Twelve years after the launch of the OnePlus One, the company announced today that it has exited the United States. It’s a bittersweet end for a brand that once symbolized the dream of an affordable flagship. The OnePlus 15 and OnePlus Open had received critical praise, but the writing was on the wall for a while now. T-Mobile stopped stocking OnePlus’ flagship phones after 2022, instead deciding to only carry its low-end Nord devices, and Verizon’s run with OnePlus only lasted two years, from 2020 through 2021. Even though it continued releasing flagships, OnePlus’ US footprint has been fading.
This outcome didn’t seem inevitable. In 2014, when the OnePlus One arrived, nearly every tech enthusiast I knew was buying the phone. There was a cult-like enthusiasm for OnePlus that was hard to find elsewhere, and it used that community-driven approach to develop and grow a long-lasting, loyal fan base. For a while, it was practically impossible to call any other phone a “good deal” when a OnePlus phone also existed. But most of the sales were online-only, directly from OnePlus. When it decided to officially launch through carriers in the US, it was probably doomed from the start.
OnePlus first launched on a US carrier in 2018, and according to T-Mobile, nearly 200,000 customers had already been using OnePlus phones on its network before it officially carried the devices. That’s far from Samsung or Apple numbers, which accounted for an estimated 90 percent of all phones sold at US carriers in 2020, but there was a case for T-Mobile trying to capture OnePlus’ growing enthusiast fan base. However, the carrier model in the United States is fundamentally different from the direct-to-consumer approach that made OnePlus successful in other markets.
OnePlus grew its loyal fan base primarily through its “Never Settle” moniker, implying that you shouldn’t have to settle for inferior specs when you buy an affordable phone. It used the phrase “Flagship killer” to describe this ratio of price to performance, and fans ate it up. Especially in 2014, near the end of the “2-year phone contract era,” people were begging for a device you could buy outright without being locked into a long and resentful relationship with your telecom. But that’s just not how people buy phones in the US. Here, it’s all about carrier deals, and specifically, bill credits. The bill credit model gets a phone in your hand immediately, often with no upfront cost, and the price of the phone is diluted into your phone plan for 24 to 36 months. T-Mobile will give you a brand new 256GB iPhone 17 Pro today for just $4.16 a month on top of your phone plan. If you’re on AT&T, you can get that same phone for just $2.78 per month, as long as you trade in a phone and “upgrade to a qualifying unlimited plan.” And yes, that qualifying plan starts at $80 a month. If you switch carriers early, you’ll owe the remaining retail cost of the phone.
You can see why this might incentivize a carrier to focus on selling expensive flagships and not “affordable” flagship killers. Carriers want to offer you the idea of a deal, and if your new phone feels like it costs less than three bucks a month, that feels much better than paying $600 out of pocket, even if you’re paying much more than that over time. What made OnePlus attractive was fundamentally in opposition to this model. What is the value of a $600 “flagship killer” versus a $1,200 flagship if there is no tangible price difference? The carriers need you to stay on their premium plans, and if they’ll only have $600 hanging over your head instead of $1,200, they have less incentive to carry these devices. Add to the fact that reportedly 75 percent of all smartphones sold at carrier stores are now iPhones, with Samsung making up another 15 percent or so, and there isn’t a whole lot of pie left to go around.
The main line that did well for OnePlus in the US is its ultra-affordable Nord series, claiming 428 percent growth for the company in the first half of 2021. But after it lost its deal with T-Mobile in 2022, it was much harder for OnePlus to move volume. The US phone market is carrier dependent in almost every way, and without T-Mobile stores stocking the phones, it became hard for OnePlus to justify even selling the Nord here. The ethos of OnePlus has always been about value for money. That is fundamentally at odds with the incentive system of the US phone market, which prioritizes trapping users in long-term relationships. OnePlus was already fighting for scraps here. OnePlus tried to kill the flagship, but in the end it was the flagships, sold by carriers, that killed OnePlus.
The history of OnePlus in the US is a cautionary tale for any phone maker trying to break into a market dominated by carrier subsidies and locked-in contracts. OnePlus started as a small startup with a forum-driven community, releasing invite-only phones that created buzz and demand. The OnePlus One was a marvel: it packed top-tier specs like a Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 5.5-inch display, all for $299. That was less than half the price of a comparable Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One M8. The phone ran CyanogenMod, a popular custom Android ROM, giving users a near-stock experience with extra features. The invite system created scarcity and made owning a OnePlus a status symbol among tech enthusiasts. But as the company grew, it had to face the reality of the US market: carriers control distribution.
When OnePlus finally partnered with T-Mobile in 2018 for the OnePlus 6T, it was a big moment. The phone was sold in T-Mobile stores and supported the carrier's network fully. But the partnership never expanded to the scale needed. OnePlus tried a brief stint with Verizon in 2020, launching the OnePlus 8 series on the carrier, but that relationship fizzled out within two years. The reasons were manifold: OnePlus phones lacked the brand recognition of Samsung or Apple, carrier sales staff were not incentivized to sell them, and the bill credit structure meant that a $700 OnePlus phone was not significantly cheaper than a $1,000 Samsung when spread over 30 months. In fact, many consumers didn't even realize the difference in upfront cost because the monthly payment was the primary focus.
Another factor was the increasing price of OnePlus phones themselves. The OnePlus 6T started at $549, but by the time the OnePlus 12 arrived in 2024, the price had climbed to $799. That's still less than a Galaxy S24 or iPhone 15, but the gap had narrowed. OnePlus was no longer the clear value champion, especially when carriers offered trade-in deals that could bring a Samsung or Apple phone down to a similar effective price. The "flagship killer" tag became harder to defend.
Meanwhile, the company faced internal challenges. OnePlus merged with Oppo in 2021, raising questions about its independence. The software experience changed: OxygenOS, once praised for its clean design, became increasingly similar to Oppo's ColorOS, blurring the line between the two brands. This frustrated longtime fans who valued the unique software identity. The community-driven approach that built the brand began to fade as OnePlus became just another arm of a larger Chinese conglomerate.
In the global market, especially in India and parts of Europe, OnePlus remains a strong player. But the US market is a different beast. The dominance of carrier sales, the allure of bill credits, and the fierce competition from Apple and Samsung left little room for a brand that prided itself on being different. OnePlus’s exit from the US is not a sign of failure in all markets, but it highlights the structural barriers that any challenger brand faces when trying to disrupt a market built on loyalty programs and subsidies.
The company's announcement today marks the end of a chapter that began with such promise. The original OnePlus One was a phone that could be bought only through an invite, a sign of exclusivity that tech enthusiasts loved. That model worked for a niche audience, but scaling it to the mass market required carrier support. And in the carrier world, OnePlus was always a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. The carriers profit from selling expensive phones that lock customers into contracts; OnePlus’s value proposition directly undermined that. In the end, the market forces were too strong, and OnePlus never really had a chance.
Source: The Verge News