OPPO’s Keeping The Best Colors Away From OnePlus, And That’s A Problem

OnePlus announced its Watch 3 earlier this week, and all of the reviews have been pretty glowing for this watch. I do have one, and will be putting out a review soon, however, we did receive it late and didn’t think we could put together a good review in just 3 days time.

Now fast-forward to February 20th, when OPPO announced the Find N5 in Singapore (where I currently am), and also announced the OPPO Watch X2. This is essentially the OnePlus Watch 3 but in a different color. OPPO is offering the Watch X2 in a blue color called Summit Blue. And I can’t help but feel like this color would look great with the OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus Buds 3 Pro. Both of which have a blue vegan leather finish. That would be a pretty incredible setup right there. But instead, OnePlus decided to launch with the same colors as the Watch 2 and Watch 2R. That’s Obsidian and Emerald. They are fine colors, but as someone that really likes the color blue, the Watch 3 in the Splendid Blue color would have likely gotten me to ditch my Apple Watch.

OnePlus typically goes with more muted colors, versus OPPO

Since OPPO and OnePlus “merged” a few years ago, we’ve seen a lot more duplicate products from the two companies. Typically, it’s their tablet, earbuds, watch, and the Find N3 foldable. And a trend that we’ve seen is, that OnePlus typically sticks with the same colors, which are pretty boring to be honest, whereas OPPO has more exciting colors.

Take the Find N3 for example, OnePlus offered it as the Open in the US and other markets in green and black. While OPPO offered it in a stunning red vegan leather color. Which OnePlus launched a year later as the OnePlus Open Apex edition.

Obviously, OnePlus has a smaller market versus OPPO, since they are smaller in a few markets like India and China. But we’d love to see OnePlus bring some of these cooler colors over to the US, where OPPO doesn’t really exist (and is kind of unknown). OnePlus has stuck with the same black and green colors for most of its products for quite a few years now. Going all the way back to the OnePlus 10 Pro, which launched in 2022. However, this did change with the OnePlus 13, where they launched all three colors in the US – Black Eclipse, Artic Dawn, and Midnight Ocean. So it’s a step in the right direction.

OPPO saves the good stuff for themselves

Something that has really cropped up in conspiracy theories lately is, that OPPO tends to keep the good stuff for themselves, instead of selling it under the OnePlus name. Not only in the colors offered but in the devices offered. For instance, the OPPO Find N5 is not launching as a OnePlus variant this time around, even though the Find N3 launched as the OnePlus Open back in 2023.

Now, I do have some thoughts on why OnePlus decided not to launch it this year, and I think it mostly comes down to the price increase and tariffs. But it also might be that OPPO wants to increase its market share, instead of letting OnePlus sell the same device and compete with them, essentially.

If OPPO really wants OnePlus to compete in markets that they are not available in – namely the US – then they need to take the reigns off and let OnePlus sell all of these different products.