Expensive, Yes, but the Value is There in the OnePlus 8 Series (Premium)

I’ve discussed my concerns with OnePlus raising its prices this year. But in using the OnePlus and OnePlus 8 Pro, I’m starting to get it.

Normally, I’d discuss this topic in my reviews of the two products. But then that’s how this started: I was prepping my OnePlus 8 Pro review ahead of posting it next week and found myself going wildly off-topic about pricing and value in a discussion about how two intersecting circumstances---the ever-escalating prices of flagship smartphones and the COVID-10 pandemic---are throwing the entire conversation out of whack.

And not to be a jerk about it, unlike most reviewers, I actually spend time and obtain real-world experience with the devices I review. And so I thought that we might have this discussion, colored as it is by about 10 days of usage, ahead of those reviews.

I wrote previously about what I described as the OnePlus pricing problem, and went into a brief history of the prices of the firm’s various handsets dating back to my first OnePlus experience, with the OnePlus 3T about three years ago. Here, I’d like to explore how the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro compare to my favorite smartphones of the past year---including the Apple iPhone 11 and 11 Pro series, the Google 4 series, and the Samsung Galaxy S20 series---and not just on price, which is important, sure, but also on value.

Value is a tough term because each of us has different preferences. As you must know, I personally value photographic prowess above anything else a smartphone can do. But others will have different concerns, sometimes a matrix of needs that must be present before they will even consider buying a particular device.

Price is typically part of that conversation even though handset cost has been perhaps been overemphasized in an era in which few people are actually plunking down the full price of a phone in real money and are, instead, spreading out that cost over two or more years. This is what makes the most expensive handsets more viable, especially for those who use them regularly all day long every day. To many, smartphones are essential, and that need has outweighed the cost.

But then COVID-19 happened.

That the pandemic is a wrench in our previous way of thinking is obvious. And for many, the uncertainty of this year, combined with job losses or at least the threat of unemployment has triggered a massive scaling back. This, in turn, has triggered ridiculous over-reactions about the viability of low-end or relatively inexpensive handsets like the new iPhone SE, which is nothing more than a dated 6-year-old design with a new processor; the iPhone SE is cheap, but it is not a good value for most people. (Yes, yes, there are always exceptions: Perhaps you have children who need a phone or are encountering financial uncertainty and have no choice in the matter.) This is the same conversation we had last year about sub-$500 PCs; there are just always going to be compromises at low price poin...