A couple of new images depicting what’s said to be an unannounced variant of the OnePlus 5T emerged online on Tuesday, showing a handset with white bezels that some industry watchers are speculating may be the Soft Gold model planned for a release in early 2018. The original OnePlus 5 received the Soft Gold treatment in August, two months after officially hitting the market, and its successor may follow suit, the newly uncovered images suggest. The previous handset also sported white bezels and a light gold back panel, with the Guangdong, Shenzhen-based phone maker opting to introduce it as a limited edition of its Android flagship.
The OnePlus 5T debuted in early November in Midnight Black, though the Chinese original equipment manufacturer later announced two revisions of the device, having revealed the Lava Red color option exclusive to its home country and a Star Wars edition of the handset which is already available for purchase in India and parts of Europe. Given the company’s previously employed product practices, at least several more variants of the OnePlus 5T are likely to launch by spring, though none are expected to be available on a worldwide level like the Midnight Black models are. Due to the same reasons, the Soft Gold version of the OnePlus 5T will presumably only be offered in a configuration with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal flash memory, whereas consumers interested in acquiring the more affordable model with half the storage space and 6GB of RAM aren’t likely to be given more color choices in the future.
The OnePlus 5T already established itself as the most commercially successful device from the BBK Electronics-owned company to date, having continued the firm’s tradition of delivering high-end smartphones with aggressive price tags. Besides strong growth in India and other parts of Asia, the OnePlus brand has also been growing in the United States in recent years, albeit to a much smaller degree. OnePlus-made flagships usually have relatively short shelf lives compared to other contemporary handsets, which is why the OnePlus 5T is also expected to be discontinued come May and pave the way for the introduction of the OnePlus 6.