GoKawiilIt’s the end of an era as OPPO has announced that OnePlus is officially leaving North America and Europe. The news has been brewing for months now, but it still stings for US customers in particular, who are now deprived of a trailblazing flagship phone brand.
This news got us thinking about the best OnePlus handsets of bygone years. So we decided to choose and rank the top five OnePlus phones of all time. How did we do? Let us know via the poll and comments below.
What's your favorite OnePlus phone on the list? 35 votes OnePlus One 20 % OnePlus 3/3T 20 % OnePlus 7 Pro 46 % OnePlus Open 0 % OnePlus 13 9 % Other (leave a comment) 6 %
5. OnePlus One
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
You can’t make a list like this without the OnePlus One, can you? This is the phone that immediately established OnePlus as a brand to watch. The OnePlus One coined the “flagship killer” moniker in 2014, bringing some high-end specs for just $300. This was a rarity back then, as only Xiaomi’s early Mi phones offered a similar level of bang for the buck.
The phone even came with the CyanogenMod software, delivering a bloat-free experience at a time when many Android phones were bogged down by unnecessary software. While that CyanogenMod partnership wouldn’t last, that legacy of clean, performant Android would endure for a while.
Yes, the invite system was annoying and felt like a marketing gimmick. Sure, there was the cringeworthy Ladies First contest. But when was the last time that a company’s first Android phone made such a gigantic splash? Even the original Galaxy S failed to make the same impact as the OnePlus One in terms of its influence and critical reception.
4. OnePlus 3/OnePlus 3T
OnePlus followed up the OnePlus One with the OnePlus 2, and it makes a strong argument for being the weakest flagship in the brand’s history. That’s largely due to the notorious Snapdragon 810 chip and the lack of NFC. Thankfully, the company bounced back from this phone with the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T.
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