The OnePlus 5T or OPPO R11s may launch in the final quarter of this year, one industry insider said on Friday. While neither the OnePlus 5 nor the OPPO R11 have yet been officially announced by their respective makers, the two Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) may already be developing their successors, the insider said, suggesting that both OnePlus and OPPO are looking to continue pursuing their aggressive product strategies that have so far led them to keep releasing premium Android devices on an almost semi-annual basis. The source added that the OnePlus 5T may feature a glass back panel, indicating that the handset could support some contemporary wireless charging standard. While the insider stated that one of the two devices might launch as early as Q3 2017, that doesn’t seem like a likely scenario.
Both the OnePlus 5 and OPPO R11 have already been the subjects of numerous rumors and leaks in recent months, with industry insiders revealing a wide variety of details about both handsets. Even their manufacturers started teasing the upcoming flagships last month in the run-up to their official announcements, both of which are expected to take place in the coming weeks. The OnePlus 5 is said to be equipped with a 5.5-inch display panel with a Full HD or QHD resolution and the Chinese OEM already confirmed that its next device will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip (SoC). Recent reports indicated that the OnePlus 5 may boast as much as 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal flash memory though OnePlus might also opt to release a variant with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space. Neither model is expected to feature a microSD card slot and both are said to be significantly thinner and possibly even smaller than their predecessor, the 2016 OnePlus 3T. The OPPO R11 is thought to sport similar specs, though it will likely ship with 4GB or 6GB of RAM and a microSD card slot.
As the OPPO R9s and OnePlus 3T were released last October and November, respectively, and their successors are already scheduled to hit the market soon, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that both the OPPO R11s and OnePlus 5T end up launching in the final quarter of this year. More details on the commercial availability and pricing of the upcoming OPPO and OnePlus-branded devices should follow shortly.