The Galaxy Note 5 unveil is set for August 13th in New York City, but the smartphone that will be the top flagship for 2015 has already faced its ocean of criticism from our readers and commenters on the World Wide Web. We continue to get leaks of images and photos showing off the soon-to-be-announced smartphone, and these leaks continue to confirm what will be nothing short of life-altering for some Samsung faithful: the Galaxy Note 5 will arrive without expandable storage.
As I’ve voiced in my most recent column, microSD card slots are not the wave of the future but a sign of the nostalgic past. Yet and still, the microSD card slot and removable battery criticisms are characteristic of consumers who have high expectations for flagship smartphones. While Samsung may double the base storage of the Note 5 to 64GB versus the 32GB Note 4 model, Samsung faithful have still made it their business to voice their disapproval over the progress of technology. I disagree with these disgruntled complaints, but they are understandable for one reason: criticisms follow flagships.
And the same thing can be said for the so-called “2016 Flagship Killer.”
What is the 2016 Flagship Killer, you may ask? It’s none other than the OnePlus 2, the latest smartphone designed by Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, who’s being watched as a disrupter in the smartphone market of the future (behind Xiaomi, many claim). OnePlus sold 1.5 million smartphones with its market-arrival OnePlus One handset, and the company has even higher hopes for its OnePlus 2 smartphone this year. If you haven’t seen the company’s Twitter promo material, I can sum it up in one phrase: The OnePlus 2, a 2016 Flagship Killer.
But, is the OnePlus 2 really a flagship killer?
It is, if you remove Near Field Communication (or NFC) from the list of 2015 industry standards.
With a smartphone spec sheet of a 5.5-inch, 1080p display, a capacitive fingerprint sensor, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM (3GB of RAM for the 16GB model, 4GB for the 64GB model), a 5MP front camera, 13MP back camera, a 1.8Ghz, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, and 16GB and 64GB models with swappable back covers and build quality materials, OnePlus wants to set itself apart in the market and boast that its smartphone will still be the “One” in 2016.
Without NFC, that’s impossible.
Android M will arrive this Fall, bringing Android Pay to Android consumers and update-eligible handsets, and Samsung Pay will arrive for Samsung devices, while Apple Pay continues to improve the number of members that have joined Apple’s program. With Google’s new Nexus devices (one being with Chinese manufacturer Huawei), Apple’s iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, as well as Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 and S6 edge flagships, the question remains: how does OnePlus view its smartphone as a flagship when NFC has now become an industry standard for smartphones – and the OnePlus 2 lacks the forward-looking feature?
Some have sided with OnePlus and said, “the phone is $389 for the 64GB model, cheaper than all other flagships, so what’s the problem?” Others have said NFC is future-proof and any phone without it can call itself anything it wants – as long as it abandons the claim of “flagship killer.” I would side with the latter rather than the former.
The price is irrelevant; in the flagship market, price means little if your phone isn’t high-specced, bringing the best of current technology and even stretching into the future. With mobile payments on the rise and coming to consumers whether they know it or like it or not, the OnePlus 2 is not a flagship killer, but instead, a flagship victim – falling prey to the “Big Boys” like Samsung’s Galaxy S6, S6 edge, and soon, the Galaxy Note 5.
If the OnePlus 2 were launching in the mid-end or low-end categories, we’d call the phone nothing short of excellent. Its launch into the flagship market means that the OnePlus 2, like all other flagships such as Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, and the upcoming Galaxy Note 5, comes with criticism. And NFC is a must-have for a 2015 flagship. If it were 2011, we might believe differently.
In short, being a 2016 flagship killer (1080p and the Snapdragon 810 won’t compete next year, however) involves “playing with the Big Boys,” entering into the category of high-end companies who know how to produce flagships and get consumers to flash their wallets. If you can’t provide high-end specs like NFC, you can call yourself anything you want to but your smartphone is not a flagship.
Don’t put 4K and Ultra HD video recording options, a 13MP back camera with OIS, a “hot” octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, and 4GB of DDR4 RAM in your smartphone, abandon NFC, and call it a flagship.
As the old saying goes, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” OnePlus’s greatest mistake was to call its smartphone a Flagship Killer and abandon NFC. Next year, maybe the marketing team will reconsider.
