India R&D team plays a key role in development of OnePlus 5G phone

The OnePlus smartphone portfolio will continue to be 'Made in India' including flagship and Nord series, which also includes the upcoming OnePlus Nord 2, says OnePlus India

Premium smartphone maker OnePlus will continue to strengthen its commitment towards the Indian market ranging from manufacturing and R&D capabilities to offline expansion, said Navnit Nakra, vice president, chief strategy officer and head of India sales, OnePlus India.

“We began our commitment to the ‘Make in India’ initiative in February 2018, and we have been manufacturing our devices in India ever since,” said Nakra. “The OnePlus smartphone portfolio will continue to be ‘Made in India’ including flagship and Nord series, which also includes the upcoming OnePlus Nord 2. And from H1 2020, all our OnePlus TVs are being locally manufactured in India only (including the Q, U and Y series).”

The first half of  2021 has been a remarkable year for OnePlus as a brand. It started the year with the launch of the flagship OnePlus 9 Series in March 2021.The firm announced its plans to invest over $150 million for a period of the next three years to further build its mobile imaging capabilities.With the OnePlus 9 series, the company also entered a three-year partnership with high-end Swedish camera maker Hasselblad to co-develop the next generation of smartphone camera technology for future OnePlus flagship devices.

The company expanded its range of OnePlus TVs, the brand’s first step towards creating a seamless connected experience. The other product includes the OnePlus TV Camera which offers a unique smart TV camera experience. The firm also expanded its Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem with the launch of TWS headphones. It rolled out the wearable category with the OnePlus Band and OnePlus watch.

OnePlus witnessed more than 300 per cent growth in Q1 2021 driven by the OnePlus Nord and OnePlus 8T shipments as per research firm Counterpoint quarterly report. In Europe and India, OnePlus Nord achieved the best first days of sales in OnePlus history and was the most pre-ordered product ever on Amazon India. The OnePlus Nord CE 5G is the highest selling smartphone on launch day in 2021 on Amazon.in.

“We project that by the end of 2023, the accumulated sales volume of the OnePlus Nord product line will reach 25 million units globally,” said Nakra.

By early 2021, despite the pandemic, OnePlus said it has successfully generated 40 per cent more jobs locally, both direct and indirect in nature - including retail and service, as compared to earlier.

Last year, the firm announced an investment of Rs 100 crore towards offline expansion in India for this year. In line with the firm is expanding its overall retail footprint. It  plans to have  over 12000   offline stores, including partnered stores in the coming months this year.

“Our Bengaluru corporate office, as well as the R&D office in Hyderabad collectively, house over 500 employees,” said Nakra.

Over the years, the India R&D facility has grown and played a crucial role in product development efforts. The India team has been working closely with the headquarters as well as global partners for significant developments specifically from a software development front.

“This also applies to the recently launched OnePlus Nord CE as well as the new OnePlus Nord 2 devices, wherein the India R&D team has contributed immensely,” said Nakra.

These include innovations across OxygenOS, camera features, 5G network optimizations and much more. A lot of these innovations were also a result of the firm’s community co-creation efforts to acquire valuable feedback on how to improve and further innovate on the product design and overall user experience.

For instance in the case of the OnePlus Nord 2, the India R&D team took complete ownership of the network and field-testing efforts for local operators as well as global operators from EU, Southeast Asia, Middle East regions covering almost 100 operators.

The team worked to enhance the overall compatibility and interoperability performance in terms of audio and Wi-Fi connectivity and worked closely with the headquarters team for the same. Several quality assurance tests were driven by the team to ensure overall superior quality of the devices, including numerous tests on OxygenOS functionality. Over 700 hours were dedicated to conduct these quality tests to ensure the best possible stability and performance of the OnePlus Nord 2 5G device.

As part of its investment towards the Indian R&D Centre, OnePlus now operates a new, full-fledged Camera Image Quality Lab. This camera IQ lab by the India R&D team not just works on India specific camera requirements, but also contributes to the camera IQ tuning requirements for global regions including testing efforts for North American and European markets. India R&D has a dedicated team of IQ engineers who work closely with the teams in Taiwan and Shenzhen to contribute effectively on a global scale.