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Comment by Analemma_ | Hacker News Reader

> Man, if you actually tried to sell your phones, Sharp, they might have sold? Funny concept.

Smartphones are a brutal business to be in, especially in North America, where Apple and Samsung have basically locked up the high end of the market and everyone else is fighting for the scraps (and usually losing tons of money in the process). Probably Sharp just realized there was really no way to break in, especially considering they'd have to start from scratch with channels like carrier partnerships, retail presence, and advertising.

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> considering they'd have to start from scratch with channels like carrier partnerships, retail presence, and advertising

OnePlus has none of these and seems very successful.

Meh, I bought my first OnePlus phone a few months ago and while the phone itself is great, I've been thoroughly unimpressed with their support and unavailability of most accessories, both from OnePlus and 3rd parties. It's a huge turn off and I won't buy another one.

What kind of support do you need for a smartphone? I've literally never even thought "maybe I should contact support" for a phone problem.

Some of the bloatware (minimal as it may be) is very intrusive, including ads sent as notifications through system apps that can not be blocked or silenced. Their support gaslights you about topics like that.

Huh, what are those apps then? Also, what accessories? There's just a charger right?

Supposedly Lineage runs well on them btw.

That's another annoying thing. OnePlus uses a specific type of charger, the Dash(tm) charger, so you can't just buy any random USB charging unit, or else it will take all day to charge. And the chargers are expensive. The other problem is that the screen is not flat, so you need to buy a curved screen protector. For the OnePlus 3, they've been sold out for months, and have no plans to restock them. Furthermore, there are no good 3rd party screen protectors. So if you have a OnePlus 3, you just have to use it without a screen protector.

These problems are not acceptable for a modern phone company.

I can only agree with the dash charger, I've had no problems getting what turned out to be better screen protectors than the official from Amazon for my one plus three.

On the plus side I plug my dash charger in and forty minutes later I've got a charge that will last the day.

But agreed that if I forget to bring it on overnight trips it's annoying.

And the phone has worked flawlessly for my needs.

If you don't mind me asking, which screen protector did you buy?

Hmm I charge it overnight with a slow charger, that feels like it's better for battery life time, on the other hand, when I need it quickly recharged, it's over half full in 30 min. That really changes they way you deal with charging and is worth some annoyances (which I personally don't experience) to me.

Also, the phone came with a screen protector which is still on after 1 year of use.

> The other problem is that the screen is not flat, so you need to buy a curved screen protector.

Huh? The phone ships with the screen protector already applied.

It's a low quality plastic on that loses its adhesiveness and starts peeling off in less than a month.

I was referring to tempered glass protectors. I didn't realize that people still use plastic ones.

> It's a low quality plastic on that loses its adhesiveness and starts peeling off in less than a month.

Again, I can assure you from personal experience that this isn't true.

Well I can assure you from personal experience, which is the oneplus three without a screen protector that I'm typing on right now, that the plastic protector that came with the phone started peeling off and getting dirt trapped between it and the screen in less than a month after purchase.

That's on you, not the screen protector.

I've had several phones with various types of screen protectors that did not fall apart after a month.

Mine is still on after 1 year but I have it in a case.

Tons of things, like "my phone is two weeks old and the battery life has halved"

1. Uninstall crap apps installed during these 2 weeks. 2. Disable or throttle background network sync.

I'd complain about the battery in that case, not support.

What? If you can't get support to fix the battery for you, that's also a problem with support too.

Well, if you want your complaining to achieve anything, you should do it to support.

I recently contacted OnePlus support for the first time last month after I dropped my phone and shattered the screen. The whole process was extremely fast and smooth. Quick reply from OnePlus, they organized shipping to my nearest repair center and even the actual repair was quick.

- A software bug with notifications

- Asking when accessories would be available on their site (car chargers and screen protectors were out of stock)

I bought a OnePlus 3 this year to replace my Nexus 5 after catastrophic hardware failure. :(

The phone is great in every way except ergonomics. It's so fat that holding it hurts my hand. Apparently they had a smaller model for the generation before the 3, but the OnePlus 5 is absurdly fat only; I'm not going to be able to keep buying their phones.

I replaced my Nexus 5 with a OnePlus 2, great phone, but apart from some speed boosts and camera upgrade I kinda really miss my Nexus 5. The NFC, it being super light, small, wireless charging, great design, fast updates. No idea what phone to get next. Nothing I've seen really matches the Nexus 5. :(

There's a huge difference between "successful" enough to keep the company going and "successful" in the Apple/Samsung way of sales dominance in the market.

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