Major reports say OnePlus, Realme merge, but there’s a lot still in the dark

What you need to know

A significant report claims OnePlus has merged with the OPPO sub-brand, Realme.
It’s been reported that a sub-product and business unit has been established, and the people involved will “report to Pete Lau,” the OnePlus CEO.
Android Central received a statement from OnePlus North America; however, it sheds little light on the current situation.

As if the rumors couldn’t get any more interesting, now there are reports that say OnePlus is entering a new era with an OPPO sub-brand.

This week, Chinese tipster Digital Chat Station (DCS) posted on Weibo that OnePlus had “officially” merged with Realme. What’s interesting here is that OnePlus is also a sub-brand of OPPO. The tipster states (machine-translated), “a sub-product center has been established, encompassing domestic and overseas product departments.” There has also been a business unit established, which will oversee the “marketing and service systems” for OnePlus and Realme.

DCS adds that many of these new teams will report to OnePlus CEO Pete Lau. Elsewhere, a report by Leiphone doubles down on the allegations that both companies have merged (via Gizmochina). The publication reportedly sought analyst speculation, stating this merger could help OPPO in focusing its “resources to expand into the global market.” More importantly, this could also facilitate a clearer device strategy moving forward.

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We should take this with a grain of salt for now. OnePlus has yet to publish a press release regarding the merger. Additionally, Android Central’s Nicholas Sutrich reached out to OnePlus North America about this and received the following statement: “OnePlus North America is evaluating its regional roadmap and product strategy. All users’ after-sales support, software updates, and rights commitments are fully guaranteed.”

Suffice to say, this hasn’t given us much to go on. If anything changes, we will update this post.

OnePlus… Realme?

A themed lockscreen using the OnePlus 15's built-in Flux Themes engine

(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Let’s get something out of the way: there have been OnePlus (global) shutdown rumors for a few months now. While the company has declined the possibility of a shutdown in global markets, the executive who spearheaded that recently stepped down. OnePlus India CEO Robin Liu stepped down in March, and the company said it was due to “personal reasons.” This came at an odd time, considering OnePlus has had its struggles.

Most recently, there have been some unsettling signs that OnePlus could drop out of the European market. New employee posts in LinkedIn suggest OnePlus might be scaling back its operations, as it’s reportedly looking to “review” its global strategy. Nothing about this was confirmed, aside from the employee posts, but it’s worrying. Now, we have this rumor about a merger between OnePlus and Realme, and things are pretty much left in limbo.

Android Central’s Take

I’ve been following this here and there since the rumors started. OnePlus phones are pretty neat, especially given their focus on battery capacity and gaming, too. But it’s hard to ignore that there are clearly issues. Next-gen devices have pretty much skipped the U.S., and I’m not sure where things will go from here.