OnePlus' loss in the US hurts, but it won't really matter

OnePlus is dead, probably. We hear that OnePlus is closing much of its global operation. imminently and although it hasn’t happened yet, it makes us think about OnePlus’ presence in the US and how, sadly, its departure will not. In fact affair.

This edition of 9to5Google Weekender is part of 9to5Google’s rebooted newsletter that highlights Google’s biggest stories with additional commentary and other tidbits. Register here To receive it in your inbox early!

Listen to me.

OnePlus is perhaps one of the most interesting brands of the last decade of Android, and also one of the most interesting players in the US smartphone market at the time. The brand has been responsible for some of my favorite Android phones, particularly the OnePlus Open and the OnePlus 13, both of which I felt showed how behind many American smartphones really are in terms of hardware.

Announcement: Scroll to see more content

However, the loss of OnePlus in the United States won’t really matter.

Because?

The US smartphone market is largely a duopoly. Google Pixel has gathered an increasing number of customers, Motorola has its niche, but this market is largely reduced to Samsung and, even more so, to Apple. And that dominance by Apple really influences the rest of the market. Everyone feels that they are focused on trying to compete with Apple, both to get people to switch from Apple and, more accurately, to prevent their own buyers. to switch to iPhone. That plays an important role in the development of new devices.

OnePlus, however, always played things a little differently. Thanks to both its initial role as an enthusiast-focused brand and its base in the Chinese smartphone market, OnePlus phones sold in the United States outright trounced the competition on paper. Just look back that OnePlus 13 that I loved so much. Compared to the dominant Android phone of the time, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the OnePlus 13 had a drastically larger battery, much faster charging, better camera hardware (overall), and all for a much lower price.

The difference was even bigger with the OnePlus 15, which included a 7,000 mAh battery when most other flagships in the US barely had it. finallyexceeding 5,000 mAh. Regardless of how you feel about that phone, Our Will Sattelberg didn’t like it very muchDespite its similar appreciation for the OnePlus 13, it really showed how far behind many American devices are. OnePlus was the only brand In fact advancing in the United States.

Logically, you would think that such a brand would put some pressure on the rest of the market, pushing competitors to up their game to remain relevant.

It just never happened.

OnePlus never had the success it needed in the US, and never really made a dent in the market or became a well-known brand. Much of that comes down to a short stint on the aircraft carrier. that just didn’t work. Without carriers, most smartphone brands can’t survive in the US, and as OnePlus shows us, even that isn’t exactly a silver bullet. OnePlus tried to make it work with a partnership with Best Buy, but that never had the same impact.

The death of OnePlus seems imminent – the evidence it just keeps piling up.

It makes me sad, especially because it means the US market is losing one of its few options, and perhaps one of its best when it comes to certain features like massive batteries. But ultimately the impact here will be minimal. The market has spoken and people simply aren’t buying OnePlus smartphones in the US in significant numbers – when you’re behind the Google Pixel, you know something isn’t working. In the US, OnePlus devices are estimated at represent less than 0.5% of active web data-based usage (which, as we have seenIt’s not exactly infallible.) Even if you combine that with Oppo as the margin of error, it’s still less than Xiaomi compose. Phew.

The sad truth here is that after years of OnePlus in the US, it simply hasn’t made an impact on the overall market. Companies like Samsung, Google, Motorola, etc. They simply haven’t responded to the “pressure” that OnePlus was supposed to exert. This is very sad, because it leaves most American smartphones pretty stagnant compared to Android phones sold in other parts of the world. The recent Galaxy S26 Ultra, no matter how good it isIt’s essentially the same phone that Samsung has been releasing for the last few generations.

What do you think? Are you a OnePlus user? Will you miss the brand in the United States? Discuss in the comments below!

This week’s top stories

Android 17 Beta 3

Google released the third Android 17 beta this week, with a few more feature changes ahead of an incoming stable release.

Samsung starts rolling out AirDrop support

Following in the footsteps of the Pixel 10 and Pixel 9, Samsung has started rolling out support for Google’s AirDrop via Quick Share to the Galaxy ecosystem. This starts with the Galaxy S26 series and the update is widely available around the world.