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Ah, I love a good plate of damage control for a late afternoon lunch. After, well, pretty much everyone chastised OnePlus for their environmentally and socially irresponsible Smash the Past contest — where winners are asked to smash their phones to buy a OnePlus One for $1 — the company is looking to make things right.
Those who are chosen to smash their phones can forego that particular step altogether and can instead opt to donate their phone to Medic Mobile, an organization that looks to equip healthcare workers in developing countries with phones to use for the purpose of enabling them to provide better care for patients.
The option to smash your phone will still exist — and we’re sure OnePlus is still going to take a lot of flak for leaving it up — but if you are chosen and are as environmentally conscious as everyone claims to be, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Smash the Past is over now, and they have gotten 140,000 sign-ups from people interested in participating. They only have 100 to give away out of all that, so you’ll need to make those shooting star wishes extra hard tonight. Let us know how these new changes to the promo are rubbing you in the comments below, and be sure to see our hands-on if you were wondering how the OnePlus One looks in the flesh.
[via OnePlus]
Good on you, OnePlus.
Great workaround. Well done indeed!
That’s what we like to see. A company that listens.
You mean listens to their legal team. They were sure to be in legal trouble after the first fire or injury.
No jurisdiction in China for suits from idiots in other countries.
The injuries happen in the US, they have a US branch of their company that handles imports and sales. It would get sued into the ground.
They should also donate a phone themselves for every phone that is donated as part of this program. That would atone for the stupid marketing gimmick of smashing a perfectly good phone in the first place.
Wouldn’t it be monumentally more safe to just take the battery out before destroying the phone?
Still more wasteful and many folks would not know how.
Since so many phones are sealed.
Caving to the whining masses… dissapointing. 100 phones destroyed or donated makes next to no difference in the world… but everyone feels the need to cry over everything now
Perhaps not to the world at large, but I bet to the 100 people who get the donated ones it makes all the difference in the world.
I like how you are crying about this change, very ironic.
You win the internet today. Well said
I agree with Milton. It’s like saying don’t destroy a perfectly good car in a movie; donate it. They’re both for entertainment purposes.
There is no entertainment in someone smashing up a perfectly good phone. There are tons of phone torture videos online already. You’re pretty lame, and really sad if that’s what you call entertainment. You’re also dumb.
you have GOT to be trolling..
No, but you are.
Seriously? You would choose to have 100 perfectly functional phones smashed over donating 100 perfectly functional phones to medics in developing countries? Selfishness knows no bounds.
Amen. Not just selfish, but dumb and stupid as well.
Well said!
Everyone on here crying about 100 phones is so funny to me, especially rick slick. You see, the thing is I don’t care what other people choose to do with THEIR property. It’s a choice; they paid for it. Whether I choose to donate my old clothes or throw them in the trash, spend my money on BS or donate it to charity, or recycle my plastic/glass bottles it’s my choice. All you earth lovers on here sounding so adamant about saving a few phones and yet I’m sure in one way or another you are wasteful. Be honest with yourself. If you’re so worried about medics in developing countries getting a free phone then give them yours!!
Of course it is your choice, and I am criticising people who prefer to take the selfish, inconsiderate and unempathetic choice over the one that actually helps people. You have just epitomised one of the worst aspects of consumerism: a parochial belief that a product’s life ends once you no longer want it and does not have any externalities thereafter. If a product’s life can be extended in a way that saves lives, why would you not choose that over wastefully destroying the product and then throwing it in the bin so it can pollute the environment?
yeah it’s kinda lame that they caved to the greentards but they needed to do it and this was a savvy move. good for them.
If the rumours are true, the next Nexus will out-spec the OPO. Snapdragon 805 SoC with a quad-core 2.7 GHz 450 CPU and Adreno 420 GPU and a more comfortable 5.2″ screen. The OPO probably won’t be widely available until August at best, and the Nexus will arrive in November. I’ll be waiting. The OPO isn’t that special.
Where did you find these rumors?
out of the sky,
$349 for all the latest specs currently available is indeed something special. 1+ could get an 805 in their phone and put the phone out in december but who wants wait that long?
Will it be $349 for the 64gb of there even is one? Because 32gb non-expandable memory is useless to me.
Even if there were 100 phones that ended up smashed it’s probably less than the amount of drop/damage tests that happen from each major manufacturer release.
Manufacturer tests ensure they produce a product that doesn’t disintegrate into pieces when they put it in the hands of millions of people. That’s legitimate destruction for the sake of preventing future destruction. But promoting destruction “for the lols” is not acceptable.
My phone has a busted screen already. Covered it with packing tape to keep the glad out of my finger tips. If I’m picked, i’m taking an axe to it and finishing it off.
Why not just fix the display?
Very easy in most cases.
I wonder what time they will be releasing the emails to the people who won!
Why didn’t they do that in the beginning?