OnePlus, like Samsung, is rejiggering its phone lineup to reflect our less wealthy world. Will Apple be next?
(Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy S20+) The pandemic is finally coming to roost in the smartphone market. After years of rising flagship smartphone prices (and sizes),2020 is going to end with a big correction—and a big return to the era of the sub-$900 flagship phone. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed today that there will be no OnePlus 8T Pro, saying on Weibo (via Android Authority) that “users who like pro-level products can continue to choose OnePlus 8 Pro.” Meanwhile, Samsung, the No.1 Android smartphone seller in the US, appears to be pushing its expensive S20 line into the background for a new $700 Galaxy S20 FE (shown above at left, with the costlier Galaxy S20+); Google’s Pixel 5 is rumored to cut the line’s power and price by using a lower-cost Qualcomm chipset; and Apple is rumored to be introducing an “iPhone 12 mini” at its launch event in a few weeks. Apple and Samsung will still have costly phones, but they won’t be the best sellers. How far we’ve come from February, when the question was how expensive smartphones could get. The $1,099 iPhone 11 Pro Max was followed by the $1,499 Galaxy S20 Ultra and the $899 OnePlus 8 Pro, which is less expensive than the other two but still more expensive than any phone OnePlus had ever made.
