From the Editor's Desk: OnePlus, growing up and keeping your soul - Android Central

But as the company has grown over the past half-decade, culminating in the recent launch of the OnePlus 8 series, it's faced accusations that it no longer represents the core fans who helped build its brand.

OnePlus has grown up, its phones are more expensive, and as a result, to many people, it looks like just another big manufacturer?

And if you're the kind of person who was all over the OnePlus One six years ago, should you feel let down or even distrustful of what the company has become today.

A couple of years back, OnePlus joined the Android beta program, and pushed out upgrades to Android 9 and Android 10 faster than just about anyone else.

Now granted, Android itself is a different beast compared to five years ago, thanks to endeavors like Project Treble.

well, let's just say that OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 owners were in for a much, much longer wait for those OTAs.

At the same time, OnePlus's phones have some of the longest support lifespans in the Android world.

That's all well and good for unlocked OnePlus owners, but the fact that the company now deals with carriers means it also has to play by their rules for network-branded phones.

And it's been thanks to that ongoing conversation between fans and OnePlus that we've gotten features like Zen Mode for digitally detoxing.

In more recent phones like the OnePlus 8, the new OnePlus Laboratories area showcases new features suggested by fans that aren't quite ready for prime time yet.

The OnePlus fan phenomenon was also alive and well at the brand's various launch events in 2019, with fans taking up a significant chunk of space at the kind of event that'd normally be reserved for industry partners, media and analysts.

The same can be seen at the heavily-attended popup events that gave fans the chance to snap up new OnePlus phones before the street date.

But why have OnePlus phones' prices steadily increased over time.

Well, partly that's just been a trend in the industry over the past few years — because phones do much more these days.

The steady increase in sales of OnePlus phones, and the growth of carrier partnerships in countries like the US — shows that when it puts these extra goodies in a phone, there's an audience ready and waiting to snap it up.

While the ludicrously low prices of the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 served as the starting motor for the company, its success has been sustained by more traditional smartphone things like software, performance design and good old-fashioned brand cachet.