OnePlus 8 Pricing Might Become A Bit Controversial

OnePlus burst into the smartphone market with guns blazing, crying "Never Settle" for expensive phones when you can have nearly the same things at a much lower price. It has, however, eventually conceded that progress sometimes comes at a literal price as well. The new OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro might be its greatest masterpiece yet but they're also its most expensive, reaching that $1,000 mark at the highest end. It turns out, however, that some consumers may have some price advantage if they live in China or India.

To be clear, comparing prices between different markets isn't an exact science or math. You have to take into account factors like inflation, taxes, import costs, and others to get what may be the actual retail price for a certain market. Most of the time, those only add a few dozen dollars on top but the price gap with OnePlus 8 models might be a bit perplexing.

The OnePlus 8 starts at $699 for its base configuration of 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. China's price for that same model, however, is reportedly the equivalent of $565, $134 cheaper than the US price. The base OnePlus 8 Pro with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage costs an equivalent of $762 in China, $137 less than the $899 in the US.

That seems to also be the case in India where the OnePlus 8 is being sold for around $589 while the OnePlus 8 Pro starts at $719. Interestingly, India also has an SKU that is not available elsewhere, like a lower OnePlus 8 configuration with 6 GB of RAM.

Markets and their prices are not created equal, of course, but these price gaps might ruffle a few feathers of budget-conscious consumers, especially in times like these. This revelation follows Samsung's own mini-controversy where some feel almost cheated for being stuck with a less than ideal Exynos variant just because they live in certain markets while still paying the exact same premium price.