OnePlus is the name that almost everyone has heard of. It is a company that is known for making cheap and powerful smartphones. Giving flagships a run for their money. However, not many know the true story of how OnePlus grew so big.
The company's first smartphone, the OnePlus One made quite a splash in the tech community. However, OnePlus wasn't a popular brand back then, but a lot has changed since then. Here is a brief history of the OnePlus smartphone lineup.
OnePlus One
OnePlus One is the company's very first smartphone. It was called the "Flagship Killer" by the company at the time of the launch and had gained a lot of popularity in every market it was made available in. This was because the device came with good specifications and build quality, while at the same time keeping the price low. Announced back in April 2014 it was priced at $299 and $349 for 16GB and 64GB storage variants. The smartphone came with a sandstone finish back, which was great to use and ran the then famous Cyanogen Mod on the top of Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat.
This smartphone features a 5.5-inch full HD display, along with 3GB of RAM and 16GB/64GB of storage. It was powered by the Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor. For the optics, it had a single 13-megapixel camera on the back. A 5-megapixel selfie camera was also included. It sported a 3,100mAh battery for all-day usage.
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OnePlus 2
OnePlus 2 arrived almost a year later in July of 2015. The handset looked quite familiar to the OnePlus One. One major change was the addition of a fingerprint sensor on the front on the bottom bezel which also acted as a home button. This time it was a little more refined over its predecessor.
OnePlus 2 shipped with Android 5.1 Lollipop based OxygenOS on top of it. During the life of this phone, OnePlus and Cyanogen decided to terminate their cooperation due to legal issues. This forced OnePlus to design their own skin, which was closer to stock Android and sported a lot of customisations borrowed directly from Cyanogen Mod. Luckily for OnePlus, OxygenOS ended up being a truly compelling skin for Android. It featured a 5.5-inch full HD display, 3GB/4GB of RAM and 16GB/64GB of storage. The phone was powered by the Snapdragon 810 processor coupled with a 3,300mAh battery.
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OnePlus X
OnePlus X was launched just three months after the OnePlus 2 in October 2015. The device was supposed to be what the S10e and the iPhone 11 are to the S10 and the iPhone 11 Pro. A cheaper alternative to the bigger and better flagship. It sported a glass sandwich design, which has become synonymous with premium phones nowadays.
It shipped with Android 5.1 Lollipop with the company's own OxygenOS skin on top of it. It featured a 5.0-inch full HD display, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It sported the processor and cameras from the OnePlus One and a smaller batter of only 2525mAh. This helped bring down the cost of the smartphone, but considering it sported the previous year's hardware, so the low price didn't help the smartphone sell very well. It was touted as one of the failures of the company.
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OnePlus 3
OnePlus 3 launched back in July 2016 and was the first smartphone by the company to sport a metal unibody design. It features a single rear camera with a big camera bump, the front-facing fingerprint sensor running with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Oxygen OS skin on the top. It also brought in 'Dash Charging', which was one of the fastest at the time and is still one of the most powerful charging standards.
It retained a 5.5-inch full HD display size from the OnePlus 2, but this time around the company added an AMOLED display. It helped improve the display quality. The OnePlus 3 also shipped with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of non-expandable storage, which was considered to be a lot of RAM back in 2016. It features a 16-megapixel camera on the back and is fueled by the Snapdragon 820 processor. All of this is backed by a 3,000mAh battery.
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OnePlus 3T
After unveiling the OnePlus 3 in July 2016, the company launched the OnePlus 3T in November 2016. It looked almost the same but bought in a new color variant, a more powerful processor (the Snapdragon 821), a larger battery, and several other minor improvements.
The 'T' variant was essentially an iteration over its previous smartphone polishing it and improving it just a bit. This was the first time a company a new flagship just 6 months after unveiling its flagship. The OnePlus 3T was so successful that the company decided to launch a 'T' iteration to their every smartphone since then. The OnePlus 3T was what really made the OnePlus famous.
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OnePlus 5
The OnePlus 5 was announced back in June 2017. It looked almost similar to the OnePlus 3T from the front, however, the back was redesigned. It introduced two horizontally aligned rear cameras. The design looked almost similar to the iPhone 7 Plus launched couple of months back. The company faced a lot of criticism from the fans due to this.
The OnePlus 5 is made out of metal, and it features a 5.5-inch full HD Optic AMOLED display the same as its predecessor. The device is powered by the Snapdragon 835 64-bit octa-core processor, coupled with 6GB and 8GB RAM variants. Those two variants came with 64GB and 128GB of storage, respectively. This was the first device to sport 8GB of RAM.
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OnePlus 5T
After the criticism faced by the company on the OnePlus 5, the company almost redesigned the OnePlus 5T for its launch back in November 2017. The company introduced an 18:9 aspect ratio display and decreased the bezels for a more prettier look. This meant moving the fingerprint sensor on the back which was a trade-off people had to live with at that time to decrease the bezel size. OnePlus was one of the early adopters of this display aspect ratio.
The OnePlus 5T includes the very same processor that was utilized in the OnePlus 5, the Snapdragon 835, while the phone also comes in with the same RAM and storage setup as its predecessor. A 3,300mAh battery powered the smartphone.
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OnePlus 6
The OnePlus 6 arrived in May 2018 with even thinner bezels than the OnePlus 5T and a big ugly Notch. The back was redesigned with the vertical dual camera setup with a fingerprint sensor below it. It also brought back in the glass sandwich design which almost all phones have moved on to that time.
The OnePlus 6 features a 6.28-inch fullHD+ display with the same form factor thanks to the Notch to decrease the bezel size. It came with 6GB / 8GB of RAM and 64GB / 128GB / 256GB of storage. The phone was powered by the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core processor, and a 3,300mAh battery. It also kept the 3.5mm jack which at that time was something almost everyone was keen on killing.
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OnePlus 6T
OnePlus 6T was announced in October 2018, only five months after the OnePlus 6, and it offers an extremely similar design to the OnePlus 6. The one-design differences were the fingerprint sensor at the back was removed and replaced with an under the display fingerprint sensor and a really small waterdrop styled Notch. This is the design which was extremely famous and used by a lot of other companies too. However, this was the most expensive smartphone by the company to date, and the fans were getting scared of how expensive the OnePlus smartphones are getting. Also, it killed the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The OnePlus 6T includes a larger 6.41-inch fullHD+ display, while it arrived in 6GB / 8GB RAM variants. It came with a larger 3,700mAh unit. The device ships with Android 9 Pie out of the box. The limited-edition McLaren Edition sported 12GB RAM, first of its class.
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OnePlus 7
The OnePlus 7 series was announced back in May 2019. The company decided to introduce two smartphones instead of one this time. OnePlus 7 is the smaller and cheaper of the duo, it was the successor to the One Plus 6T. It sported a more refined design and internals and a cheaper price tag which gave the fans a sigh of relief.
It was powered by the Snapdragon 855 64-bit octa-core processor coupled with 6/8GB RAM and shipped with UFS 3.0 flash storage. Android 9 Pie comes pre-installed on both devices, along with OnePlus OxygenOS 9.5.
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OnePlus 7 Pro
OnePlus 7 Pro was the bigger and better of the OnePlus 7 series duo launched in May 2019. It sported a bezel-less notch-less display, pop-up selfie camera, triple rear camera setup, and a 90Hz refresh rate display. However, it costed almost 30% more than the OnePlus 6T which was definitely proof that the company was targetting the premium smartphone segment.
It was powered by the Snapdragon 855 64-bit octa-core processor coupled with 6/8GB RAM and shipped with UFS 3.0 flash storage. Android 9 Pie comes pre-installed on both devices, along with OnePlus OxygenOS 9.5.
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OnePlus 7T
The OnePlus 7T was announced recently in September 2019. The phone arrived as an upgraded variant of the OnePlus 7, and it may be the most upgraded T series smartphone till date. The OnePlus 7T comes with an upgraded processor, display, charging, and cameras, compared to its predecessor. It sported a debatable camera unit, with a horizontal triple-camera enclosed in a circular unit.
The device features a 6.55-inch fullHD+ Fluid AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. With the Snapdragon 855 Plus fuels under the hood and 3,800mAh battery powering it, this is one of the most powerful smartphones for the price.
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OnePlus 7T Pro
The smartphone is touted to release in October of 2019. As of writing this article, the smartphone was not yet released. It will be most probably a minor improvement over the OnePlus 7 Pro. We could see a McLaren edition of the same as we did for the OnePlus 6T.
