Skip to main content

OnePlus and Oppo are working together now, promise only positive changes

OnePlus has announced it will integrate parts of the company with fellow smartphone brand Oppo, according to a post made by CEO Pete Lau on the official OnePlus forum. It comes after Lau began to oversee Oppo’s product strategy in addition to his OnePlus duties in 2020, and although it’s not described as a merger, there are aspects that sound like it may be that in all but name.

What do we know at the moment? It sounds positive. Lau writes the integration of the two companies will mean both have more resources to build better products, be more efficient, and provide faster software updates too. The OnePlus name will remain, and Lau states the company will continue to operate independently, complete with its own device release schedule. Perhaps more intriguingly, the post teases working with Oppo may help OnePlus launch a wider choice of devices in the future.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

OnePlus is well-known internationally, but Oppo will be less recognizable to those outside China, the U.K., and parts of Europe where it has made a significant impact over the past few years. It recently received plenty of attention for the Find X3 Pro, which makes excellent use of its triple camera system, producing consistent results regardless of which one is used.

The integration — let’s not call it a merger — may not surprise many industry watchers though. Both Oppo and OnePlus, along with Vivo, Realme, and IQOO, are part of the BBK Electronics empire, and are technically all related already. OnePlus was co-founded by Pete Lau and Carl Pei, and both worked at Oppo right before starting the new company. There are some similarities in the technology used in both Oppo and OnePlus phones too, including advancements made in fast charging.

What does this all mean for OnePlus fans? OnePlus has a significant following, its smartphones are well regarded, and its new models are usually highly anticipated. There’s nothing in Lau’s statement to suggest anything will change this. OnePlus has embarked on a multiyear journey with Hasselblad recently, and we are expecting more from the partnership in the future, regardless of the not-a-merger with Oppo.

How about software? In March it was announced the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro sold in China would use Oppo’s ColorOS software, and at the same time, a commitment to use OxygenOS on global phones was made. This is good news, as OxygenOS offers a superior user experience to ColorOS. OnePlus launched the Nord CE 5G earlier this week, and the OnePlus 9 series remains as its flagship range. Digital Trends has contacted Oppo for comment on the integration, and we will update here when we hear back.

Editors' Recommendations

Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Here’s our first look at OnePlus’ next Apple Watch killer
Leaked render of OnePlus Watch 2.

OnePlus’ first attempt at making a smartwatch was mostly a meh attempt, even though it looked extremely sleek. The biggest drawback, of course, was the software. It was essentially a bare-bones software reskinning atop a very basic real-time operating system (RTOS) foundation.
Put simply, it was a not an app-loving operating system and was far away from the deep functional goodness that the likes of Google’s Wear OS and Apple’s watchOS have to offer. The second attempt, which just surfaced online, could atone for those sins.
Leaker OnLeaks (via MySmartPrice) has shared alleged renders of the second-generation OnePlus Watch. Instead of mimicking what Samsung and Fossil have done with their smartwatches, OnePlus seems to be chasing an original design that blends a round dial and a flattened right edge reminiscent of Casio’s G-Shock series timepieces.

The metallic arms extend a little further from the main frame compared to what we’ve seen on Samsung’s recent Galaxy Watches. It’s a subjective aesthetic deviation, but from the top, it seems the arms could offer a more secure grip on the strap attachments.
But the juiciest elements of the latest leak are the chip inside and the software shift it could bring to the table. OnePlus will reportedly go for the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip, a wearable platform that is a familiar name in the Wear OS territory. 
The leaked report doesn’t explicitly go into the details of a OnePlus-ified Wear OS experience on the smartwatch, but that Qualcomm chip is a little too overpowered for RTOS, so there’s that. There's also a separate report from leaker Max Jambor, who claims that the OnePlus Watch 2 will indeed be powered by Wear OS — specifically, Wear OS 4.
https://twitter.com/MaxJmb/status/1723031095896076776?s=20
Embracing Wear OS not only saves OnePlus the trouble of managing an entirely custom software experience on its own — it also adds a whole dimension of convenience for users. The biggest and most notable advantage would be the availability of apps and seamless cross-device linking with Android phones.

Read more
For a $1,700 folding phone, the OnePlus Open has one big flaw
OnePlus Open in Emerald Dusk showing camera bump.

OnePlus has been doing a lot of cool stuff lately. Thee company released its first tablet, the OnePlus Pad, earlier this year, and it just launched its first folding phone, the OnePlus Open.

Though folding phones continue to be a small niche in the overall smartphone market, they’ve been growing in popularity recently. And there are a few reasons why one would want a foldable: a convenient larger screen when you need it and a small screen when you don’t, easier multitasking, and more.

Read more
The OnePlus 12 may fix one of the OnePlus 11’s biggest mistakes
The OnePlus 11 held in a person's hand and seen from the back.

OnePlus 12 render SmartPrix

OnePlus, which just launched its first folding phone, is set to release the OnePlus 12 in a few months. Now, the latest rumor suggests that it will be fixing one of the biggest mistakes of the OnePlus 11 and the OnePlus Open: the lack of wireless charging.

Read more