There’s nothing minimalistic about the scene at OnePlus’ 10T launch event, and in a place called Gotham Hall, how could it be? The ceiling and walls are lit up bright red and the audience is covered in a blue glow. There’s also a chandelier in the middle of the ceiling that gives off a real Phantom of the Opera vibe.
OnePlus hasn’t left much to the imagination ahead of its launch event. On the one hand, a pair of 10Ts are embedded in the wall where attendees enter, so the template is up. As it’s wont to do, OnePlus has also dropped the specs early, from the chipset to the controversial missing alert slider. It’s a color-by-numbers image of the phone with almost every element shaded except for one key spec: the price.
Grid view
Like almost everyone sitting around me in a section reserved for media, I’ve had a OnePlus 10T to test under embargo for a couple of weeks. We know how it works, what it costs, and we’ve formed our opinions on who should or shouldn’t buy one. We are not here to learn anything new; we’re here on broadway street to do some theater.
So are a few hundred other attendees, and it’s not just tech industry types: OnePlus opened its doors to anyone who paid $25 for a ticket. Attendees begin to crowd into the back standing room as the seats fill up, and a guy with an Extreme Movie Announcer Voice informs us all that more chairs are coming.
If you didn’t tweet it, you weren’t really there.
There aren’t enough chairs for everyone, but the event starts anyway, and it’s as cinematic as the venue implied: projectors illuminate the walls above and around the stage to emphasize what’s being announced : a lightning bolt for fast charging. ; volcanic rock for design revelation, etc. You might think you’re in a very dramatic stage show or maybe Cirque du Soleil, but no, it’s a phone.
To that end, there’s a slide at the beginning of the presentation that’s just rough specs that gets excited applause. A gentleman behind me yells “where’s the alert slider?” a couple of times when the presenters take a break. This is truly a unique kind of drama.
The presentation drags on a bit and by the end of the Color OxygenOS 13 bit, we’re all ready to get out of our seats. Someone nearby is playing a game I don’t recognize on their phone; maybe it’s a 10T? Anyway, it’s a good use case. Maybe the presentation went on too long – we stopped at one video twice! — or maybe it’s just that I have to pee. If this was a virtual event like all the others in the last couple of years, this wouldn’t be a problem. But I’m stuck in my seat with a wall of standing room only attendees blocking my way to the exit. Finally, we have the grand prize reveal and are encouraged to visit the demo stations in the rooms at the back of the theater.
This has something to do with the phone’s heat dissipation system.
Maybe it’s a newfound perspective after more than two years of somewhat isolated existence, but the demo’s situation is a bit of a wonderland, familiar but not familiar either. Servers carry plates of iced coffees with OnePlus branding and names that play off the phone’s features, like the “Long Life Latte.” There’s a whole menu of snacks and drinks like this, but the brand doesn’t go so far as to cover a Bud Light logo on one of the coolers.
One room features a deconstructed model of the phone’s cooling system, draped in dry ice and dramatically lit, as if it were the Ark of the Covenant. There’s also a wall of previous OnePlus devices with alert sliders as far as the eye can see, what a tease.
Phone-henge One nation, under Lau.
There are bags of clothes on the way out, of course, and back through the looking glass to 36th Street, oppressive heat and blinding sunlight. One of the event hosts is on the sidewalk waiting for an Uber (see? They’re just like us!), and I dare myself for a minute before rushing to the next thing on my calendar. It wasn’t quite Hamilton, but it was a good, if slightly odd, bit of entertainment.
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge