OnePlus has not been making Android phones for a long time, but during the four years it has been there, they always come with problems. The icing on the cake: a hack aimed at corporate customers' credit cards. Is it time to stop trusting a company with such low standards?
What is OnePlus?
It was founded four years ago - at the end of 2013. OnePlus is a subsidiary of Chinese electronics maker Oppo. The original idea of the company was admirable: “to make smartphones with high quality accessories and features without high prices.
But it seems the company has got it back.
For the most part, OnePlus makes good smartphones. They are packed with excellent hardware and they generally have good reviews. But the problem isn't the phones, it's the company itself.
April 2014
The first OnePlus phone (OnePlus One) was released in April of 2014, just four months after the company was established. It's a good time, but it also marks the beginning of a long list of truly debatable company decisions.
In an effort to get the public excited about their first smartphone, OnePlus launched an unprecedented campaign called "Smash the Past", asking users to break into their current smartphones. It does not sound bad, but it does get worse.
Users should submit an application to participate in the program, telling the company how to break their phones. After selecting them they would have to break their phones the way they described, and then they could buy a OnePlus One for one dollar.
The list of phones was limited. You should break a high-end smartphone like: iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Nexus 5, or Moto X.
What happened: people were misunderstood, because of course they broke their devices. Many broke their phones, but before they were selected, and before the contest. This could be attributed to people not reading or understanding, but the whole thing could have been avoided if OnePlus hadn't started such a campaign.
Telling people to break their phones is not the best idea, as the devices are full of chemicals, which in the worst can cause explosions. Not just a mad idea but also a dangerous one.
Due to the reactions, the company tried to change the campaign, allowing the contest winners later to donate their old mobile rather than break it.
After that you would think the company took its lesson.
April / May 2014:
OnePlus One was originally only available through an invitation system. It was put in place to combat the limited quantities available in circulation, but it made things very complicated.
To receive an invitation, customers had to go through a series of "flaming wreaths" with contests. And all this to buy a phone. Once they bought a phone, these customers also had a limited number of invitations to make available to friends or family. But if you were one of the lucky ones who had invitations, you should have them available for the first 24 hours, otherwise you will lose them.
Okay, a lack of inventory but using an invitation system to "allow" the public to give their money is a bit arrogant, especially for a company that has no history.
May 2014
Shortly after the release of the OnePlus One, some users complained about yellow screens. The company claimed that the yellow screen is not "a matter of quality and is not covered by warranty."
Given the recent problems with Pixel 2 XL screens and a similar response from Google, I do not mention it as an unusual reaction. But Google has increased the Pixel 2 warranty in two years, so at least there was an answer.
I think users who had this issue had every right to be upset and the company had to do a lot more to deal with it. And OK, even though it is not a "quality issue" shouldn't the issue at least be explored with the screen?
August 2014
It may be the smallest contest in the history of OnePlus. It started with an informal women-only campaign called "Ladies First" in August 2014.
The idea was this: women (and women only) would put the OnePlus logo on their body or on a piece of paper, and then they would have to take a photo to upload to the OnePlus forum. The photos would then be voted on by forum members - mostly men - and the top 50 would win a free OnePlus T-shirt and an invitation to purchase the phone.
If before you thought the "Smash the Past" campaign was stupid, it only took the company four months to make it even worse. Quite sexist, the bell for the ladies met with a lot of reactions as soon as it was announced, so much so that the company canceled it within a few hours. The company said at the time that it was a "very wrong attempt by some individual employees".
November 2014 - April 2015
The OnePlus One ran Cyanogen OS - a custom Android fork that was once the king of custom ROMs. At that time, the founders of CyanogenMod sought to capitalize on ROM's reputation by creating a company: Cyanogen, Inc. This company was responsible for building the One operating system.
This is one of the things that made OnePlus One more attractive than Android. Later, however, it became a nightmare for OnePlus.
While there was no error in OnePlus itself, Cyanogen, Inc. told 2014 in November that it had an exclusive agreement with Micromax to produce the operating system for an upcoming range of phones that would be available in India. The decision came in bad time for OnePlus, as it caused a temporary ban on the sale and sale of OnePlus One in India. The ban ended a week later as OnePlus decided to release its own Android version called Oxygen OS.
That was the beginning of the end for OnePlus and Cyanogen, but this relationship took about six months to finish. The two companies had a lot of problems, with Cyanogen claiming that OnePlus used the name Cyanogen to gain popularity, which may not be true, but I'm sure it did not hurt OnePlus recognition.
The really hard thing was for the users who bought the phone because it was running Cyanogen OS, and the partnership ended a year later. Compared to Cyanogen, OxygenOS was less adaptable but still had many of the Android components.
That was the end of a very difficult first year of a new company. Most small businesses would not have survived all the reactions and adversities that occurred in such a short time, but OnePlus did.
August 2015: OnePlus 2
Like most companies with a successful smartphone, the company followed the One with… the smart OnePlus 2.
OnePlus 2 was released without NFC (near field communication) - a feature that was considered essential for top phones - and without wireless charging. This provoked reactions in the Android community, although OnePlus claimed that there were not enough OnePlus owners who used NFC to justify its non-adoption.
Also, as with One's release, 2 was released again with a system of invitations. Although there was no stupid contest like One, 2 had issues in the invite and sell system, so users could not buy the phone.
Initially, OnePlus promised a new and improved invitation system with more invitations. It has never been so.
November 2015
OnePlus, in addition to smartphones, offers accessories such as USB-C and USB-C cables on Micro-USB adapters. But both have been confirmed that they are not compliant with USB-C standards by Google's experienced engineer and USB-C expert Bensen Leung. In short, the use of the cable or adapter was able to fry the power supply thanks to the resistors and their construction.
Once again, OnePlus apologized for the mistake and offered refunds, but only to customers who purchased the USB-C cable, not the Micro-USB USB-C adapter (which was just as bad as the cable) . He also noted that the cable and adapter were both safe to use with the OnePlus 2… and not with other phones.
June 2016
On almost any Android phone, when checking for operating system updates, the phone communicates with developer servers to see if new software is available. Quite common.
On the OnePlus 3 phone, the phone also sent the IMEI – a number that uniquely identifies that phone – over an unencrypted connection. This means that a price that can connect your phone to your person is sent over an open connection to the OnePlus servers.
To make this even more interesting, it was also discovered that a correct IMEI was not necessary for the device to receive an update. To do this, a user on the OnePlus forum sent a request essays to the OnePlus update server with an unusable IMEI and got the update.
January 2017
Benchmarks are a hot topic for all devices.
With this in mind, the benchmarks in OnePlus 3t were taught to be higher than actual performance. OnePlus obviously used specific applications to get the highest results.
It is also worth noting that other manufacturers were also guilty of the same behavior: Samsung, HTC, Sony and LG were found to do the same thing with 2013.
June 2017
After being "caught" cheating on the benchmarks with the OnePlus 3t, one could say that the company was exposed and made up its mind. But OnePlus has once again been caught maximizing benchmarking results in OnePlus 5.
This time the results were increased by 5%. There is an incredibly detailed analysis for theme by XDA, and I would suggest that you take a look.
June 2017
OnePlus 5 users noticed an occasional error while scrolling on the phone, but it was not clear why it is happening. Soon it was discovered why: the screen was placed upside down. On purpose.
Because it was upside down, the screen was refreshing from bottom to top, causing some interesting issues when scrolling. It did not seem to affect all units, but it was quite obvious to those who did it.
You may be wondering why the screen was intentionally turned upside down. The XDA forum 'has the answer.
Take a look at what is placed at the top of the smartphone - the dual camera and some antennas. Like with any decision involving where to place components in a smartphone, it likely came down to space considerations. With limited space, the company had to decide where to place each component so everything would fit. Since the dual lens camera, which is new to the OnePlus line-up, takes up more space than a single lens camera it is possible the company moved the motherboard - and hence flipped the display panel - in order to accommodate the new camera module.
July 2017
2017, a OnePlus 5 owner saw a building with fire, tried to call 911 and his device made two reboots.
It turns out that OnePlus 5 had a memory flaw that forced it to restart in case someone wanted to get in touch with the emergency services. If there is another mobile next to everything OK, but if it does not exist? Even phones without a SIM card are supposed to be able to make emergency calls.
Fortunately, the company quickly provided a solution.
October 2017
In October of 2017, it was revealed that OxygenOS collects data on the use of the device, a fairly common behavior among smartphone manufacturers. But within this data was the serial number of the device, meaning that the user's identity could be linked to that data.
The company claimed to be sending two separate datasets - one for device usage and analysis data, and another with device information (serial number) for "better after-sales service". It was also noted that all data is transmitted via HTTPS for security.
The real thing here is that OnePlus did it all without the user's agreement. He took the user data and sent it to the company's servers without the consent of the users.
Just a few days after the disclosure of this data collection, OnePlus replied by stating that it limits the amount of data it collects.
November 2017
Just one month after the discovery that OnePlus collects user data without approval, another vulnerability has been found that allowed the use of multiple OnePlus phones without unlocking the bootloader through a backdoor called EngineerMode.
OnePlus claimed that vulnerability is not that big. Security researchers from NowSecure dealt with the issue deeper and provided a more in-depth explanation of the error. The XDA also has a good description of EngineerMode's operation and the way it hits the company's devices.
Essentially, an attacker would need to physics access to the device to easily gain root access and execute malicious code.
Initially, it was considered that EngineerMode was a Qualcomm application, but after research Qualcomm claimed it was not its own. OnePlus hastened to remove EngineerMode quickly.
January 2018
In January of 2018, OnePlus officially announced an enormous violation, in which information from its 40.000 customer credit cards leaked. The actual violation occurred between November 2017 and January 2018, so OnePlus eventually realized what was going on and stopped credit card transactions.
Why are you still giving money to this company?
Too many issues. They started, with the not so smart decisions of a new company, continuing with the sale of USB-C cables that could literally destroy users' devices. We sometimes mentioned data collection by users (unlicensed), restarting phones during calls to 911, and security blanks that allowed easy access to root.
Stolen credit card information is in itself a very big issue, and it took more than two months for it to be perceived.
Naturally, none of these issues in itself is the end of the world. In fact, some of these have happened to other companies we love and trust.
But all of this together, in the four years of our existence, shows us that OnePlus is a company that consistently shows its lack of responsibility towards its customers.
If you are looking for good phones at a good price, there are other options.
Perhaps OnePlus improves over time, but at this point, we can not recommend buying from the company until they review their attitude and show that they can maintain it in the long run for a confidence-building behavior.
First publication: HTG
The only thing I did NOT see was the non-reference to Lineage OS, a successor to Cyanogen OS (by Cyan's own). . But it's for wanted, just….
Farts in the thunder simply !!!! The phone for his money made all the adults turn yellow, green and red, I change every year one plus I have 5t and I laugh with all the other mobile phone owners with a famous and beautiful speech !!!!!
This is the truth about the sheep who thought they had laid their hands on the papa's gluteal area! Common caught pappa from α € @? Ία…
Very well to publish so beautifully well written in diary order everything that has happened, I do not object. But very badly the columnist takes a position with such vigor. Looks like either a swamp from another company or a complaining consumer. A neutral attitude would be appropriate I think ..
Friend Nestor, as he writes at the end of the article, (First post: HTG) the opinions you read are translated as faithfully as possible. The original can be found at the following link:
https://www.howtogeek.com/340174/its-time-to-stop-buying-phones-from-oneplus/
When I read it I found it very interesting, and thought of translating it
Unacceptable article .. shame on your hate .. a life behind OnePlus you will be ..
The misinformation in its greatness. Oneplus is and will be one of the best manufacturers of flagship devices. The small problems will be solved.
Some of the cases or I do not know where I follow the developments for the specific company or it is a muff .. and most cases are pulled to where it does not go… Anyway OnePlus still releases devices that is which vfm is released there out and I will continue to trust her .. I just buy from Chinese stores which are about € 100 cheaper ..
Remind you of mobile phones that make teasing screens and companies that deliberately delay their phones;
Just a shame to whoever wrote the article has already been sent to oneplus for any legal use
Yeh
Extremely well written article. Well done to the columnist.