OnePlus’ co-founder, Pete Lau, has published something rather interesting on his official Weibo (Chinese social network) account earlier today. Now, the entry itself is in Chinese, and the literal translation would be “Equal to 7 or 8 equal to it”, according to Google Translate, but a number of sources seem to think this has something to do with the name of OnePlus’ upcoming flagship, as the company’s co-founder is allegedly hinting that the next OnePlus-branded flagship may be called the OnePlus 7 or 8.
Having said that, pretty much everyone assumed that the upcoming OnePlus-branded flagship will be called the OnePlus 6, though Pete Lau’s post seems to suggest that may not be the case. Truth be said, Mr. Lau may be hinting at the name of the 2019 OnePlus flagship, but that is highly unlikely as the OnePlus 6 still did not launch. Carl Pei, also a co-founder of the company, talked to The Verge quite recently, revealing that the upcoming OnePlus flagship will sport a display notch, though Mr. Pei was careful not to confirm that the device will be called the OnePlus 6, which leaves room for speculation, of course. A number ‘6’ is not considered to be unlucky in China, like the number ‘4’, for example, so that has nothing to do with it, but we are used to seeing Chinese OEMs (and even non-Chinese ones) do things like this, as Huawei opted to name their new flagships the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro, instead of P11 and P11 Pro, as the P10 and P10 Plus were announced last year. The same can be said for Apple, as the company launched the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X (10) last year.
Having said that, the OnePlus 6 was expected to arrive in June, but considering that Evan Blass already leaked the back side of the phone, and Carl Pei confirmed some details about the device, it is quite possible that it will arrive sooner than expected, perhaps even in April, but nothing has been confirmed just yet. The phone will not sport a glass back, or a metal back for that matter, according to a recent leak, we’re looking at a wood-like back on the OnePlus 6, and that back may even be removable, who knows. The frame of the device will be made out of metal, and the phone will sport a larger display than the OnePlus 5T, but it will not be larger than the 5T, according to Carl Pei.