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OnePlus announced a global version of its new flagship, the OnePlus 11, yesterday. The company hosted a ‘Cloud 11’ event, and presented quite a few devices, including its new flagship. That phone is actually quite compelling, at least if you take into consideration its price in the US. Things do get rather different when you look elsewhere, though. The OnePlus 11 basically has great pricing in the US, many people would say it’s one of the best buy high-end phones now, but it’s a luxury item in Europe, basically.
The OnePlus 11 pricing across Europe is much higher than in the US
Does this sound a bit drastic? Well, that’s because it kind of is. I was scrolling through different countries within the EU yesterday, as I couldn’t believe how much the device costs in my region. For those of you who don’t know, OnePlus basically has a separate subdomain on its main website for many regions. For example, there’s a subdomain for the US, Germany, Spain, France, and so on. Therefore, you can check official price tags for every country, directly from the company. That’s one great thing about OnePlus, you can get their devices directly from the company in a number of regions.
In any case, as I was scrolling through prices, I was shocked. The OnePlus 11 comes in 8GB and 16GB RAM models, with 128GB and 256GB of storage. The phone’s pricing starts at $699 (€651) in the US, which is a great price tag for this phone, especially considering we had time to use it and review it, to see for ourselves. If you change the region to Spain, however, things get much different. In Spain, the phone’s pricing starts at €849 ($912), the same is the case in France and Italy. In Austria, the phone is slightly cheaper at €829 ($891), as it is in Croatia (do note that it was listed at €899 in Croatia yesterday, though, I don’t know what happened there). If we go a bit further, and navigate to Hungary, for example, you’ll notice that the price jumps up to €909 ($977). In Denmark, the phone is priced at DKR6,499 (€873/$938). All this after OnePlus poked fun at Samsung regarding Galaxy S23 series pricing. There’s a table for you below, so that it’s easier to see the differences. The conversions are made using Google directly, based on today’s conversion rate.
| Country & default currency | Starting at in $ | Starting at in € |
| The US ($) | $699 | €650 (converted) |
| Spain (€) | $913 (converted) | €849 |
| France (€) | $913 (converted) | €849 |
| Italy (€) | $913 (converted) | €849 |
| Austria (€) | $892 (converted) | €829 |
| Croatia (€) | $892 (converted) | €829 |
| Hungary (€) | $978 (converted) | €909 |
| Denmark (DKR) | $939 (converted) | €873 (converted) |
| The UK (£) | $882 (converted) | €820 (converted) |
The base model in Hungary costs almost $300 more than in the US
As you can see, the differences here are crazy. Looking at the pricing in US dollars, the phone is $213 more expensive in Spain, France, and Italy. It’s $198 more expensive in Austria, and $267 more expensive in Croatia. Users in Hungary have to pay almost $300 more. Needless to say, this makes no sense at all. Prices in Europe are always higher than the ones in the US, but these are some major differences we’re looking at here. OnePlus phones have always been more expensive in Europe, but nowhere near this much. This made me wonder what’s going on. The first thing that came to mind is OnePlus’ situation in Germany.
OnePlus’ patent problems in Germany may have something to do with it
To those of you who don’t know, OnePlus is banned from selling phones in Germany, due to a patent dispute with Nokia. The same goes for OPPO as well, actually. Germany was one of the main markets for OnePlus in Europe, and I can’t confirm this, but there’s a good chance OnePlus smartphones within the EU were shipping from Germany. OnePlus had to change things, and adapt to this situation. So perhaps it counted in the losses, and hiked up the prices because of it. This is just a guess, as this situation may have had something to do with it.
The price hikes are easily noticeable in phones from other OEMs too
We do live in challenging times, as inflation is in effect, and Europe has been hit pretty hard. Still, all that combined should not have affected the OnePlus 11 price that much. These differences are kind of shocking. Just to be clear, OnePlus is not the only culprit here. As I said, price tags for smartphones in Europe have always been higher than in the US, mainly for tax reasons, and various other smaller fees. Those differences did get more pronounced in the last year or so. Users in Europe are also paying a premium for the Galaxy S23 series, as the price tags are also considerably higher, the same goes for the iPhone 14 series, and more.
The Pixel 7 series, for example, is not that much more expensive in Europe. The Pixel 7 pricing in the US starts at $599 (€557), while the Pixel 7 Pro pricing starts at $899 (€836). Both phones are discounted now, but I’m focusing on their base price tags. If we compare that with the price tags in Europe, in Germany, for example, the difference is not that pronounced. The Pixel 7’s pricing starts at €649 ($698), while the Pixel 7 Pro’s starts at €899 ($967). I’ve been checking out the price tags on the Google Store, but you can get them for less cash from Amazon. The Pixel 7 starts at around €560 ($602) as we speak. In other words, the difference is not that pronounced, nowhere near what OnePlus did with the OnePlus 11.
It’s a bit of a mystery
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but it sure is not a pretty sight for users in Europe. The OnePlus 11 may be a prime example, but it’s a similar situation with many other phones. VAT in Europe does make a difference, and we’re used to it, but these massive price differences don’t make much sense.