OnePlus has announced their OnePlus 3: The Flagship Killer.

Or so they’d like you to think.  This Flagship Killer is a Flagship Flop.

Let me give you some reasons why.

Here are the specs for the phone: OnePlus 3

Let me start with the most obvious thing:

No Removable Storage

• OnePlus has once again decreed that Removable Storage is not necessary on a flagship phone, despite over 44% of survey respondents requesting the feature in their Question of the Week thread (here).
• Conspicuously missing from the thread?  Dual-Sim.  Present on the OnePlus 3?  Dual-Sim.  Go figure.

Going in hand with the lack of removable storage…

USB 2 Type-C Connector

• Hey man, I get it, we’re not going to get Removable Storage.  Again.  At least it’s a Type-C connector.  They’ll have learned from our complaints about the OnePlus 2 and it’s non-USB 3 Type-C connector, right?  Wrong.
• The USB Type-C connector on the OnePlus 3 only supports USB 2 speeds.  Why is this such a big deal?  The OnePlus One supported USB 3.  At release.
• Their OnePlus 3 ‘Flagship Killer’ can’t even best the OnePlus 1.

No Cool Features

• There is nothing that stands out about this device.  Nothing at all.
• Samsung GS7 will have Wireless Charging.  And Waterproofing.  The LG G5 is going to be modular in some aspects.
• The OnePlus 3 has ‘Dash Charging’ which I can only assume is their equivalent of fast-charging.   This doesn’t sound anything all that dis-similar to Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 to me.

Price Point

• The OnePlus 3 is coming in at $399.  The OnePlus 1 came in at $349.  There’s an extra $50 of cost, but the features don’t match.
• More price, less features.  You can get an Unlocked GS7 32GB (with removable storage mind you) for ~$450 on eBay.  The LG G5 is ~$500 on eBay.  The price point simply isn’t competitive.  Knock $50 off the price and maybe you’d be in business.  This is coincidentally about half the cost to go buy a combination USB-C/USB-A Stick.

I tell you what though.  The OnePlus 3 has some cool specs to it.  It’s just not a Flagship Killer.

It’s a Flagship Flop.

And, as someone who bought into OnePlus’s story of “Never Settle” with the OnePlus 1 (which I’m still using and happy with over 18 months later), I’m not impressed.

And I’m certainly not going to settle for a feature-lacking, incomplete phone.

And neither should you.

The phone to get (for Android users) will be the LG G5, the Samsung Galaxy S7, Moto Z, or the next Nexus phone.

Such a shame.

#NeverSettle