OnePlus is asking you to donate your Galaxy S6 or Note 5 for a OnePlus 2

While the OnePlus One managed to take the tech world by storm last year, the company has had a harder go at it in 2015 due to a variety of issues related to the launch of the OnePlus 2, as well as increased competition in the low-cost flagship segment. This has led many to wonder how much longer the company can keep things going, though OnePlus isn’t giving up just yet.

Not only is OnePlus getting ready to release a second lower-end handset, they recently opened up the OP2 for sale to those without invites for an hour. And now the company has also launched a new ‘contest’ that it hopes will bring more attention to the OnePlus 2. Too bad contest aren’t exactly a strong point for the company.

OnePlus has had a history of creating controversial contests, including the Smash the Past contest and a contest that was deemed as extremely sexist by much of the web. Thankfully, destroying phones or taking pictures aren’t part of the deal this time, OnePlus is instead asking folks to give them their Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, or Note 5 in exchange for a free OnePlus 2. Don’t worry, OnePlus isn’t smashing the Galaxies received, but instead promise to donate the phone to Hope Phones, a charitable organization that helps bring medical technology to those in need.

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The concept here is actually a noble one, but once again OnePlus has failed when it comes down to execution. First, all the above mentioned handsets are worth more than the OnePlus 2, and newer phones like the Edge+ and Note 5 are worth almost double the price of OnePlus’ flagship. Second, they are billing this as a contest and therefore only shipping 50 phones in total (with the winner apparently being selected at random), severely crippling the potential marketing reach. Then again, they might have trouble finding more Samsung users that would actually take up this deal.

We understand that Samsung was likely picked as a target because they are the biggest and baddest of the Android OEMs, but limiting it to just Sammy probably wasn’t a great move either. If OnePlus really wanted to reap positive PR for donating phone, while actually inciting more interest among Samsung users, we think a better approach would have been to perhaps give “two OnePlus 2s for the price of one Samsung donation”. Or better yet, opening this competition up to owners of HTC, Apple, LG, and other flagship phones of 2015.

What do you think of this contest? What could OnePlus have done to make it more appealing? For those that are interested in learning more, you can head over to OnePlus’ website.