According to a new rumor, OnePlus’ 5G-enabled phone, which is expected to arrive in early 2019, is set to be more expensive than the OnePlus 6T. According to the source, the OnePlus’ 5G-enabled device will be fueled by the Snapdragon 8150 aka Snapdragon 855, as expected, and it will cost $649 and €649 in Europe, which means its starting price will be $100 / €100 above the OnePlus 6T’s starting price point. That’s not all, though, the source claims that the OnePlus 7 will not be a 5G-enabled device, which is something OnePlus confirmed already, but according to the source, a 5G variant of the OnePlus 7 will be available at some point as well, and that is something that OnePlus did not hint in any way. Now, all of this info is allegedly coming from “the people close to the matter”, but you’d be wise to take it with a grain of salt, as there’s no way to confirm any of the claims laid out by the source, at least at this point.
Background: OnePlus had recently confirmed that its 5G-enabled device will be a part of a completely new lineup of devices, in other words, it will not be the OnePlus 7. The company also hinted that its 5G smartphone will launch before the OnePlus 7, as it is expected to arrive in the first quarter of next year, while the OnePlus 7 will probably launch in either May or June. As already mentioned, the OnePlus 7 will not support 5G, that is something the company already mentioned, and it’s hard to expect a separate 5G-enabled variant to become available, but according to the source, that will happen. The company’s 5G-enabled device will almost certainly be fueled by the Snapdragon 8150 aka Snapdragon 855, which is something that OnePlus did not confirm just yet, and there’s a good reason for it, that chip did not become official just yet. Qualcomm is expected to announce the Snapdragon 8150 at the beginning of December, as the Snapdragon 845 arrived on December 5 last year.
The OnePlus 7 will also be fueled by the Snapdragon 8150, in case you were wondering, as OnePlus has a history of using Qualcomm’s flagship processors for its flagship smartphones, the only device that did not utilize Qualcomm’s current flagship chip was the OnePlus X, but that was a mid-range phone, and it still used one of Qualcomm’s chips. Based on the leaked price tag, rumored processor, and considering the fact that the upcoming 5G OnePlus smartphone will be the first ever 5G-enabled device from the company, the device will sport high-end specifications, so it will kind of compete with both the OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7. It remains to be seen if the company will change up the design of that device in order to differentiate it from its regular smartphone lineup.
The OnePlus 6T was announced last month, in October, so once the OnePlus’ 5G smartphone arrives, the OnePlus 6T will be only a couple of months old. The OnePlus 6T is quite similar to the OnePlus 6, in many ways, the device comes with the same SoC, same camera sensors, similar design, and so on. The OnePlus 6T does sport a considerably smaller notch than the OnePlus 6, and it sports an in-display fingerprint scanner, which is not visible, compared to the OnePlus 6’s rear-facing capacitive unit. The OnePlus 6T is made out of metal and glass, and it comes with a large 6.41-inch fullHD+ Optic AMOLED display. The device also includes a 3,700mAh battery which is not removable, and which supports OnePlus’ proprietary fast charging, one of the fastest wired charging solutions out there. The OnePlus 6T includes Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6 on top of its display, and the device ships with Android 9 Pie out of the box, while the company’s OxygenOS skin is included on top of it.
Impact: OnePlus’ 5G-enabled smartphone is still kind of a mystery, even though OnePlus did confirm its approximate release date, and the fact that it will not be a part of the company’s usual release cycle, nor their usual smartphone lineup. There’s a rather big chance that the company’s 5G-enabled phone will be made out of metal and glass, just like the OnePlus 6 and 6T, though. That device will almost certainly ship with a large display, and chances are it will not be available at the same number of markets that the OnePlus 6 and 6T were. 5G networks are expected to become a thing next year, as some carriers will make them available in the second half of 2019, at least that’s what reports have been saying thus far, but 5G will not become a standard in 2019, not even close. It will take some time before 5G takes over from 4G, that may not even happen in 2020 either, but it remains to be seen how fast will it spread across the globe. That is probably why OnePlus doesn’t plan to implement 5G into the OnePlus 7, though the OnePlus 7T may support it, as that device is expected to arrive in November next year, if the company ends up sticking to its usual release cycle. OnePlus will probably reveal some more details regarding its upcoming 5G-enabled smartphone, as its executives tend to do that before smartphone launches, so we may find out some additionals details in the coming weeks. OnePlus is not the only company that is working on releasing a 5G-enabled smartphone, of course, Xiaomi said that a special edition of the Mi MIX 3 is coming in January, and it will support 5G, while other large OEMs, such as Samsung, Huawei, and so on, are also working on their own devices that will support 5G. Chances are that both the Samsung Galaxy S10 series, and Huawei’s P30 series will support 5G once they become official next year, so OnePlus will have plenty of competition. These are only some companies that are working on 5G-enabled phones, of course, a ton of additional ones are doing the same, as chances are that a ton of them will introduce such a device at some point in 2019, but we’ll find out more in the coming months.