OnePlus had quite a mediocre 2022 with major product launches like the OnePlus 10 Pro and OnePlus 10T failing to impress from a critical perspective. Owing to several factors including the lack of an impressive product range, bad reviews of star products, and tough competition from other smartphone brands, the company’s market share also plummeted in various regions.
The Rs 30000 plus market segment that OnePlus was once leading is also conquered by Apple and Samsung now.
Things have been looking so disappointing that many tech bloggers throughout the year have been occupied with writing long blogs on how OnePlus’ current strategy is the reason for the downward trend.
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So, where does all this take OnePlus for the next year? Well, we have some ideas that can certainly boost confidence in the brand. So, here are 5 things we want to see from OnePlus in 2023.
Battery Camera In Upcoming Flagship Devices
In 2022, with the launch of the OnePlus 10 Pro, the company surprisingly went backwards with its camera features as compared to what is offered with the OnePlus 9 Pro a year before.
Many reviewers and users were quick to criticise this move and since then we have been hoping the OnePlus improves on this front. In 2023, the company has to show efforts on improving the camera functionality, both software and hardware wise.
The upcoming flagship device, the OnePlus 11 has to deliver a better camera in order for the brand to stay on top of its game.
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Streamline the Water Resistance Feature
OnePlus moving backwards with the features in its flagship devices has really been disappointing even for OnePlus enthusiasts. The company unveiled the OnePlus 10 Pro with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance but only for the T-Mobile version of the handset.
The same was with the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 9, where an IP68 rating feature was only available for the carrier model handsets.
The unclear strategy with the water resistance feature has to change for the brand in 2023. There are many affordable smartphones such as the Pixel 6 series, Pixel 7 duo and more already available in the market segment with IP67 ratings.
A More Consistent Oxygen OS
At the beginning of 2022, OnePlus made an announcement about not continuing with the efforts to combine Oxygen OS and Oppo’s Color OS skin. In ideal circumstances, OnePlus users would have got two skins sharing the Color OS codebase.
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Whereas, OnePlus later decided that the “two skins would remain separate from each other with their own distinct properties.” However, the two skins still have multiple shared development resources.
For example, the OnePlus 10 Pro with Oxygen OS was reviewed by many bloggers as a hotchpotch version of putting together Color OS and Oxygen OS. There were inconsistencies in the font sizes between the gallery app and the rest of the skin and certain bugs that caused improper or missing notifications.
We hope 2023 is the year when OnePlus irons out all the functionality issues arising most probably due to Color OS trappings in Oxygen OS.
Get The Nord Portfolio in Order
In 2022, OnePlus launched a range of Nord devices such as the Nord CE 2, CE 2 Lite, N20, 2T, N20 SE, and N300 with not much difference to notice in terms of specifications or appearance. However, the issue is that OnePlus decided to release different Nord variants in different regions of the world.
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For example, the US received the Nord N20, N20 SE, N200, and N300 in the last few years but not the original Nord, Nord 2, and Nord CE 2 series, which are the actual moving products of the entire lineup. We are hoping that in the coming year OnePlus streamlines its range of Nord devices and gets them on the same page globally.
Give Nord Devices the Advanced Updates
OnePlus has to take a step further with the security patches offered with its Nord devices. Currently, the standard two OS updates and three years of security patches are provided with the mid-range Nord smartphones. The most affordable Nord handset, on the other hand, receives only two years of security patches and one OS update.
It is important to note that Google itself recommends that every smartphone have at least two years of security patches and two OS updates. OnePlus is not following the standard Google recommendations in some of its most significant product ranges.
Moreover, models such as the Nord N20 and N10 were actually shipped with outdated software this year. We are hoping the brand makes an effort to improve on this front in the year 2023.
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