OnePlus One pricing goes up in Europe -- blame the weak Euro

OnePlus One

Now is not a great time to be a technology enthusiast in Europe. As you may know, local prices of anything from smartphones to motherboards are set in accordance to the USD. And it has appreciated considerably in relation to the Euro, which is now in the proverbial toilet. Put two and two together and have inevitable price hikes -- vendors don't want to sell at a loss, after all.

The extent of the damage to the vendors' bottom line depends on how much they're willing or can afford to lose. For a smartphone maker like OnePlus, which doesn't have high margins, the answer is not a lot, as it just announced it will soon command higher prices for its One "flagship killer" on the old continent.

OnePlus says that because of the low EUR to USD exchange rate (now at just 1.06, compared to over 1.35 a year ago) its "razor-thin margins began to turn into 0 margins". Now, the company claims that it's selling One smartphones in Europe at a loss.

So, instead of continuing to sell One at €269 (for the 16 GB model) and €299 (for the 64 GB model) its smartphone will be available to those in Europe for €299 and €349, respectively. Naturally, these prices do not include VAT, which, within the EU at least, is anywhere between 18 percent to 27 percent of the cost of the device, depending on which member state it is shipped to.

If you are interested in buying One you have until next Tuesday to take advantage of the current pricing. OnePlus says that the prices of accessories will not change, presumably because the company sells them with comfortable-enough margins.

One highlights include: 5.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1080 by 1920; 2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801; 3 GB of RAM; 3,100 mAh battery; 13 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture; 4K, 1080p, and 720p at 120 FPS video recording; 5 MP wide-angle front-facing camera; NFC; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.1; GPS; 4G LTE; CyanogenMod 11S (based on Android 4.4 KitKat -- an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop is in the cards for late-March), and physical dimensions of 152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9 mm and weight of 162 grams.

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