3 years ago I loved the Moto X 2013 and most of the community did not. It had a weaker screen and processor than some competitors, didn't have boom sound, was my first phone without a removable battery - it was, on paper, not the best. But it brought a "work smarter, not harder" mentality to the industry that had frankly been missing from everything but the nexus line, which was doing a horrible job of selling that philosophy and wasn't available on Verizon anyways, so moot point. The X 2013 wasn't cheaper at first, it price dropped later - the X 2014 and MXPE both were cheaper than other flagships by no small amount.
This year the OP3 makes a STRONG argument that paying $700 or more for a phone isn't necessary when you get get damn near the same level of performance out of something that's $500 or less - or in this case, $399. Does it have the same level of polish on every front as the S7 E? No, but who cares? I really don't like Samsung anyways. Realistically, I wasn't going to buy the S7 E - because despite it having top end everything inside it, and this being the first year where execution on experience is up there with some of the competition - it's still just not me and the devices I like have never been top of the line everything - they've always been more focused.
The OnePlus 3 makes far fewer compromises than the Moto X 2013 did and does it at a lower price tag.
GSMArena said in their review, "Overall, the OnePlus 3 is best described by pragmatic choices". I don't know if they said the same thing about Moto 3 years ago, they probably didn't because most reviewers hated it without ever trying to understand some of the choices (like the X8 computing system rather than the full S600 that almost every blog mislabled as an S4) - but they easily could have said that. Moto did some things that were intentional and they knew they were going to get criticism on some of those choices but they pushed on anyways because some of those choices were the right thing to do. 720P on a 4.7" device was the right call - using a terribad display was not. For OP3 using a 1080P on a 5.5" device isn't that controversial, it's probably the right call for the right reasons - but it's using a BAD display that's not ok. Word on the street is they're trying to fix that, so we'll see. Either way, both companies trying to push back on the industry being overall too ... shiny obsessed and making some very smart choices along those lines with some stumbling blocks along the way.
Is the OP3 the new Moto X? I'm not sure, but that's the closest I can get to it right now - although I will say this. If they learn from the two biggest stumbling blocks of this year (Dash Charge and Diamond Pentile display calibrated poorly), the rest of what they're doing already looks good and their on a track to have a similar undying fanbase that Moto started garnering over the last few years.
Don't try to sell me some nonsense about it being better at this and that than what Samsung does - let it stand for what it's doing right. Work smarter, not harder. If we miss that point, we're doing the OP3 a disservice.
OnePlus - if you sell out to Lenovo, I'm coming for you. Otherwise, learn from what went wrong this year and fix it next year and the OnePlus 4 is shaping up to be a leader.
This year the OP3 makes a STRONG argument that paying $700 or more for a phone isn't necessary when you get get damn near the same level of performance out of something that's $500 or less - or in this case, $399. Does it have the same level of polish on every front as the S7 E? No, but who cares? I really don't like Samsung anyways. Realistically, I wasn't going to buy the S7 E - because despite it having top end everything inside it, and this being the first year where execution on experience is up there with some of the competition - it's still just not me and the devices I like have never been top of the line everything - they've always been more focused.
The OnePlus 3 makes far fewer compromises than the Moto X 2013 did and does it at a lower price tag.
GSMArena said in their review, "Overall, the OnePlus 3 is best described by pragmatic choices". I don't know if they said the same thing about Moto 3 years ago, they probably didn't because most reviewers hated it without ever trying to understand some of the choices (like the X8 computing system rather than the full S600 that almost every blog mislabled as an S4) - but they easily could have said that. Moto did some things that were intentional and they knew they were going to get criticism on some of those choices but they pushed on anyways because some of those choices were the right thing to do. 720P on a 4.7" device was the right call - using a terribad display was not. For OP3 using a 1080P on a 5.5" device isn't that controversial, it's probably the right call for the right reasons - but it's using a BAD display that's not ok. Word on the street is they're trying to fix that, so we'll see. Either way, both companies trying to push back on the industry being overall too ... shiny obsessed and making some very smart choices along those lines with some stumbling blocks along the way.
Is the OP3 the new Moto X? I'm not sure, but that's the closest I can get to it right now - although I will say this. If they learn from the two biggest stumbling blocks of this year (Dash Charge and Diamond Pentile display calibrated poorly), the rest of what they're doing already looks good and their on a track to have a similar undying fanbase that Moto started garnering over the last few years.
Don't try to sell me some nonsense about it being better at this and that than what Samsung does - let it stand for what it's doing right. Work smarter, not harder. If we miss that point, we're doing the OP3 a disservice.
OnePlus - if you sell out to Lenovo, I'm coming for you. Otherwise, learn from what went wrong this year and fix it next year and the OnePlus 4 is shaping up to be a leader.
But I used way more words so...
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