This week will see the latest Nord handset launched by OnePlus. Following the release of the titular OnePlus Nord in August 2020, the Shenzhen-based company has grown the Nord brand from that single handset to a wider portfolio.
The first Nord handset was seen as OnePlus’ equivalent to the iPhone SE. Counterpoint Research noted at the time that “OnePlus is trying to create the same magic in the Android world. The OnePlus Nord has all the required ammunition in its arsenal to succeed.”
When Counterpoint looked at the impact of the OnePlus Nord in India during 2022, it found significant growth in market share, with the OnePlus Nord CE 2 highlighted as the “top 5G smartphone model in Q1 2022.”
Ahead of the event, I was able to talk with OnePlus President and COO Kinder Liu. He was one of the first employees at OnePlus, helping to steer the company from a disruptive entrant to one of the most recognisable names in the smartphone market.
The upcoming OnePlus Nord 3 5G launch is uppermost in Liu’s mind. Just as the OnePlus 11 5G defined OnePlus in the premium space, the Nord 3 5G will define OnePlus’ approach to the mid-range through 2023 and beyond.
“It has the same ethos we had when we first started the company, and later when we first launched the OnePlus Nord series. We believe flagship technology does not need to come with flagship prices, and that smartphones should be designed with the user firmly in mind.”
“When we launched the OnePlus Nord series we wanted to give our users the best of OnePlus for less, and that’s been the driving force of OnePlus Nord ever since. OnePlus Nord 3 gives you pretty much everything you could ask for in a 2023 mobile phone, and it does it at an affordable price. It does this by combining a beautiful design, fast and smooth software, high performance technology and an attractive price.”
Compromise is always part of any design; no manufacturer can put everything into a smartphone while still keeping the price within reason. Deciding what to include and what to remove is the heart of what turns a generic smartphone into a OnePlus Nord smartphone. What process does OnePlus use to help that process?
“Everything we do is driven by our community, and every project starts by listening to them. That means being active on our forums, one of the largest technology community in the world, as well as going out to meet them in person at our Open Ears sessions. That feedback is invaluable in helping us identify what we’d want to see in a OnePlus Nord phone, and was a big part of the development of OnePlus Nord 3 – we incorporated a more powerful chipset than we had originally planned, and increased the battery capacity to 5000mAh.
“Additionally, we extended our software update support to 3 years for major Android updates and 4 years for security patch updates,”
This is one year more than the OnePlus Nord 2, which offered two years of updates and three years of security updates at launch, but there are other phones in the mid-range that provide more longevity; for example Samsung has stated the Galaxy A54 comes with four Android OS updates over roughly four years, and five years of security updates.
Nord started with a solitary smartphone – the titular OnePlus Nord. It has grown over the years to hit various price points, with Nords, Nord Lites, Nord CEs, and Nord Ns. Added to that, the Nord name now adorns several earbuds and smartwatches. That diversification has happened under Liu; how has the philosophy kept pace with the brand’s growth?
“When we launched OnePlus Nord, we said that its philosophy of making high end technology and great user experiences more affordable was very close to the original ethos of OnePlus… In terms of product philosophy, both the Nord and flagship series are aligned in their focus on high performance and elegant design.”
“OnePlus phones led the way with high refresh rate screens, for instance… OnePlus Nord 3 has the same main camera sensor as the OnePlus 11, giving it a great ‘point and shoot’ photography experience, but OnePlus 11 has a different ultra-wide and portrait camera too which gives its users more options when capturing memories.”
OnePlus is facing the same tightrope that every major smartphone manufacturer has met – how to sell their mid-range smartphones with that promise of performance and design while still holding something back for the flagship handsets. How does Liu see that balance?
“We still believe our line of flagship phones, including OnePlus 11 launched earlier this year, offer great value for money. But these devices have a strong history of bringing more advanced technologies to consumers too.”
Thanks to Moore’s Law, the flagship smartphones have far more power on tap that can be leveraged for various approaches such as gaming, photography, endurance, and media consumption. That application of Moore’s Law also applies to the mid-range; the trade-off between power and price is not as impactful as it once was. The Nord philosophy benefits from this; the majority of users’ needs can be matched by hardware that is a few notches below the demands placed on a flagship.
Liu is keen to draw me back to a question from my interview with OnePlus founder Pete Lau in 2021 where Lau stated that OnePlus would feel 25 million OnePlus Nord smartphones over the next two years. Liu confirms that the target is not going to be achieved.
“When Ewan and Pete spoke in 2021, Pete gave an unequivocal answer that we would sell 25 million OnePlus Nord smartphones by the end of 2023. And while I’m very pleased to say that we have sold more than 20 million smartphones, we don’t expect to sell 25 million.”
Why did OnePlus miss the target?
“If we had continued to focus only on OnePlus Nord smartphones, we would have achieved this target. But since then we have expanded the OnePlus Nord range to include other types of products, and have seen huge success in those areas. That’s why I’m OK with missing our target of selling 25 million OnePlus Nord smartphones – because it means our consumers can now enjoy a wider OnePlus Nord product range.”
First, I’ll commend OnePlus for offering up its target in 2021 and returning to answer it in 2023. I’ll even hand Liu a bit of wiggle room, given the exact quote was “before the end of 2023”, so there are still six months on the clock. Yet I wonder if the increased revenue from peripherals outweighs the loss of revenue and profit from five million smartphones. How important is a diverse product line to the perception of the company?
And when those products only deliver certain features when paired with OnePlus smartphones (such as the spatial audio on the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 or the upcoming smartphone companion app for the wi-fi-only OnePlus Pad), it’s clear that selling smartphones is still uppermost at OnePlus.
In which case, what’s the sales target for the end of 2025? This time, Liu is more circumspect: “The OnePlus Nord range has grown massively since your interview with Pete, so it might well do again by 2025.”
Arguably the Nord range’s balance of specifications against price echoes the goals of the original OnePlus One. It also opened up OnePlus from a single premium handset launched every six months to a wide portfolio across various price points. The challenge facing the OnePlus Nord 3 5G is to continue and build on that progress.
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