OnePlus is making gaming monitors. Are they trying to be the next Xiaomi?

Right off their announcement that they were going to be making a mechanical keyboard with Keychron, OnePlus unveils two brand new gaming monitors, the X27 and the E24.

Of the two, the OnePlus X27 is supposed to be the star of the show. It is a 27″ Quad HD IPS monitor that pushes a refresh rate of 165Hz and a response time of 1ms. On top of that, the device supports Vesa’s DisplayHDR 400 standard, though I’m not entirely certain that means you’ll get a true HDR experience because the peak luminance for this standard is just 400 nits. It does support AMD FreeSync, 10-bit colour and also covers 95% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, which is always nice to see.

Now, if these specs look familiar, that’s because they’re almost identical to what you’d find on Xiaomi’s Mi 2K Gaming Monitor 27″. In fact, the design of the monitor and stand itself are also nearly identical—well, except for the fact that this one says OnePlus on the back. On this X27 model you get a stand that is height adjustable, can pivot, tilt and swivel. But, if you don’t like having stands on your desk, this monitor also supports VESA mounts of 75mm.

Despite looking like Xiaomi’s monitor, it still looks pretty good. It’s got slim bezels on all but the chin, and when you combine that with the minimally designed stand, I can appreciate how far it strays from the garish “gaming” aesthetic. There is also a nice selection of ports, including a 65W USB-C port that can power most laptops or charge your devices, an HDMI 2.1 port, a DisplayPort 1.4, two USB-A 3.0 ports and a headphone jack.

Comparatively, the E24 is far less impressive. This model features a 24″ Full HD IPS panel that supports a refresh rate of 75Hz. Max brightness is now only 250 nits instead of the 350 nits on the X27, and you lose all that fancy certification from the X27 except for the TUV Rheinland bluelight certification.

The design is pretty similar, with the E24 also sporting slim bezels on all but the chin, though the “sturdy metal stand” is far less adjustable, only supporting tilt adjustments. You do get 75mm VESA mount support so I guess it’s not too big of an issue since you can pick up a nice gas strut arm for not a whole lot of money these days.

You also lose out on a bunch of connectivity, as the E24 only supports one USB-C port with 18W power delivery, one HDMI 1.4 port, one VGA port and a headphone jack. But, considering the fact that this is supposed to be the affordable one—it makes sense.

Speaking of affordability though, these monitors are currently only available in India. The X27 is priced at INR27,000 (~RM1,500), which isn’t too far off what Xiaomi was trying to sell its gaming monitor for. The E24, however, has not had its priced revealed. We also don’t know whether these monitors will make their way into our region just yet.

It’s interesting that the company is venturing into so many different products categories, but I guess it makes sense if you look at what a company like Xiaomi has done. There are a lot of parallels between the growth of both companies after all. I wonder what OnePlus will launch next? Maybe their very own Mini PC?

[SOURCE, 2, VIA, 2]