[HiPhish]

> It's in OnePlus's interest to make their phones less appealing for theft,

I don't believe for a second that this benefits phone owners in any way. A thief is not going to sit there and do research on your phone model before he steals it. He's going to steal whatever he can and then figure out what to do with it.

[TomatoCo]

Which is why I mentioned that carriers or Google might have that as a requirement for partnering with them. iPhones are rarely stolen these days because there's no resale market for them (to the detriment of third party repairs). It behooves large market players, like Google or carriers, to create the same perception for Android phones.

Thieves don't do that research to specific models. Manufacturers don't like it if their competitors' models are easy to hawk on grey markets because that means their phones get stolen, too.

[lxgr]

It actually seems to work pretty well for iPhones.

Thieves these days seem to really be struggling to even use them for parts, since these are also largely Apple DRMed, and are often resorting to threatening the previous owner to remove the activation lock remotely.

Of course theft often isn't preceded by a diligent cost-benefit analysis, but once there's a critical mass of unusable – even for parts – stolen phones, I believe it can make a difference.

[lotu]

Yes thieves do, research on which phones to steal. Just not online more in personal talking with their network of lawbreakers. In short a thief is going to have a fence, and that person is going to know all about what phones can and cannot be resold.