Apart from the flagship lineup, OnePlus is already selling an affordable Nord series phone in India selling at a sub-Rs. 30,000 price point. Now it is rumoured that the company is lower the bar down and plans to introduce cheaper phones under Rs, 20,000.
Reports suggest that while there is “no defined timeline for now,” the new device could join the existing OnePlus portfolio in the first half of next year.
If the tweet by a known leakster and a freelance journalist Yogesh Brar is to be believed, the sub-Rs. 20,000 is indeed going to be more crowded. This price segment already has multiple devices from Redmi, Poco, Realme, Oppo, Vivo and others.
OnePlus – Current portfolio in India
A quick look at the Chinese smartphone maker’s portfolio in the country reveals that the company has the OnePlus 9 series including the OnePlus 9 Pro, OnePlus 9 and an affordable flagship OnePlus 9R. The pricing of this lineup starts at Rs. 39,999 and goes all the way up to Rs. 69,999 for the top-end variant of the OnePlus 9 Pro. There is still confusion around the half-yearly upgrade – OnePlus 9T lien-up, hence we can skip it for now to avoid any confusion.
Further, it replaced the original OnePlus Nord with the Nord 2 in July this year. Following the cue from its successor, the Nord is priced under Rs. 30,000 and can be called a stripped-down variant of the OnePlus 9R in terms of looks, specs and features. Mind you, the OnePlus 9R is already a low-specced variant of the flagship OnePlus 9 phone.
Adding to the list is the OnePlus Nord CE, which was launched in June this year and is available at a starting price of Rs. 22,999.
Whilst these are the phones that the company has in its kitty in India, it sells cheaper 4G and 5G phones under the Nord line up in the global markets. These phones come with a price tag further lower than the Nord 2 and are even low specced phones with serious trade-offs.
Cheaper OnePlus Phones – Threat to Xiaomi and Samsung?
Though the news that OnePlus eventually wants to sell cheaper phones in India is not new. These reports got further fueled by the news of OnePlus merging its operations with its parent company Oppo.
Regardless, the news of OnePlus re-entering into the sub-Rs. 20,000 price segment will only increase the competition and we can expect that the users will get way more options to choose from. However, it also means mean that both the sub-brands of Oppo – OnePlus and Realme- will look to grab market share from Xiaomi and Samsung.
Eventually, Oppo might gain the market share by introducing a lot of devices at similar price points under different brands, this strategy will only confuse the end-users who will have way too many similar-looking devices running the same Android skin and boasting similar features.
Also, the idea behind OnePus’ CEO Pete Lau joining Oplus was to oversee all three brands – Oppo, OnePlus and Realme, however, it now feels that the real motive was to use the existing resources (hardware and software) to churn out as many devices as possible. With this strategy, OnePlus may end up selling more devices than ever but will also mean the brand OnePlus will quickly lose its identity.
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