The OnePlus 10 Pro is on the way and retailers are offering bonus gifts for anyone that pre-orders the phone. Among them is Amazon, which is offering a rather bizarre deal: Pre-order the OnePlus 10 Pro and you’ll get a free Echo Show 8.
That is the second generation Echo Show which launched last year, complete with an 8-inch HD smart display, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and 13MP camera. Normally you’d have to pay $130 for the device, which is designed to be part of Amazon’s wider Alexa-centric smart home ecosystem.
It’s kind of odd to see such a device paired with the OnePlus 10 Pro, especially since Amazon seems to prefer bundling its own products together — rather than with someone else’s device. Plus phone pre-orders usually come with a bonus gift that’s actually relevant.
OnePlus is giving pre-orderers a free pair of wireless Bud Z2 earbuds, normally worth $79, while Best Buy is giving away a $100 gift card.
Amazon’s bundle may be the most valuable of the bunch. It certainly is the most expensive pre-order gift of the three, and an Echo Show can be very useful — especially if you already have Amazon smart home devices.
The screen can link up to Ring doorbells and Blink cameras, for instance, letting you see what’s going on in and around your home. It also lets you video call without tying up a more important device, like your phone, with an auto-framing system that keeps you centered on the screen.
That doesn’t change the fact that this bundle is a little out of the ordinary, and not something you’d really expect to see bundled with any phone — let alone a OnePlus.
It could be that Amazon is simply switching tactics, and is being a little more aggressive about getting Echo devices into peoples’ homes. We’ll just have to wait and see whether these sorts of bundles become more commonplace in the future.
The OnePlus 10 Pro is set to arrive on April 14, and has already proven to be a strong competitor for the title of best Android phone. Not only does it have a great battery life, it also comes at a lower price and packs in one of the best OnePlus cameras to date.
That said it still lacks mmWave 5G, and won’t work on AT&T’s next-gen networks, while the camera is just 8MP — limiting its performance compared to other phones.
