OnePlus’ most recent flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 5, has gone completely out of stock on its website after only being on the market for around 4 months, and there is no word on when the handset will be restocked. Given the recent rumors regarding a new OnePlus smartphone in the upcoming months, the empty inventory of OnePlus 5’s may be a strong indicator of a new handset being released soon.
The OnePlus 5 was unveiled to the public last June, approximately half a year after the OnePlus 3T was released. Although the OnePlus 5 was slightly more expensive than its predecessor, it still started at only $479 USD for the base model. Given its incredible specs – the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, an Adreno 540 GPU, a dual 20-megapixel and 12-megapixel camera system, and more – the price was more than reasonable given the phone’s blazingly fast performance and an outstanding camera. In fact, the OnePlus 5 was one of the few Android smartphones that could compete head-on with the iPhone when it came to speed and performance. Many websites and reviewers praised the OnePlus 5, saying that it was the best value smartphone and arguably one of the best handsets released in 2017. Curiously, even though the OnePlus 5 has proved to be quite a success, the company has not restocked its inventory for a while now. Given the huge costs for developing, launching, and marketing a new smartphone as well as various accessories, OnePlus’ confusing decision has led to widespread speculation.
One possibility for the OnePlus 5 being out of stock is simply that OnePlus has run out of units and is producing batches of smartphones at a slower rate now that the hype has died down. According to this theory, OnePlus will restock its inventory of the handset sooner or later, albeit in a smaller quantity or only for the most popular colors/configurations. However, the more probable reason for this situation is that OnePlus is planning to release their next flagship soon, either at the end of this year or early next year. The OnePlus 3T was announced in November of 2016, around half a year after the OnePlus 3 was announced. Nonetheless, most reports about OnePlus’ upcoming phone have dismissed the possibility of a OnePlus 5T and instead point to the release of a OnePlus 6 in early 2018. In fact, OnePlus 6 concepts have already surfaced, with many depicting the handset as sporting the rumored Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, a high-resolution display with a nearly bezel-less screen, improved water resistance, and much more. Although it is not yet known what OnePlus’ intentions regarding the OnePlus 5 are in the near future, the fact that the smartphone has been out of stock for a while now strongly suggests that the company will release its next flagship smartphone soon.