlus' skin got worse) there's really no reason to buy them anymore.

Kinda sad.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Kinda like reddit, I suppose.

Dark_Blade,
@Dark_Blade@lemmy.world avatar

You summed up my feelings on OnePlus perfectly. There was a time I liked their phones (purely because they offered great hardware and a barebones Android experience) but then their devices progressively got worse in every single way. Now, not a single one of their overpriced phones is worth buying.

ljdawson,
@ljdawson@lemmy.world avatar

Pre ColorOS they were my goto. These days Pixel all the way.

Ragincloo,

I'm pretty happy with my 8. No issues really besides lacking a standard headphone jack, I lost the one it came with and just use Bluetooth though

unix_joe,

I owned a OnePlus One. Solid phone for the time. Sandstone back and degoogled CyanogenMod.

I got my wife the OnePlus X. Their first attempt at a premium phone. Buggy piece of shit crashed all the time. Google Keep would crash. Chrome would crash. This was reported by everyone, and instead of a fix, it was completely dropped by OnePlus after four months. Like, no updates or anything, because of an outdated chipset. No security patches or anything. Just pretend it never happened, sorry for your money. I sold both phones and went to iPhone.

OnePlus, the supposed best Android phone, sent me to Apple for like a half decade after that. And this was pretty early on in their game, like 2016 or so. I missed out on everything up until now, I have no point of reference on upside down displays and ColorOS vs OxygenOS or whatever. I’ve never been screwed over by trading in a phone to OnePlus and have them come back and take half the value back due to OLED burn-in, because I got away from OnePlus before any of this was even a thing.

Years later, I ended up back on Android and lo and behold, I have a OnePlus phone as a backup. Nord N300 5g or something like that. It came out a few weeks ago but I got it a little earlier than that due to some TikTok thing. It was cheap, it has a good camera, an LCD screen and Android 13. I like the OS better than stock Android (Nokia X20, XR20, Pixel 7 and FairPhone 4 for comparison). I know exactly what I have and I don’t expect much from it, so it is kind of not bad to use. Updates are decent, I’m on a May security patch. The software and overall experience is better than any of the recent Nokia’s I’ve owned (pure trash brand, don’t get me started).

So at the low end, it’s not a bad proposition. Really nothing bad to say about the new phone. It does what I need, has an SD card and 3.5mm jack and an LCD panel. Caveat this: I am not a premium phone user anymore (the last maxed out spec phone I got was a red iPhone 8+ in 2018), so I can’t compare OP11 or OP12 or whatever and won’t get anything with an OLED screen if I don’t have to.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Maybe we should do one on Nokia later too.

Venutianxspring,

I had a few Oneplus phones, but the 7 pro was my last of theirs. the 5 and 7 pro were phenomenal phones and the 7 pro is still one of my favorites phones ever. That being said, I didn’t like the direction they were going and the full merge with Oppo so that oneplus phones are basically stripped down version of Oppo phones, just soured me to them completely. Then you have their non-existent customer service reputation and they’ve been put on my list to avoid.

I was a huge fan of Oneplus, but will not buy any of their products again

jasparagus,

Agreed on the OP 7 Pro being pretty great, up until the last major android update that kind of killed it. I ended up having to switch it over to the Pixel Experience ROM for stability reasons.

danielfgom, (edited )
@danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

I don't like them. I think they are trying to be Apple and I hate that because it means higher prices, fewer features. No headphone jack, no SD card slot, no dual SIM, high prices.

That's not meant to be the Android way. Android is all about choice and options. That's what I love about Sony, and why I have a Sony Xperia 10iii - they give you more: award winning design, sleek form factor, fantastic cameras, headphone jack, SD card slot, dual SIM, waterproofing, easily removable SIM tray, notification LED, battery care, long battery life, great OLED screen, NFC, HiRes audio on wired and wireless, MP3 upscale to improve music quality on MP3 tracks, great video recording (up to 4K on mine), support app built in, fast stock launcher will little bloat. I'm even a fan of the dedication Google Assistant button and use it all the time.

And the price was great because I got it on sale for just €350.

That's how Android should be: options, choice, value for money

Edit: I forgot to mention that Sony allows unlocking the bootloader if you want to install other ROM's like Sailfish, Lineage etc

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

We'll do Sony some other time. Promise.

danielfgom,
@danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

😊

arcrust,

Ditto on that lol. I have the oneplus 11. Bought it right when it came out.

The camera is pretty good. I actually like the in screen fingerprint sensor. The rest of the phone is pretty trash. The UI changes they did feel, wrong. I don’t even know how to describe it. My unihertz looks better.

The biggest sin of oneplus tho, is nearly unfunctional bluetooth. It’s constantly dropping out on me. Android auto doesn’t work half the time. I used it for about 3 months and went back to my sony

Aceticon,

Is it just me that reads "award winning design" and instantly mentally classifies a post as "likely marketing"?!

WTF is the value for a customer if their phone's design has received awards?

I mean, does any genuine human out there choose the looks of their phone based on the awards it got rather than, you know, personally likeing said looks???!

Zaros,
@Zaros@lemmy.world avatar

I stopped reading out of habit as soon as I got to the "award winning design" and "form factor". Such marketing buzzwords are usually a good sign telling me that part of the text has no valuable information and should be skipped.

I hadn't even noticed this habit and I have no idea when it started. I wonder what other subconscious reading optimizations I've made, and how they might impact the type of information I read without me realizing it...

LigitalDogic,

I had a OnePlus 3T that lasted me 4 years. It served me well and I liked the design on hardware and software, but my biggest complaint was their way too overly aggressive killing of background apps. I remember numerous times where I would be listening to music and if I switched to another app it would kill my music after a few minutes. I guess it helped on battery benchmarks but the usability really suffered.
And by the time I was ready to get a new phone, they were just as expensive as everyone else without a clear vision or distinction to set them apart. I had also heard too many support issues to feel comfortable spending that much on a phone compared to the other options, so they ended up losing me as a repeat customer.
I remember being so excited after getting my 3T to introduce people to OnePlus as a great performance/software/price combo since they still weren’t that well-known outside of enthusiast communities at the time, and I was disappointed to see the direction they’ve ended up going.

I_Miss_Daniel,
I_Miss_Daniel avatar

I'm having a similar experience with my Realme x3 which I believe shares a lot of software with the OnePlus.

I need Facebook messenger for my work, and no matter what I do - even using LADB to uninstall Athena etc - it still gets killed randomly.

Only solution for now is to run Messenger Lite, which is also broken in that all links sent to it come up as attachment unavailable.

A shame as it's a great phone otherwise.

rem26_art,
rem26_art avatar

Man I loved the sandstone back on the OnePlus One. That was the only phone I'd ever used without a case for the entire time I had it. I also had a 3T and my dad currently has a 7. The 3T's camera stopped focusing after a couple of years and I had to replace the USB port on the One.

I haven't really kept up with phones that much recently (my Note 9's going strong still after a battery replacement, lol) so I don't really know much about OnePlus' current offerings.

HawkXero,
HawkXero avatar

I just moved away from my 7T onto a Pixel 7. I love my 7T. It was definitely my favorite phone. But it seems like things have changed lately and the newer OnePlus phones aren't what they used to be. I still use my 7T as a game and media player for when I'm chilling in bed.

jasparagus,

I did a similar 7 pro to 7 pro (OnePlus to Pixel) move. It was striking how much better the camera is, and at this point I'd be hard-pressed to go back to OnePlus. I had a OnePlus 3 before the 7 Pro and it also had a crummy camera. The Pixel software experience also feels a little more polished (but only just) and the voice recognition absolutely wipes the floor with the OnePlus.

soapyScooper,

Fully agree. I still have my 7T Pro, and I'm not looking forward to upgrading it when I have to! I loved when it was a simple upgrade on base android, but with the newer versions, it has veered away from that. I'm disappointed with the updates - I haven't done the latest update as lots of people are complaining that it's very buggy, and it doesn't look like they are going to update it again.

I don't think I'd go for a OnePlus again - I'd probably go with something more stock, with hopefully more reliable updates, like a Pixel.

MangoPenguin,
@MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

The Oneplus 7 series was the last one that seemed good. Newer models have worse cameras somehow too.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

More like "Hassel-BAD" am I right?

Hopfgeist,

Most of the OnePlus series, including older models, is fully supported by LineageOS, and unlocking the bootloader is straightforward. That were the most important reasons for me to go OnePlus. For me and my family there was nothing else comparably easily supported by Lineage with a good price/performance ratio. We currently use 6T and 8T models, that we bought used. The only downside for me is the lack of a notification light.

Nullpwn,

I'm using OP6 and for 2023 it's rocking like a brand new phone. Everything works exactly as I want and I rooted and installed AOSP 13 so I'm pretty much up to date, about the new ones I'm not quite sure what to say; far as I heard the new OnePlus is Nothing Phone

mudmaniac,

Got an OP6 back in 2019 and definitely has that new phone energy. Sadly I suffer from LinusDropItis and so my phone has developed a cracked corner that is now essentially a crack in the corner of my heart. Thinking about 11, but would rather stick with OP6 until the battery or screen goes. This warrior has lasted me longer than my last 3 phones combined. Carl Pei was 1/2 of the Oneplus founder's team together with Pete Lau. He left Oneplus/OPPO in 2020 and announced Nothing Phone in 2021. I just had my hands on a Nothing (1) a couple days back, and I really wanna like it, but the lights just seem too strange for me.

Nullpwn,

Honestly same, Nothing Phone looks amazing in photos but irl? I don't know men, I don't like alien lights at 3 am from Twitter but in the spectrum of new design, improvements and specifications per-total it's something new

julianh, (edited )

Got the 6 as well in 2018, and it also works like new. Honestly not sure what to get if it dies on me. Most modern $500 phones I've looked at have weaker specs.

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