The company and Pei himself may be taking notes from the OnePlus 11 and the iPhone 14 Pro. He did review these devices after all.
If you have been versed in the tech space for a while, then you may have heard of a particular person named “Carl Pei” he co-founded OnePlus and when he founded it, he was working with Oppo at the time. The company launched in the United States with the premise of delivering “flagship phones at mid-tier prices”. Today, these devices are known as “Flagship killers”. OnePlus also started out by providing users with a near purestock experience thanks to OxygenOS which started out as a fork of CyanogenOS.
After the Realme 7/7T, and 7 Pro series launched, Carl Pei left the company and soon, OnePlus started to settle. Oppo is slowly taking over the company and basically changed its standpoint. OxygenOS is no longer “Pure Stock” but rather just a rebranding of ColorOS (kinda like RealmeUI). In a nutshell, OnePlus became a channel for Oppo to officially enter the US market. While one could argue that even the company’s first phone was a rebranded Oppo, the company went mainstream as they launch the “Nord” series of midrange devices.
After Pei left OnePlus, he announced a new venture called “Nothing” with the premise of longevity and community-driven support. The Nothing Phone (1) may not be a flagship but provides more updates than a usual flagship ever could (3 years security + 4 years major Android upgrades) which is a stunning feat. This was also the main argument Pei has for most Android smartphones. They don’t last long well enough.
The Nothing Phone (1) is successful because its successor will be arriving not with midrange specs but instead, it’s a flagship, or the very least, “flagship killer”. Kinda like old OnePlus.
The phone will officially launch in the United States with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. Its main distinctive feature is the skin attached to it called “NothingOS” which provides a premium experience. Pei confirmed this through an interview with Inverse but did not specify anything else. The launch date is within late 2023 though so expect a phone launch between September and December.
Pei may be taking notes after witnessing the launch of the OnePlus 11. He even so kindly did a review of the phone. He said that the OnePlus 11 is impressive but found OxygenOS to be alienating since his departure. He also fairly said that there may be biases in the review because he is reviewing a competitor’s handset.
One thing he fairly mentioned is that the performance of the Nothing Phone (1) and the OnePlus 11 is way off, with the latter obviously performing better. He noted that the cameras are on-par and even complimented that the OnePlus 11 has all three of its rear cameras functioning and not just a gimmick. This is also one of the reasons why his handset only has two cameras at the back.
Source: Inverse