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.

  • ArghZombies@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Demonmariner@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

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

  • verysoft@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • danielfgom@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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…

  • Dark_Blade@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Venutian Spring@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    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@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • Hopfgeist@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    1 year ago

    I’m still on a OnePlus 3 (literally replying on it).

    I like that I can just unlock the bootloader and flash LineageOS without any artificial restrictions. It gets annoying having to look for specific models of Moto that van be unlocked or hoping the one I get from Amazon is actually not from a carrier. OnePlus is pretty much a safe bet.

    Looking for a successor before this one gives up the ghost. Lol

  • applejacks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • tom@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I had a OnePlus 3t. The power button stopped working in the end, but it lasted a good five years and was fast enough, even at the end. The camera was awful from the beginning though. Like you say tough, the prices now are nothing special.

  • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Happy with mine. I had a 6, then had an 8 Pro for the last 3 years and literally just a week ago got the 11. People complain about this, that, the other but none of it bothers me. I like the software, I like the hardware.

  • trent@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Great thread. I’m currently on a OP8 and it’s done me alright, but my screen broke a few months ago so I’m gonna hijack this thread to ask for The Best Phone on the market under 1k right now. Ideally cheap (and rootable).

  • Awwab@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’m typing this from a 6t. No complaints with it so far, it’s far enough in that I need to replace the battery but that’s to be expected. The 6gb of ram has proved to be really helpful in ensuring that things always work and the dual sim has let me combine the work and personal phones into one.

    I know it’s long in the tooth so if anyone has some recommendations for a replacement that has dual sim and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg please reply!

  • unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • HawkXero@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • soapyScooper@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • jasparagus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.