OnePlus declared war on Xiaomi: the battle for cost performance officially began

“？？？？” , "Kill crazy", "Really fake", "From 2299 yuan", "Ruisbai"...

On the day of the OnePlus Ace 2V new product launch, the style of the dark horse editorial office was like this. Because everyone was a little surprised by it.

I have to say that the oneplus Ace 2V cannon hit loudly enough, and in a very short time, it caused widespread heated discussions inside and outside the circle.

Many netizens also contributed many hot comments: This price is really fragrant, can this still make friends sit still?

The OnePlus Ace 2V was like a "depth charge" that blew up the market and also at consumers.

OnePlus, dropped a "depth charge" on the market

From the evaluation of OnePlus Ace 2V inside and outside the circle, Dark Horse screened out its most mentioned keywords: low price, balanced performance, high cost performance, and large storage of the whole series.

In the 2K-3K price range, the appearance of OnePlus Ace 2V is indeed a little surprising. At present, it has thrown out the "performance" card.

Of course, not only the OnePlus Ace 2V, in fact, the recent new machines of OnePlus, OnePlus 11 and OnePlus Ace2 are popular inside and outside the circle. Even in today's downward trend in the consumer electronics industry, OnePlus will remain upward in 2023.

It is reported that in 2023, OnePlus mobile phone sales will increase by 260% year-on-year, and it has become the fastest growing brand in mobile phone sales.

According to JD.com's sales data, as of mid-March 2023, among the 2K-3K mid-range machines, the top five sales, OnePlus mobile phones accounted for two, namely OnePlus Ace2 and OnePlus Ace 2V, the former has already exceeded 100,000 sales.

The dark horse gives everyone a highlight here - the current sales of OnePlus Ace2 are even one position ahead of Redmi K60. However, the OnePlus Ace2 has been on sale for more than a month, and the Redmi K60 is already a new machine released at the end of last year.

Undoubtedly, the arrival of OnePlus has caused great pressure on Redmi, which has always been committed to being a performance mid-range machine and calling itself the "king of cost performance".

But can OnePlus really shake Redmi? Changing the mid-market landscape?

The dust is undecided.

OnePlus, want to press the red rice on the ground "crazy rub"

In the field of mid-range performance machines, Redmi is a more well-known brand to the public. Therefore, the addition of OnePlus will inevitably scare Redmi, overlapping product keywords and development directions, and determining that there must be a battle between them.

First of all, the product power of OnePlus mobile phone can indeed compete with Redmi.

Take OnePlus Ace2V as an example, which uses the flagship chip processor of Dimensity 9000, with a large memory system, and the 12+256G version has become the starting point of memory. LPDDR5X memory chip, as well as UFS3.1 flash memory, 1.5K Lingxi straight screen, ColorOS13 system and other flagship configurations, resulting in the product power of OnePlus Ace2V is indeed eye-catching.

It is worth mentioning that the starting price of OnePlus Ace2V is 2299 yuan, and the price of the 16+512G version is only 2799 yuan. At this configuration and at this price, it can be said that it is very unexpected.

Image from mobile phone review

Compared with the OnePlus Ace2V and Redmi K60, the advantages cannot be denied.

But how many advantages are there? It's worth considering.

On the one hand, the 16+512G version of Redmi K60 is 500 yuan more expensive than the same version of OnePlus Ace2V, and OnePlus is indeed more fragrant in price.

But the product power of Redmi K60 is honestly not bad, the chip processor of Snapdragon 8+, the memory is LPDDR5 chip, plus UFS3.1 flash memory, plus 2K screen. In addition, the Redmi K60 system is MIUI14.

On the whole, OnePlus's mobile phone single product has advantages over Redmi mobile phone products of the same price, but they are minimal.

This advantage, as long as Redmi wants to, can be compensated. For example, Redmi also has the cheaper K60E.

Because of this, OnePlus starts from the research and development of product appearance, such as color matching, back cover technology, and connection details, which are more delicate and diversified than the products launched by Redmi.

It has to be said that from the perspective of appearance, Redmi focuses on young male audiences, such as Redmi K60's plain skin back cover, which is more business-oriented.

OnePlus, on the other hand, slightly staggers the audience characteristics with Redmi and takes into account the needs of young women, such as the silk glass back cover process of OnePlus Ace 2, which feels silkier and more feminine.

From this point of view, OnePlus is not completely confident in the basic solid red rice, but the product differentiation adjustment is very small.

(Redmi K60 on the left, OnePlus Ace2 on the right)

Secondly, aside from the product, OnePlus on Red Rice, there is still a big difference in the brand value base of the two.

As we all know, Redmi, which started with "thousand-yuan machine" and "cost-effective", has successfully accumulated a large number of loyal fans because of its development in the field of low-end machines. Its domestic brand image language is deeply shaped in the hearts of the people, and the mass base is broad and solid.

To exaggerate, the elders in the family do not necessarily know apples, but nine times out of ten, they know red rice.

Therefore, such a large root system, sinking in place Redmi, want to explore the main cost-effective mid-range machine, the chassis is very stable, adapt to the market rhythm is also fast and steady.

However, the first half of OnePlus's life focused on "going to sea". Therefore, its popularity in the country is not very dominant.

Although with classic and simple software and hardware systems, good appearance research and development, and reasonable prices, OnePlus mobile phones have been recognized by consumers in the European and American markets and India.

Among them, many geeks have become its "tap water" fans. At the same time, she was also rated as a "small but beautiful" mobile phone company.

However, the adjective "small and beautiful" is itself a limiting word - the side illustrates its niche, which means that the mass chassis of the brand is not large.

The only thing that can support its emergence is fan loyalty. So at this point, OnePlus on Redmi is not too big at present, and her fan chassis still needs to develop.

In addition, from the current product matrix of OnePlus, OnePlus's Ace series is a relatively hot product.

But can these become its circle-breaking symbolic products? It remains to be seen.

Because OnePlus is not a day or two to do the mid-range. The high-end product that returned to the local area at the beginning of 2021, the OnePlus 9 series, also sold very well at the beginning. After all, OnePlus has been doing high-end mobile phones overseas before, and high-end decentralization is still very attractive to most consumers.

Moreover, the OnePlus 9R is the target of the Redmi K40. However, when the oneplus 9R started with a decent performance, the subsequent reputation still collapsed. Because the new system adapts slowly and the heat is serious, OnePlus 9R has been given a bad review by consumers. The follow-up heat also dropped. At the same time, the Redmi K40 was very strong, and there was no big stain news in the follow-up word-of-mouth, and the brand trust of the public was still there.

The strategic focus of OnePlus and Redmi can be seen in the spokespersons chosen by the two. OnePlus brand wants to move from niche to public, so on the one hand, it adopts the strategy of "explosive single-product mobile phones", and on the other hand, it invites Hu Ge and Zhou Xun with higher "national popularity" to endorse.

And Redmi's product matrix has been relatively formed, and the brand reputation is relatively large. Therefore, Redmi chose to continuously ask young traffic star Wang Yibo to endorse. It is not difficult to see that Redmi, which is born in a low-end machine, still wants to enhance its brand value, symbolize the young, and embrace the young market.

From this comprehensive point of view, OnePlus on red rice, in addition to a slight advantage in the price of a single product, there are not too many advantages in other aspects.

However, OnePlus wants to keep the price of its products low and fight a price war, OnePlus still has an advantage. Because behind OnePlus is OPPO, OPPO now takes OnePlus back, sparing no effort to support OnePlus, funds, technology, channels, outlets, users and other OPPO's foundation, all shared with OnePlus.

Therefore, after OnePlus now plays a lower price, Dark Horse expects that the next mid-range market should be very exciting, and there may be continuous involution - pulling down prices and compressing profits.

Therefore, if there is no family behind it, it is difficult not to be dragged to death.

Another cost-effective brand iQOO has vivo behind it, but vivo has not yet supported iQOO, and there are not many iQOO explosive products, which may be more difficult.

Of course, after OnePlus is helped up by OPPO, the realme of the same group may become in a difficult situation, and even be "beaten into the cold". After all, the blood transfusion effect of the group is all supplied to one plus. OnePlus's odds of winning in the mid-range market are still relatively large.

However, this is only a hint at the moment. OnePlus has an advantage, but there is no overwhelming advantage, and if you want to dominate the king, you still almost have a fire. From the perspective of word of mouth, products, technology, funds, etc., the current basic disk of Redmi mid-range machine is very stable.

OnePlus, can it rebuild the "new order" of the mid-market

In the red sea of mobile phones, everyone wants to rush to the high-end.

Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo continue to pile up materials for mobile phones and constantly refresh the high-end market. Under the serious redundancy and homogenization of high-end hardware hardware, the mid-range machine market is still the highland with the greatest potential and the highest value of the current mobile phone stock market, and even the last battlefield.

The figure shows the change in the market share of Chinese smartphone brands in 2022 and 2021

Also because everyone is rushing to the top, this gives Redmi a head start, and the current mid-end market has been encroached upon and encroached upon step by step by Redrice. This is also the biggest advantage of Redmi over the latecomer OnePlus, which has been entrenched in the mid-range field for a long time. And OnePlus, a latecomer, wants to prevail, and there are still variables at present.

But the addition of OnePlus also represents one of the variables in the future mid-range market. For example, the state of OnePlus is now more like touching a little door and just stepping in, while the state of Redmi seems to have been sitting quietly in the main seat of the high hall for a long time.

In the future, it is unknown whether it will be the only one, or whether it will be divided into two worlds, or whether a new brand will enter the Central Plains, but it is foreseeable that in the past two or three years, the mid-range machine market may still be dominated by Red Rice, and it will follow.

Resources:

1.WHYLAB "Test Report" OnePlus Ace 2V  

2.WHYLAB "Redmi K60, OnePlus Ace 2, Realme GT Neo5, who is the king of the mid-range? 》 

3. AnTuTu "Sales increase by 260% against the trend! OnePlus Three New Machines Are a Great Success"  

4.36 Krypton "OnePlus's New Way to Live"  

5. Tiger Sniff "What is the strength of OnePlus "not making money"? 》  

6. Lei Technology "OnePlus, Establish a New Order in the Middle End with Flagship Thinking"