The truly wireless earbud market is flooded with options nowadays, but one upcoming option that’s rather exciting comes from OnePlus alum Carl Pei. This week, he’s revealed that “Nothing” earbuds will hit a price of $99 and offer a key feature.
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We’ve heard a lot surrounding the OnePlus 3 in the past week and while most of it is good, there are some negative points. This of course is the case with any smartphone, but with the OnePlus 3 and the company’s previous efforts, these downsides — compromises, if you will — are seen by many as less like flaws and more just ways for OnePlus to cut corners and achieve its super affordable price points.
Now, it looks like OnePlus’ CEO Carl Pei is tired of hearing about it and has taken to Reddit to express his feelings on the matter…
After a comparison video earlier this week showed us that the OnePlus 3’s 6GB of RAM might not give it the insane multitasking capabilities we all hoped, OnePlus CEO Carl Pei has responded with a few clarifications surrounding RAM management on the OnePlus 3.
The OnePlus One
OnePlus has a budget handset on the way, and just this morning, Pete Lau, the company’s co-founder, came out on Weibo to tease the device. We don’t know much about the phone yet, but we do know that OnePlus has an announcement to make in India on October 12th. We’ll probably see the company’s third phone announced at this event, and if these FCC images are to be believed as credible, we might now have our first look at the device in the flesh…
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OnePlus’ approach to market has always been a little unorthodox. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether they’re criminally great marketers or just a little “out there”. Either way, whatever they do, it seems to work from them. Most of that seems to come from Carl Pei, the company’s co-founder, whose approach to business, and perhaps life in general, raises eyebrows…
Pinch of salt at the ready? A leaked render published this morning seemingly shows what OnePlus’ second phone of the year will look like, and it seems a bit of a change from the angular, flat frames and edges of the current devices. At least, it does from the back. From the front, the renders look very familiar; with the chrome-finished edges surrounding a large, flat, glossy black panel.
From the back, the smartphone seems to be a solid piece of plastic with slightly rounded edges and corners. The bottom edge looks to be hosting a USB Type-C connector, flanked by two identical sets of machined holes, presumably for the microphone and single loudspeaker like the OnePlus 2.
Today in a Reddit AMA (“ask me anything”) held by four employees of OnePlus, the Chinese smartphone upstart fielded questions on everything from when VoLTE (voice-over-LTE) will be enabled in the OnePlus 2 to what exactly happened in its fallout with Android-focused blog Android Police. But the most interesting questions the four employees answered were in regards to why the new phone doesn’t include hardware features standard in other recently launched smartphones like NFC for touch-based payments or wireless charging.
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In a quick, but far-reaching, interview with USA Today, Carl Pei (OnePlus co-founder) states that his company will have a second phone out this year, hopefully in time for Christmas. He didn’t give any clues as to what the phone may or may not feature, but he did say it’d be a tough choice between using the OnePlus 2 or this unreleased phone as his daily driver.
OnePlus earlier this week finally took the wraps off the much anticipated OnePlus 2, the successor to the company’s first Android smartphone, the OnePlus One. And while the young Chinese company says it significantly increased manufacturing capacity for the 2 over the One, it still seems to believe that demand will initially outstrip supply. As such, once the OnePlus 2 launches on August 11th you’re likely to do some more waiting before you get it.
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There’s no getting away from OnePlus‘ effect on the market. From the very beginning it planned to be disruptive and offer consumers what they really wanted: A flagship phone at a low price. Despite controversies and frustrations over its marketing and invite-based purchases, OnePlus has gone on to sell over 1.3 million units of its first smartphone. That may not seem like much in a market where companies sell millions of phones. But this is just one phone, made by one small company that most consumers still haven’t heard of.
OnePlus sparked conversation, controversy and frustration last year when its sought-after debut smartphone launched. Its invite system meant you could only get hold of a OnePlus One if you received an invitation to buy one. With the OnePlus 2 — due to be announced in 11 days — the company will still have an invite system in place, but promises that it is “new and improved”.
OnePlus missed its March 27th goal for bringing its new Oxygen OS to the public today, and the company has now taken to its forum to apologize. It’s not exactly surprising to see this happen as OnePlus definitely hasn’t been known for being the most reliable deliverer of software, but it’s unfortunate nonetheless.
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OnePlus has been rumored to be working on some kind of new product for a while, and guesses tend to bounce back and fourth between it being a smartwatch and a tablet. Today, OnePlus founder Carl Pei has reportedly come out to say (via GSMArena) that the company is indeed planning on soon entering a new product category, but—hilariously enough—it’s not going to be a smartwatch—nor will it be a tablet.
OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirmed to Forbes that OnePlus One smartphone sales have eclipsed the 500,000 mark to date, adding that the Chinese company has a lofty goal of selling 1 million units by the end of the year. “It’s going to be hard,” said Pei, speaking at the Dublin Web Summit taking place this week. “But I think it’s possible.”
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