The OnePlus 7 has been sighted just several hours back as part of what appears to be the most exhaustive leak of the upcoming Android smartphone to date, with the newly emerged materials including both high-resolution renders and a 360-degree video.
The said clip and accompanying images attached below aren’t purported to be official materials in any shape or form and are simply claimed to have been designed in accordance with what are believed to be credible specifications of the next OnePlus flagship, all of which were provided by sources close to the Chinese firm.
While previous sightings of the device already suggested as much, these ones make it crystal clear that the OnePlus 7 is to be based on the OPPO F11 Pro, a selfie-oriented Android mid-ranger released by the Chinese manufacturer’s sister company earlier this year.
The most defining common trait of the two handsets is the pop-up camera that’s centered alongside their top edge that allows the device to move away from the notch-equipped displays featured by its last two direct predecessors and embrace a more bezel-free design with a larger screen-to-body ratio. Another dual-camera system appears to be protruding from the back and to a larger degree than it did on the OnePlus 6T. Whether that means larger sensors will be included remains to be seen, though that appears to be a likely scenario and one that would allow for improved low-light performance, a constant pain point of all previous generations of the firm’s Android phablets.
The OnePlus 6T did improve on the photography front but was not able to compete with its contemporary rivals. Its lower price point amounting to around $530 still made it an attractive proposition and the same should hold true for its successor that’s expected to be priced at roughly $30 more.
As is tradition, OnePlus will essentially be building on this template by equipping it with the most powerful chip on the market instead of a mid-range offering. Right now, that happens to be the Snapdragon 855.
A minimum of 6GB of RAM is also expected, as are three main memory configurations in total. The most premium varian t of the OnePlus 7 should come equipped with 10GB of RAM, which doesn’t seem as imposing as it did last year seeing how 12GB RAM configurations are now becoming an increasingly more common sight on the market.
Two bottom-facing speakers are depicted as part of the high-end mobile package, sandwiching a USB Type-C port. OnePlus was never expected to return to the 3.5mm headphone jack after scraping it last year, as evidenced by the sheer amount of online criticism it was willing to receive and fend off as a direct result of what unsurprisingly ended up being a highly controversial decision. To go back on the idea now would make all of that sacrifice for nothing and it’s not like OPPO… erm, OnePlus has a way to implement the popular audio port into this exact handset form factor.
Recent rumors point toward a mid-May launch for the OnePlus 7, with the Android phablet being likely to start shipping within a week of its debut.