OnePlus has cut the ability to swap covers on its much sought-after debut phone, the OnePlus One.
The OnePlus mantra is "Never Settle," but it's been more like "Never Sell" since the announcement of the OnePlus One back in April. A convoluted invite system has resulted in handsets being sent out at a snail's pace.
What's more, it now seems as if prospective OnePlus One owners will have to settle for a lack of personalisation for their improbably cheap 5.5-inch smartphones.
In a post on the company's forums, OnePlus has revealed that the appealing cover-swapping system has had to be abandoned.
"We’ve experienced technical difficulties in mass producing the StyleSwap covers at an acceptable level of quality," reads the post.
As the company notes, the whole StyleSwap system was very ambitious - particularly for such a young company. Not many manufacturers offer such a system, with Motorola one of the few to make it stick in recent times.
Removing the OnePlus One's cover, as anyone who's tried it will attest, is very tricky indeed, and this appears to have played a part in this decision. As OnePlus accepts, "now we know that we could have designed the removal process of the back covers better; it’s tricky and makes frequent switches difficult."
The process can also have the undesirable side effect of leaving the otherwise solid back cover creaky or loose, and the company also says that it risks damage to the exposed battery.
"Ultimately, we made the very hard choice to stop production of StyleSwap covers for the OnePlus One," says OnePlus. "We simply aren’t comfortable mass releasing a product that does not offer the best user experience."
If this means that more OnePlus One handsets can make their way into customer hands, we doubt many people will complain. It's still a truly excellent Android phone for a staggeringly low (£229) price.
Read More: OnePlus One vs Nexus 5
Via: Engadget