Goodbye OnePlus, hello Samsung

[phenomlab]

For ages now, I’ve been highly suspicious of the frankly awful battery life on my OnePlus Pro 9 device. Over time, the battery life has become hugely problematic, and on average, I get around half a day of usage before I need to charge it again. Yes, I’m a power user, but I don’t use this device for video streaming or games, so it’s not as though I’m asking the earth in terms of reliability and performance.

As my contact is coming up for renewal, I started looking at the OnePlus Pro 11 - with it’s outrageous price tag, I decided to look elsewhere, and am currently waiting for a Samsung S23 Plus to be delivered (hopefully tomorrow).

It seems that this has been an issue since it was identified in 2021 - OnePlus evidently deliberately “throttles” the performance of apps such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Discord - in fact, most of them in order to “improve” battery life on the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro phones

There are two articles I came across that discuss the same topic.

https://www.xda-developers.com/oneplus-exaplains-oneplus-9-cpu-throttling

https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/8/22568107/oneplus-9-pro-battery-life-app-throttling-benchmarks

Having to discover this after you buy a supposedly “premium” handset is bad enough, but OnePlus themselves kept this quiet and told nobody. To my mind, this is totally unacceptable behaviour, and it means I will not use this brand going forward. The last time I had a Samsung, it was my trusty S2 which literally kept going until it finally gave up with hardware failure meaning it wouldn’t boot anymore. I could have re-flashed the ROM, but consigned it to the bin with full military honours

And so, here I am again back on the Samsung trail. Sorry OnePlus, but this is a bridge too far in my view. I faithfully used your models throughout the years, and my all-time favourite was easily the OnePlus 6T - a fantastic device. I only upgraded “because I could” and I’m sorry I did now.

Here’s to a (hopefully) happy ever after with Samsung.

[dave1904]

Still love my Oneplus 8 Pro. Sad how it’s going. Hope you will have good time with Samsung.

[DownPW]

Same My 8T is good for now after 2 years.

Besides that, I don’t like Samsung’s philosophy and I don’t like their UI either: OneUI
The only brand whose Hardware catches my eye and especially the software overlay is Nothing with Nothing OS. But I know what you think of them

[phenomlab]

@DownPW yeah, “Nothing Special” However, I do like Samsung devices as they are great in terms of build quality, but admittedly, I never use the stock launcher or UI on any phone and always use Nova Launcher (Pro).

I miss my OnePlus 6T. Now that was a good phone. The OnePlus 9 sucks unfortunately, and rumour has it the 11 isn’t much better.

[DownPW]

Maybe 10T ?

[phenomlab]

@DownPW maybe, but the ship has sailed for me. I read some reviews about the 10T and wasn’t enthusiastic.

[cagatay]

i m using samsung s23 and i m very happy

[JAC]

The Mrs has a OnePlus (unsure on model but it’s probably 2-3 years old), I have a Samsung A53, pretty basic in terms of price it was £350 if I remember right.

I switched from Xiaomi probably two years ago, great phones, too much bloatware.

https://technastic.com/xiaomi-bloatware-list-miui/

[phenomlab]

I received the Samsung S23 plus yesterday and have it setup. In terms of performance, there is no comparison - the Samsung easily beats the OnePlus and the battery life is noticeably much better.

[dave1904]

Since Samsung moved away from Exynos and now (finally) comes with Snapdragon in my country, Samsung gets definitely interesting for me.

[phenomlab]

@dave1904 I can 100% recommend this handset. Flawless operation so far, and definitely superior to the OnePlus.

[phenomlab]

@DownPW said in Goodbye OnePlus, hello Samsung:

I don’t like their UI either: OneUI

I have to admit, I’ve always disliked “stock” launchers and found them woefully inadequate. I standardise across the board on all Android devices by using the Nova Launcher

https://novalauncher.com/

[DownPW]

Yes Nova is a good launcher. I have used it many years

[phenomlab]

After a day with the Samsung S23+ (number ported away from Three to Vodafone) I’m very pleased. Been using it all day on and off, and the battery still sits at 81%. In comparison, the OnePlus by now would be almost flat in terms of battery and I’d be plugging it in to charge it.

Sad really, as recharge took less than 30 minutes on the OnePlus thanks to the Warp charger - great, but a different story when it comes to actually keeping that charge!

[phenomlab]

According to this article below, Apple have been up to similar tricks!

https://news.sky.com/story/owned-an-older-iphone-you-could-get-a-payout-from-uk-lawsuit-which-claims-devices-were-throttled-12998076

[小城风雨多]

One plus is my favorite mobile phone brand before, because of its powerful performance, simple design and rare native Android.

But now, Oneplus has lost his original slogan: 不将就(Never Settle).
Now my main mobile phones are iPhone 13 and Galaxy S22 Ultra.

As for its price:

1. One puls Ace2 Pro(16G + 512G) : 3199RMB≈440RMB.
2. One puls 11(16G + 512G) : 4299RMB≈590RMB.

It is much cheaper than Samsung in China.

[phenomlab]

@小城风雨多 I was a die-hard OnePlus user since the 6T, but my experience with the 9 series has left me extremely disappointed and I probably won’t go back now I have a Samsung S23+ which works perfectly.

[Madchatthew]

I have a Samsung S23 and love it. I will admittedly say that I have been a Samsung fan for quite awhile when it comes to phones and TVs. I have tried some others and seem to always come back to Samsung. Although I would be interested in trying the Asus ROG phone. It is a gaming phone, but the perfermance is supposed to be pretty awesome.

I love ASUS products. When I build a computer, I use mostly ASUS parts. The computer I have now is 10 years old and still going strong. I build some computers for the Church school that my mom assists at and they are still running strong and are around 10 years old. So it makes me wonder if they do that same quality on their phones.

I had gotten my wife a google pixel phone and it turned out to be c**p. Ended up replacing it with a Samsung. I remember have a Motorola flip phone when I was younger. That was a great phone. Metal case and all that jazz. I might even still have it packed away somewhere for some reason that I don’t know.

I had looked into the OnePlus phones to may try them, but then after doing some research, I came across some reviews and articles regarding them and changed my mind on that. I have heard that some companies will push updates to make the phones really slow and not work as good to get people to upgrade. I know Iphone does that, and apparently OnePlus does that as well. I had a Samsung S8+ until I got a S21 ultra. I only swapped the S21 Ultra out because the screen was starting to blank out up by the camera and it was just getting worse, so then upgraded to the S23. I plan on trading it for a S25 ultra when that becomes available. I purchase mine directly from Samsung. I choose the unlocked phone so I can use it at any cell service company and don’t have to worry about them having to unlock it for me. And after you calculate it all out, the price is pretty much the same or cheaper going the direct route.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew yes, I wasn’t impressed at all query the last oneplus handset I had and previously was always a Samsung user - from the S2 for that fact and that now makes me feel ancient!

I also have an S23, and will never use anything else. I loved the oneplus 5, but they seemed to go down hill after that. I also own 4 samsung tvs.

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab Very nice! It is funny on how the phones we talk about dates us lol