The OnePlus 5 has become the ‘highest revenue grossing smartphone on Amazon’, read the headlines. It has achieved a ‘3x jump in growth over the OnePlus 3T‘, says OnePlus. The launch of the OnePlus 5 has been accompanied by unprecedented amplification by the company. Look beyond the veil though and you’ll see that the fervour is real. There is a passionate audience, across demographics, for whom the atmosphere is electric. Ready to devour any morsel of information and share their own tips and tricks for the latest and greatest from the company, OnePlus hosted a series of pop up stores across the country where like-minded fans could interact.
The launch of the OnePlus 5 comes merely months after the OnePlus 3T. We’re at an inflection point in the technology space where real world performance gains are minimal and brands are finding it hard to differentiate. The OnePlus 5 has therefore opted for a dual camera system that it claims is the highest resolution dual camera system on the market. Building on the success of their previous products and continuing the tradition of striking a balance between price and performance, the OnePlus 5 has by all measures created an incredible amount of hype. Indeed, looking at our review, you’ll observe that the phone offers tremendous value for money and is perhaps the best performing handset in the category. The camera too delivers for the most part and certainly isn’t lagging behind.
The #OnePlus5 hype is real ! Was actually interesting to see consumers buy it at the #OnePlus5PopUp in Chennai pic.twitter.com/TBTRGbt6Na
— Varun Krishnan (@varunkrish) June 24, 2017
While the phone will predominantly be sold online through Amazon’s store front, OnePlus held a series of pop up stores across the country to give their fans a taste of their latest flagship. We attended one such event and it was clear that the hype is absolutely real. Fans from near and afar queued up for hours to get their hands on the new smartphone. The limited quantity of handsets on sale certainly did not deter the fans who braved the sweltering summer heat to be amongst the first to get their hands on the phone.
The events had an almost even split between casual observers and ardent fans. We spoke to a few buyers who were keen to wax lyrical about their love for the company. Indeed, this is not all that different from what we’d observed when we profiled Xiaomi’s community earlier on. Between the clean build of Android and high-end components, prospective buyers are not unwilling to spend a little extra on this year’s handset.
Met one of our earliest fans @varunkrish at #OnePlus5Popup in Chennai. Who all are coming to Hyderabad pop-up tomorrow? pic.twitter.com/pswbjNBE50
— Vika5 Agarwal (@Vikas_AGL) June 24, 2017
Commenting on the launch and pop up stores, Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India, said,
We are humbled by the response we have seen for the early access sales on Amazon.in as well as the pop-up events held across 5 cities in India. What was truly overwhelming for us was that we saw customers coming from remote and far off locations to queue-up for the pop-up events in these 5 cities, just to be amongst the first ones to own OnePlus 5. The passion and excitement exuded from them, inspires us to continuously improve their experience with the brand and the products.
The OnePlus 5 Pop Up stores demonstrated that with each subsequent step, the company is breaking away from being just an online player. While there’s a lot more to be done to be competitive in the offline space, OnePlus proved that they can certainly pull an audience when they need to.