[GTALUG] One Plus One, sans invites.

[Evan Leibovitch]

I've been intensely phone shopping for a little while, and have been as
unimpressed with the company as I have been impressed with the phone.
Despite a really good piece of launch hardware, there are some substantial
flaws in the phone but even more -- and far worse -- with the company.

GTALUGgers (and others) trying to buy the phone in 2015 may have noticed
that OnePlus, without warning or explanation, stopped shipping to Canada,
and only started again last week. The company was not at all forthcoming in
any rationale and offered nothing but cheery weeks-long promises of Real
Soon Now.

After researching on the forums, it appears to me that the company had lied
about the phone's value (declaring them at $99) which eventually got
shipments red-flagged by Canada customs. This, in combination with the
historically miserable service and extra fees of DHL (the only Canadian
shipping option) led to indefinite suspension of Canadian shipping of the
OnePlus. Things re-opened this week, with UPS as the courier and taxes
pre-collected at purchase time.

But that's not the worst of it IMO. The company was caught completely
flat-footed when Cyanogen went commercial, pulled the rug out from OnePlus,
and signed an exclusive deal in India with a competing handset maker. This
has thrown software efforts into a panic as OnePlus now unexpectedly finds
itself having to rush-release its own Android mutation, OxygenOS. So now
the the OnePlus software support, once thought of as super stable, is not.
Those who have lots of time on their hands researching and installing ROMs
should be OK, the mainstream will suffer through this transition as we
witness one more Android fragmentation. Whoever is in charge of OnePlus's
corporate partnerships should be long fired by now, yet no such penance is
in hand.

And then you have a number of production and marketing choices that seem
just insane. The OnePlus is the only phone in its field that claims to be a
"global" phone, yet lacks LTE Band 20 which is critical for Europe. Its
wifi doesn't do 802.11ac. The invite system has longer overstayed its
novelty. And you can't buy one in Australia or Switzerland or Brazil at any
price. Their e-commerce capabilities are weaker than those of hawkers of
dollar gadgets on eBay.

Add to this the fact that the field of
"near-flagship-features-at-midrange-prices" smartphones is about to get
very crowded, and some of the other vendors have the benefit of retail
access (instant availability) and local warranty support. Within the next
month or two, don't consider the OnePlus without also having a look at the
Asus Zenfone 2 with 4GB RAM, the Huawei P8 and the 2nd-generation Moto G.
More intrepid shoppers will find even greater choice from domestic Chinese
vendors such as Xiaomi and LeTV.

So, while I badly need to replace my phone right now, I'm passing on the
OnePlus One. The many poor decisions have me seriously (but maybe I'm the
only one) concerned about the company's long-term stability. Its corporate
management is just AWFUL, glossed over by a thin veneer of social media
cheerleading.

Still they do make well-built phones on low margins. If the OnePlus Two
offers any evidence that the company has learned its lessons I may still
come on-board, while I have a look at the reviews of the Asus and Huawei
phones as they are released. The competition is coming, the bar is rising
and many good options are at hand.

- Evan
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