OnePlus Builds The Ecosystem

OnePlus didn’t have any hardware surprises at today’s summer launch event – the Nord 4, Tablet 2 and Watch 2R and Buds 3 Pro were all officially revealed in advance of the show. But what was interesting was OnePlus commitment to an ecosystem of affordable products. OnePlus might have started out with “flagship killer” phones but we’re beginning to see a ecosystem to rival Samsung. Of course, I don’t think OnePlus are going to start selling fridges and washing machines, but for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and earbuds they’re doing a pretty good job of joining the dots. As is de rigueur for today, Nord 4 and Pad 2 will feature “AI” (though I’m still unconvinced that AI does anything useful for anyone normal).

Milano, Italy, hosted the Summer Launch Event, opening with Tuomas Lampen, head of Business Strategy in Europe, revealing the Nord 4 smartphone. It’s priced at £429 / €499 for the 12 GB + 256 GB and £529 / €599 for the 16 GB + 512 GB version and there are some discounts, trade-ins and gifts available at launch. Full specs are over on the web site but the aluminium unibody really makes it stand out from the current crop of glass phones.

Available in three colourways, or Nordtones as OnePlus now brands them, Mercurial Silver is the one to get. Apparently it takes 12 mins to laser engrave the case for that scalloped look. Performance-wise the Nord 4 is running a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3, which will outperform a top-end phone from 2022 (8 Gen 1). Charging the battery from 1 to 100% takes only 28 minutes and there’s Battery Health Magic to keep the battery in good shape for at least four years.

James Paterson, Global PR, demonstrated the Nord 4’s Aqua Touch in an artificial rainstorm and fortunately he was in a raincoat as it got pretty wet. Aqua Touch is a feature that allows the phone to respond as if the screen was dry rather than being covered in rain drops. It’s perfect for playing Pokemon Go in bad weather, which is most of the time in the British Isles.

The Nord Buds 3 Pro were next on stage. Priced at £79 / €79 / $79.99, these earbuds have 49 dB active noise cancellation and pair well with other OnePlus phones and tablets. They come in a neat pebble-style charging case with an overall battery life time of 20 hours with ANC on and 44 hours with it off. Two colourways offer Starry Black and Soft Jade.

The OnePlus Pad 2 brings us back to flagship killing with a new tablet built round the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. By all accounts, the original OnePlus Pad and the newer, Go, have been successes for the company. The new Pad 2 is very much in the same vein as its predecessors with the centrally positioned rear camera. Coming in at £499 / €549 / $549, this is an impressive price point for a latest gen chipset (cf Samsung Tab S9 FE+). It’s a 3K 7:5 ratio 12.1″ screen with Dolby Vision and six speakers round the edges for great sound. The Pad 2 has the multitasking Open Canvas from the OnePlus Open baked, which is good for productivity and upgrades to the keyboard and stylus enhance the tablet’s usefulness. There’s tight integration between the Pad 2 and OnePlus smartphones.

Finally, the OnePlus Watch 2R took to the stage. It’s an evolution of this year’s Watch 2 with an aluminium (rather than steel) which makes it about 25% lighter which is handy for a big watch like this. It’s in the style of a super compressor dive watch with two crowns on the right hand side and it’s swimming pool safe. The 2R comes in at £249 / €279 / $229. I like it. As you’d expect, there’s a complementary app to record your activity.

That’s the Summer Launch Event in a nutshell and I think you should be able to see how OnePlus is building that ecosystem to compete with the likes of Google, and Samsung. Yes, it’s a form of lock-in but it’s also productivity enhancing and it looks to have much to offer. Every device competes well on value with devices from the competition and with OnePlus’ commitment to updates for many years, that value will be maintained.

You can watch whole event here – the show starts 5 minutes in.