Winners and Losers: OnePlus races towards tedium while Sony’s PS5 wows

It has been yet another whirlwind week in the world of tech, with Tile’s CXO lashing out at Apple for its “copycat” tactics and more new products hitting the scene than you can shake a stick at.

But for us here at Trusted Reviews, there have been two very clear winners and losers to come out of the tech storm. Here’s who they are:

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Winner: Sony and the PS5

Sony’s not had the best year as a company, with sales of its phones moving at a snail’s pace. But its gaming department has been going from strength-to-strength. From what we’ve seen this week, this trend will likely continue into the next generation of console wars.

This is because the company managed to once again set the gaming and tech world alight by releasing a slither of fresh info about the PS5 – none of which was particularly groundbreaking.

Specifically, Sony revealed the console will actually be called the PS5 (shocking, we know), that its new Dualshock 5 controller will have haptic feedback, and that both will launch at the end of next year. Hardly the sexiest leak, but even these small details were enough to get the world screaming with excitement – seriously, it was kind of scary seeing quite how fast the line was going up in Google Trends.

Meanwhile, search around the competing Xbox 2 “Project Scarlett” stayed flat – giving a clear indication which console is capturing gamers hearts at the moment.

Hopefully Microsoft will do something to reverse the trend, but this week Sony is the undisputed winner in the next-gen console war.

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Loser: OnePlus with its damp squib phone launch

OnePlus has traditionally been a wonderfully disruptive force in the world of mobiles, releasing stellar value for money phones that have forced big name players to up their game. But as Trusted’s Chris Smith noted, it went from being the phone industry’s punk rocker to a safe as houses member of the establishment this week, with the launch of its dullest phone to date – the OnePlus 7T Pro.

Before I get the haters queuing at the door, let me be clear: the OnePlus 7T Pro is a great phone. Its Fluid AMOLED screen is leading in class and it has all the trimmings you’d expect from a flagship. However, you can’t ignore the fact is it’s not at all disruptive, and the upgrades OnePlus has made to differentiate it from the older OnePlus 7 Pro are about as exciting as John Major’s memoirs.

All you get is a modest upgrade to the phone’s CPU and fast charging tech. This isn’t terrible, but it made the company’s London launch event feel a little over the top and, if we’re honest, a bit of a waste of time. Maybe wait until you have something actually exciting to launch next time, OnePlus. Settling for a simple hardware refresh hardly merits a live stream and oodles of PR about “never settling”.