OnePlus' handling of 3/3T camera focus issue is praiseworthy

A smartphone company going an extra mile for a product that’s not only years old but discontinued as well is definitely a rare sight. Case in point: OnePlus’ ongoing efforts to rectify a major issue with OnePlus 3/3T smartphones.

A large number of OnePlus 3/3T users have been complaining about camera focus problem with their devices for months now.

Well, what’s now coming to light is that the Chinese smartphone manufacturer has reportedly been providing free repair/replacement (for the rear camera module) to affected users, including even those whose unit is out of warranty.

While a lot of users have explicitly confirmed this, following is a user shared screenshot of their chat with a OnePlus Customer Support rep, who makes it amply clear that the company is offering a ‘warranty repair service’ for camera issues even for units with expired warranty.

As you can see, the support rep said:

As there are no physical and liquid damages done to the device, the camera issue will be repaired under warranty even if the device is out of warranty period.

They further added:

We are providing the warranty repair service for camera issues in OnePlus 3T device in all our our exclusive service centres.

Reports confirming the existence of such a warranty repair service are present across different online help forums. Take a look at what some of them shared:

Just had it done for free and I’m out of warranty. The phone was away for a total of four days.

Hey my rear camera focus issue got solved, i called the customer support they told me to get the cell to service centre and they would repair it for free of cost.

Go to service centre. I had the same problem, they replaced the camera module free of cost even if my phone was out of warranty.

Go to service center they will fix without any cost if your phone is out of warranty to. Service center changed my camera now working good.

To give you a quick flashback, it was back in 2017, when OnePlus 3 and 3T users started chiming about their device’s camera losing focus after installing OxygenOS 4.1.7.

Though the problem first showed up last year, complaints never stopped pouring and continue to do so till date (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9).

While it’s usual to see software updates breaking features and then subsequent updates fixing them, the fact that it didn’t happen in this case coupled with the ‘warranty repair service’ for the issue clearly suggests this is a hardware problem (although how a software update managed to induce a hardware issue is still a mystery).

Anyway, due credit to OnePlus for repairing/replacing faulty parts of their older phones for free (regardless of warranty). The only condition – as clear from screenshot showing chat with OnePlus customer rep – is your device shouldn’t be otherwise damaged (which is fair enough).

So apparently all you gotta do is to either visit any of the company’s exclusive service centres or let OnePlus support know and they will get your affected device RMAed for free.

Those with no OnePlus Exclusive Service Centre in their region have also got the problem fixed – see the following comment from a user who was in a similar situation.

There aren’t any OnePlus service centres in the UK, so you need to raise a service request about the auto-focus fault via your OnePlus account page. I had to send my 3T to the service centre in Poland and they replaced the camera module and the focus is working normally again. Took about two weeks from pickup to arriving back with me.

So if you are still stuck with a practically useless rear camera on your OnePlus 3/3T smartphone due to the focus issue, hopefully now you know what to do.

NOTE: Head here for more OnePlus-related news.

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