The OnePlus Nord arrived just a few weeks ago, in the beginning of August, and it sent shockwaves in the budget smartphone market: could we really have a $400 phone with a camera that punches way above its price, plus get a fast performance, beautiful AMOLED display, good-looking design and solid battery life all in one phone?
One month in, and the answer is: no, not really.
The $400 OnePlus Nord is now sold out across most of Europe (Germany, France, Spain, Eastern and Central Europe, the OnePlus Nord is not available anywhere except for the United Kingdom where you can still get it). And there is no word when new units will be available.
OnePlus Nord listings in Spain, France, Germany and most of Europe show the phone is out of stock
That is just unfortunate, but also by a strange coincidence, OnePlus is still ready to ship a $500 Nord right away. And yes, that phone is also a good deal, as it delivers an upgrade from 8GB to 12GB of RAM, and from 128GB to 256GB of native storage, but it’s not quite the amazing bargain that we were promised. That truly seductive $400 flagship killer is simply not available.
It’s now been nearly a month after the launch and the $400 OnePlus Nord is out of stock
And it is not the only phone that overpromised, but then was hard to come by. In fact, the OnePlus Nord joins a small army of Android phones that launched to big fanfare, but were impossible to find after the launch. The Google Pixel series are a good example: Pixel phones can be found in the United States these days, but if you have the misfortune to live in a different place in the world, chances are much slimmer that you can actually buy a Pixel phone.
And this is exactly what happened to the Google Pixel 4a, an absolute bargain of a camera phone sold at just $350 in the United States, but available in no other market whatsoever.
We keep on hearing about flagship killer Android phones and some of these devices are indeed super impressive, but what I really want to see is phones that people can actually buy, not just pretty pictures on a website where geeks have to leave a reservation and patiently wait for months. And unless these wannabe revolutionaries in the smartphone market can indeed deliver, it would still be hard to recommend them over Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones that you can actually buy today.
Source: Phonearena
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