Waterproofing is not that big a necessity for the customer: OnePlus CEO Pete Lau

The OnePlus 5 has been criticised for not having water resistance, looking too similar to the iPhone 7, not having a high resolution display, an underperforming camera and trying to fudge benchmarking scores. In an interview with  The Indian Express , OnePlus CEO, Pete Lau responded to some of these criticisms.

Opinions are divided on the striking similarity the OnePlus 5 has to the iPhone 7 . David Pierce, reviewing for Wired , says “It looks a lot like an iPhone 7 Plus, which I say as a compliment.” Vlad Savov, reviewing the device for The Verge says “I don’t want to be seen carrying an iPhone-wannabe phone. I did enough of that as a kid having to wear Reebuk sneakers. The look of the OnePlus 5 is, in a word, inauthentic.” Lau, when asked about the phone being equated to other phone designs said “I am used to it. Ever since the OnePlus One, we have seen this. But time has proved everything. OnePlus One has become a classic.”

Lau, defended the absence of waterproofing by saying, “We don’t have waterproofing as we want the phone to be thin and light. Thermal dissipation is just another small factor in this. I also think waterproofing is not that big a necessity for the customer, and hence we don’t meet that demand. But there is a certain amount of water resistance already built into the OnePlus 5, we just don’t advertise it as it is not covered under warranty.”

When asked about the absence of a 2k display on the phone, Lau said that the use of 2k display increases the power consumption. He also added that a 2k display doesn’t make a difference in experience at this display size. Responding to a question on benchmarks , Lau said that OnePlus tries to tap the full potential of the CPU in general, and not just for benchmarks. The performance of the CPU will not reach maximum if the system gets too hot. He added that they don’t even know how to overclock.

Pete Lau defended the price of OnePlus 5 and pointed out the increase in the cost of components. Lau noted that even the cost of the box has gone up.