OnePlus is a big fan of Samsung, and the company let the entire world know this when it named its 2020 earbuds the “Buds” and “Buds Z,” and when it essentially copied Samsung's One UI design for its Android skin called Oxygen OS. So, maybe OnePlus is not as much of a fan as it is a company that wishes it had its rival's success. At any rate, OnePlus' latest exhibit further cements its market position relative to Samsung.
OnePlus went on Twitter hours ago to announce a surprise event scheduled for August 11 at 10:00 AM ET / 4:00 PM CET. Samsung fans will immediately realize that OnePlus' new event overlaps with Galaxy Unpacked, and it's no coincidence. However, the company's ambitions to troll Samsung on its big day might backfire, and here's why.
This will only serve to remind people why Samsung's beating OnePlus
Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event is the accumulation of a lot of research and development. It's the place where the South Korean tech giant will reveal its flagship products that will serve to push the company into 2022, and it's a pretty big deal for Samsung fans.
This year's event will host the reveal of the Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatch series, the Galaxy Buds 2, and of course, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3.
So how's OnePlus planning to compete with all this? With what appears to be a rushed-out event put out just to annoy Samsung and a teaser for an obscure non-foldable dual-screen phone, the latter of which looks more like an LG GX8 ThinQ copy than anything else. LG, as you might be aware, retired from the mobile business earlier this year due to a shrinking market presence and poor sales.
This mysterious OnePlus dual-screen phone seemingly has hidden under-display camera technology, or no selfie cameras at all, because no notches are visible. This looks like another attempt to steal the spotlight from the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and its leaked under-panel camera.
Whether or not OnePlus will succeed in its quest to divert attention from Samsung remains to be seen, but what's very obvious is that this new dual-screen phone doesn't even exist in the same class as the Galaxy Z Fold series. It's more like two phones stuck together with not a lot of effort, which means this whole stunt could backfire on the Chinese OEM.
At first glance, this dual-screen phone has the characteristics of a poor attempt at copying a proven concept at the surface level (Xiaomi at least tried harder). And if it was created as a marketing stunt for the sole purpose of annoying Samsung, it could be quickly forgotten in the shadow of the Galaxy Z Fold 3, and it might not enjoy great firmware support.
So, come 10:00 AM ET tomorrow, what will it be? Will you be joining OnePlus for its dual-screen phone reveal and miss out on one of the mobile industry's biggest tech events? Or will you join Samsung at Galaxy Unpacked 2021 and witness history in the making?
8.11 10am EThttps://t.co/mmPi4jlrhx pic.twitter.com/U6lPdrFnjf
— OnePlus_USA (@OnePlus_USA) August 10, 2021
