OnePlus Understands What Community Means (Premium)

I’m almost ready to publish my review of the excellent OnePlus 7 Pro. There’s just one problem: Thanks to constant software updates, it’s been a moving target.

To be clear, this is a good thing.

One might grumble a bit about a new product requiring so many updates, but OnePlus’ commitment to listening to feedback and then actually responding to that feedback so quickly is notable. As a veteran victim of the “silence is golden” approach used by Microsoft and others---please refer to my Surfacegate article for a great example of the problem---I’m convinced now that there’s no such thing as too much transparency when it comes to a company and its customers. Communicating with your customers is almost as important as then actually listening and acting on their needs.

And OnePlus is doing it right.

When the OnePlus 7 Pro launched in mid-May, users and reviewers noted that the device’s vaunted camera system did not live up to the heady score bestowed upon it by DxOMark, a score that, at the time, put it in the rarefied company of such excellent handset cameras like the Huawei P30 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S10. Users likewise complained of “phantom touch” issues where the otherwise ungodly-good display seemed to be responding to touch inputs that weren’t happening.

When my review unit arrived, I wasn’t particularly impressed by the camera, though I never witnessed the phantom touch issue, despite heavy usage since then. What I have witnessed is OnePlus’ torrid updating of the device, all while keeping its customers informed.

OnePlus issued major system updates in late May and then again in early June. It also weathered a controversy related to its camera system’s 3X optical zoom capabilities by debunking claims made by a camera expert and proving that its camera did exactly what it said it did. (That said, the quality of the 3X optical zoom is middling, especially when compared to the crystal clear 5X optical zoom provided by the P30 Pro; I’ll cover this in my coming review.)

This week, OnePlus posted an update on user-submitted feature requests. It’s a terrific example of transparency, and of actually listening to customers. There are needs that OnePlus will meet because it’s already working on implementing the changes. And some that it is still examining to determine the best approach. (Presumably, there are requests it will not meet as well, either because they are technically impossible or not popular requests.)

Those requests come via a Feedback tool in the Community app that OnePlus preinstalls on all of its handsets. It’s similar to the Feedback Hub in Windows 10, except that OnePlus actually pays attention to it, and then provides updates to its users about how things are going.

Which is my point. By regularly engaging its customers, by actually listening to its customers---who, by the way, are also its fans and evangelists---OnePlus is creating a real community and not jus...