OnePlus held a press conference on August 16 to launch its new Ace 2 Pro smartphone. During the event, Li Jie, the president of OnePlus China, took the stage to discuss both the new product and the company’s strategic outlook. He emphasized OnePlus’ commitment to offering the best performance possible in its devices. 

Within the context of this press gathering, Jie also revealed that the Ace 2 Pro had broken the pre-sale record for all models of all price segments and brands in 2023. Astoundingly, a staggering 150,000 units were sold within a mere 26-hour span. Impressive!

After the press conference, OnePlus accepted interviews from the media, responded to the media’s concerns, and shared their own views on the industry and OnePlus’ future plans. And here’s what they have to say.

OnePlus aims to be the leader in performance-centric mobile phones

According to Li Jie, the company’s aspiration is to lead in the realm of high-performance smartphones and gaming experiences. So the company is currently prioritizing the needs of the users in each price range, identifying the essential features they want, and finding ways to offer unique value that sets OnePlus’ products apart.

At the same time, in OnePlus’ view, a product’s performance and price are not mutually exclusive. They can coexist, but the order cannot be reversed. This is evident in the success of their latest smartphones, such as the OnePlus 11, OnePlus Ace 2, and OnePlus Ace 2V, which have all been well-received in the mainland market.

In fact, OnePlus’s sales volume from January to June 2023 was 335% of that of the same period last year, making it the fastest-growing brand in the industry and the only brand that achieved triple-digit growth. 

The OnePlus Ace 2 has also been a major success, ranking first in the Android market for online sales above 2,500 yuan. And from January to June, the sales volume of the OnePlus Ace series increased by a staggering 1537% year-on-year. 

Talking about their latest offering, the Ace 2 Pro, Jie shared that including the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor incurred a cost of 200 million yuan. OnePlus also collaborated with SK Hynix to mass-produce 24GB memory modules, which, when combined with OnePlus’ proprietary “Memory Gene Recombination” technology, has led to significant improvements in application launch speed, application retention rate, and overall system fluidity.

Li Jie also gave a real-world example to illustrate this. He said that if you read an article in an app in the morning and then get busy with other things before finishing it, the app will still be open when you open it again in the evening. The article will be in the same place you left it, even 72 hours later. This is the importance of background keeping alive ability. OnePlus also demonstrated the background keep alive of a variety of games at the press conference, which shows the full potential of 24GB of memory.

Besides powerful hardware, OnePlus Ace 2 Pro also has a new and thoughtful feature: Rain Touch Capability. This is one of the first smartphones to feature this technology, which was initially thought to be impossible, as shared by Li Jei. However, OnePlus took a chance and after a lot of research and development, they were able to make it happen. Now, the OnePlus Ace 2 Pro can be used in the rain without accidentally being touched.

OnePlus future plan 

Regarding the future market, Li Jie said that although the smartphone market is declining, there are still more than 200 million mobile phones sold in China every year. However, in terms of GMV, the decline is actually not that big which means that users are more likely to choose products with better performance in the current consumption environment. This is why OnePlus wants to target users who need to purchase a phone that costs more than 2,000 yuan. OnePlus has its own advantages in this regard and can match the corresponding product strength. Therefore, OnePlus is relatively optimistic about the market.

OnePlus aims to be performance-centric brand

Li Jie also explained OnePlus’ current online and offline strategy. OnePlus is still an online-based brand, but the boundaries between online and offline are not so clear for users. Some users may watch offline and buy online, while others may watch online and buy offline. Based on this consideration, OnePlus hopes to better integrate online and offline sales. Moreover, OnePlus might also use OPPO’s channels to get better support. This will provide users with a better experience. For example, OnePlus products can now be purchased at OPPO flagship stores in many core business districts. OPPO’s after-sales services across the country are also open to OnePlus users.

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