The OnePlus 11 has now landed and achieved a stable 4 stars in our OnePlus 11 evaluation, however in case you have been hoping for a good higher-end OnePlus 11 Professional – one which may maybe seize that remaining star – then you definately’re out of luck, as OnePlus has confirmed there gained’t be one.
In a press release to Android Authority (opens in new tab), a spokesperson for the corporate mentioned: “Beginning with our 2023 lineup, we’re streamlining the flagship portfolio in North America (and globally) by eradicating our Professional lineup. In our opinion, you don’t have to have a ‘Professional’ identify for a tool that’s already ‘professional’.”
So it feels like there gained’t be a OnePlus 12 Professional or any future Professional fashions both, and Android Authority moreover claims to have been advised there additionally gained’t be a OnePlus 11T, that means that exterior India – the place there’s additionally a OnePlus 11R – there’ll in all probability solely be one high-end OnePlus cellphone this 12 months.
The dearth of a Professional mannequin this 12 months isn’t significantly stunning, provided that we’d count on to have seen it by now – or no less than heard leaks about it – if such a cellphone was coming. Plus, for probably the most half the OnePlus 11 is a Professional cellphone in all however identify, which is actually what OnePlus is saying within the assertion above.
That is arguably a much less complicated strategy than what the corporate did final 12 months, the place it launched a OnePlus 10 Professional however not a normal OnePlus 10. The Professional suffix implies there’s a normal mannequin that it is a Professional variant of, so it was an odd selection of identify that they’ve primarily corrected this 12 months.
Nonetheless, there are some clear lacking options right here {that a} OnePlus 11 Professional may have addressed, comparable to wi-fi charging and correct, licensed water resistance.
After all, whereas that is the corporate’s stance for now it’d finally change its thoughts, although in all probability not in time for a OnePlus 11 Professional.
It’s additionally doable that there shall be different high-end OnePlus telephones that don’t have Professional within the identify. We all know, as an example, that the corporate shall be displaying off a OnePlus 11 idea cellphone at MWC 2023 later this month – although that’s unlikely to be launched commercially.
Evaluation: it’s the Nord sequence that actually wants streamlining
Most cellphone producers launch multiple high-end handset every year. From Apple to Samsung, to Google, to Xiaomi and past, there are numerous Professional and Extremely fashions to go alongside their commonplace flagships.
So the flagship OnePlus line, with its usually two yearly fashions (not counting the T and R releases), doesn’t really feel overly in want of streamlining.
What feels far messier and extra bloated although is the Nord line. This sequence has had no less than 9 entries thus far, regardless of solely beginning in July 2020. The best way they’re named additionally doesn’t at all times depart it completely clear the place they sit as compared to one another, making it a probably complicated line for customers to interpret.
Not each Nord cellphone is offered in every single place. Proper now, for instance, OnePlus shares the Nord N20, Nord N100 and the OnePlus Nord N200 within the US, whereas within the UK there’s the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite and the OnePlus Nord 2T.
That slims down your choices nevertheless it additionally probably provides confusion, since we dwell in a worldwide society, so individuals shall be studying about telephones they will’t purchase. Many of those handsets are fairly related too, so there actually appears no need for therefore a lot of them, or for various areas to get totally different entries.
As such, if OnePlus is severe about streamlining its portfolio, it’s not the flagships that want consideration, it is the overlapping Nord sequence. Nonetheless, maybe we’ll hear about adjustments to this lineup with the launch of the OnePlus Nord 3.