The OnePlus 8 Pro is scratching the US$1,000 mark, a far cry from OnePlus' origins. Undoubtedly, you get a high-quality smartphone for the money, but is OnePlus' latest smartphone still a bargain? Arguably not, but that does not preclude the OnePlus 8 Pro from being good value for money.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/OnePlus-8-Pro-Is-the-high-price-justified.462205.0.html
Thing is, I can get significant discounts on Samsung phones. Right now, for example, I can get S20 (or Note 10) cheaper than OnePlus 8 (non-Pro). I'm not interested in the S20, but it makes it really difficult to call OnePlus a bargain.
I meant good value for money. I don't necessarily appreciate all the extras Samsung puts on, but it's hard to deny they spend more money on development and can offer a better service. The point of OnePlus was, in my eyes, to strip all that to essentials so that we don't have to pay for what's often a little more than a gimmick (which can cost us performance and energy to boot). And these prices seem way too high for a phone that should be all about essentials. Even if the hardware is top notch. I also don't get the increases in RAM rather than storage. Especially if there is no card reader. It's doubtful whether you can use the RAM but storage is useful; if for nothing else, then for media. You can easily enough fill 256 GB with just music.
As I've been saying for a long time. If people keep buying $1000 phones, they're going to get $1000 phones. Manufacturers will simply aim for it and do their best to justify the price/ convince us to spend it with them. And as long as people keep buying, it's not going to stop. They've already tried breaching $2000 on a base configuration. That might be a stretch too big even for Apple. But if anyone can do it, they can.