Google’s Reengagement with Android Underpins OnePlus’ Expanding Ecosystem
Earlier this year, enthusiast brand OnePlus expanded its ecosystem with its first proper smartwatch. In its mid-year launch last week, OnePlus brought out cheaper phones, watches, “Pro” earbuds, and a new tablet with “better together” software messaging. The expansion into new products and richer software is a reaction to Google’s past failure to invest in the broader Android ecosystem and Google’s more recent re-engagement around its own Pixel hardware.
Context
OnePlus is an enthusiast brand that started out selling premium smartphones direct to consumers at discount prices. Much has changed over the years, with OnePlus launching a lower cost Nord line and formally turning into a branch of OPPO. However, budget flagship smartphones are still part of the formula, and OnePlus is the only company under the BBK umbrella with North American presence and carrier approvals, if only occasional carrier retail distribution. Last year, OnePlus expanded its ecosystem with its first foldable, first tablet, and even first mechanical PC keyboard – a collaboration with Keychron that is more configurable and performs better than I had expected. At CES this year, OnePlus added its first proper smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch 2. (The less said about the original OnePlus Watch, the better. It was a fitness band in a watch form factor, and not a good one.)
In its mid-year launch in Milan last week, OnePlus launched new Nord phones for India and Europe, launched less expensive earbuds and watches, and updated its tablet. Alongside the new hardware, OnePlus expanded its software support and is touting “better together” software messaging for the tablet.
OnePlus Pad 2
Apple dominates the tablet market partly because it was the first to bring a simplified, mobile experience to a larger screen – the complaint that the original iPad was just a really big iPod touch was actually the point. Apple maintained its dominance with developer support, rapid updates, and expansion into productivity with the iPad Pro, but fragmented, almost willfully negligent competition played a role, too. After Google’s initial push into tablets with the Nexus program the company lost interest in the form factor and never segmented the Play Store to allow developers to monetize the effort required to optimize mobile apps for tablets. PC vendors would dip in and out of the market for Android tablets, but the apps weren’t there, so they focused on Windows convertibles instead. In an effort to build a revenue stream from its own app store, Amazon forked Android on its millions of cheap Fire tablets, splitting the market further. That left Samsung and Huawei as the only active premium tablet vendors; once Huawei was sanctioned out of the non-China market, Samsung remained the only real competitor to Apple almost by default.
In the early 2020s, Google seemed to finally wake up to the ecosystem threat that Apple posed to Android and began investing more heavily in its own hardware. This had started with AI-centric Pixel phones and expanded to the Pixel Watch in 2022 and the Pixel Tablet in 2023.
The new Pixel hardware meant that Google renewed investment in WearOS and Android for tablets, and that opened new opportunities in smartwatches and tablets for OEMs like OnePlus. In 2023, OnePlus launched its first tablet that targeted the iPad Air and Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 at a lower price. The OnePlus Pad was built around MediaTek's flagship Dimensity 9000 SoC, an 11.6” high-resolution display in a tall 7:5 aspect ratio, and software that made multitasking on the Android tablet easier. Priced between $500 - $600 with accessories after discounts, the OnePlus Pad offered a good alternative to Samsung's widescreen OLED tablets and Apple’s iPads that cost significantly more with a keyboard and stylus. Android’s tablet app selection still lags iPadOS and Windows, but the OnePlus Pad’s performance and display aspect ratio made for a nice budget productivity package for Microsoft Office for Android, Google Docs, Chrome, and various image editors and paint programs.
The OnePlus Pad sold well, and OnePlus is now out with a second generation. The OnePlus Pad 2 moves to Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 rather than move up the MediaTek Dimensity line. MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300 is gaining share in super-premium smartphones in Asia, but the OnePlus Pad was a showcase for the silicon in the West, so this is a coup for Qualcomm. The OnePlus Pad 2 gets a slightly larger 12.1" even higher resolution 3K display that keeps the taller 7:5 ratio for productivity. OnePlus improved the accessories, too, with the keyboard growing a function row, and the stylus getting more precision.
While hardware upgrades should be expected, OnePlus is also touting a “better together” software message. Combining a OnePlus phone with the OnePlus Tab 2 brings additional features:
Cellular data sharing
One-touch transmission
Content sync
App relay
Screen mirroring
These are all features that Google should have been providing with Android itself years ago. Instead, Samsung, Motorola, and Microsoft built them independently to increase ecosystem stickiness; now OnePlus is getting into the act as well.
OnePlus is sticking with the successful value proposition from the OnePlus Pad for its successor. Pre-orders who buy a coupon and trade-in anything that can reasonably be called a “tablet” can snag the OnePlus Pad 2 and all of its accessories for just $485. Once the promotional period ends, OnePlus can be expected to continue offering sales and bundles; the package will likely end up under $600 most of the time. Techsponential is hoping to get the OnePlus Pad 2 in to review, but, on paper, it looks like a great deal.
OnePlus Watch 2 & New OnePlus Watch 2R
Apple is the largest watch vendor in the world. Even more than any software ecosystem lock-in, once a consumer buys an Apple Watch they are much less likely to switch their phone to Android, no matter how good the camera or how cool a foldable might be. Once Google finally woke up to the threat Apple wearables pose to Android’s long-term health it embarked on a multi-pronged response. Google pledged to invest in WearOS, which got Samsung to move its popular Galaxy smartwatches to WearOS from Tizen, and Google launched its own Pixel Watch. While Pixel is certainly a case of a platform owner competing with its licensees, the fact that Google is now seriously investing in the platform opens up room for licensees, too.
At CES this year, OnePlus launched its first WearOS smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch 2. The OnePlus Watch 2 immediately stood out in the market for its multi-day battery life enabled by the ability to choose between two processors depending on the task. OnePlus uses a fast Qualcomm Snapdragon W5, an extremely efficient BES2700 running a RTOS (Real Time OS) for lower power tasks, and software from Google that stitches the two together fairly well. I’m getting a little over three heavy days of use on my Watch 2 review unit; this falls short of the claimed 100 hours but easily bests WearOS or WatchOS smartwatches anywhere near its $300 price point.
The OnePlus Watch 2 has an asymmetrical design and a round 1.43” AMOLED with always on display. It comes in one material – stainless steel – in either Radiant Steel (chrome) or Black Steel in a single large size (46mm). There is dual-frequency GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, but no cellular connectivity option. Google’s $350 Pixel Watch 2 also only comes in one size – but that size is smaller and better fits more wrists, fit and finish is better than OnePlus’, and cellular is an option. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch has two sizes, optional cellular, and a better interface (especially on pricey Classic models with a physical rotating wheel). However, OnePlus’ main problem wasn’t that the OnePlus Watch 2 couldn’t compete head-to-head with more expensive smartwatches, but that it didn’t have anything to sell to mass market buyers like Samsung’s $200 Galaxy Watch FE.
Now it does. The $200 OnePlus Watch 2R is essentially a OnePlus Watch 2 in a cheaper – and now symmetrical – aluminum case. It still only comes in 46mm (i.e., large) size and two colors: black and chrome (which OnePlus inexplicably calls Forest Green, the color of the replaceable band, not the color of the case). There is still no cellular option. The operating system, display, processor, and battery life are identical. This should sell.
OnePlus Nord 4
Mid-tier smartphones are a tough, competitive market outside the U.S. (Inside the U.S., carrier subsidies, relatively high incomes, and the strength of Apple continue to distort the market.) To stand out, OnePlus is giving the Nord 4 unique unibody aluminum design and promises of longer support. Unibody designs were once common in the industry, but 5G RF systems require different design considerations, making glass or plastic more common as case material due to their superior signal propagation. OnePlus hasn’t said how it solved this problem, only that the Nord 4 will have excellent 5G reception.
OnePlus data shows that Nord owners keep their phones for 3 - 4 years, and in my favorite industry trend, OnePlus is now committing to support the new Nord 4 longer. OnePlus will provide four years of OS updates, six years of security updates, and it promises better processor and battery management over time as well. Samsung and Google support their mid-tier phones longer, and at €500 the Nord 4 is entering a highly competitive price segment.
Specs are solid but unremarkable: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3, 12GB/256GB or 16GB/512GB, a large 5,500 mAh battery, regular 50MP and wide 8MP cameras, and a 6.74” bright and pixel dense AMOLED display. OnePlus is launching the Nord 4 in Europe and India for now; it did not discuss North America or other Asian markets, but if it does come to the U.S., I would expect it to be in a different configuration as a carrier exclusive in the fall.
Nord Buds3 Pro
Earbuds have long been part of the OnePlus hardware ecosystem, so it isn’t surprising that the company announced an updated pair with improved bass and the ability to pair with multiple devices. The branding, however, did leave me somewhat confused: if Nord is a mid-tier brand, how can it have “pro” earbuds? In any case, that’s the naming convention it is using for the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro.
First impressions of the review unit OnePlus sent over are just OK. Audio quality is good and ANC is moderately effective, so they are not a bad choice at $80. However, there are other brands in this price range with better sound, and OnePlus’ more expensive earbuds outperform these as well for customers with a bit more to spend.
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