OnePlus shared its 5G plans during a recent interview with PC Mag. The company’s VP of R&D, Kinder Liu, talked to PC Mag. During the interview, he talked about 5G, its potential, and plans that OnePlus has regarding it.
In this article, we’ll go over the highlights of that interview, though you can check out a transcript of a full conversation via this link, if you want.
OnePlus shares its recent 5G achievements, and some future plans
The first thing worth mentioning, are 5G firsts that Mr. Liu mentioned. He said that last week, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, and OnePlus managed to achieve the first data session over low-band, standalone 5G.
That’s not all, though. The first voice-over-5G and video-over-5G calls were also achieved. The same goes for the first phone call on a 5G network with 4G fallback. OnePlus is also the first global smartphone brand connected to T-Mobile’s standalone 5G network.
Mr. Liu also noted that OnePlus supports all of the features of T-Mobile’s current 5G network. He added that this results in speeds that leap ahead of Samsung devices.
The company’s VP of R&D said that OnePlus is committed to improving thermal regulation in devices as 5G components take up more space, consume more power, and become quite hot in the compact space.
Now, regarding millimeter-wave. OnePlus’ smartphones don’t currently support it. That is why they do not support Verizon’s network. OnePlus is keeping the door open to this possibility, though.
That could also be pointing towards a T-Mobile phone with mmWave as well. Mr. Liu said that the company will “continue pushing the technology forward with partners, like T-Mobile, Verizon, and Qualcomm, bringing multi-band devices to our users”.
The OnePlus 8 is the least expensive 5G-enabled smartphone in the US
It is also worth noting that the OnePlus 8 is the least expensive 5G-enabled smartphone in the US. That handset starts at $699 in the US, as it’s considerably more affordable than the ‘Pro’ unit.
That is, more or less. These are the most important takeaways from PC Mag’s interview with OnePlus’ VP of R&D. OnePlus seems to be quite focused on 5G, in order to be ready once 5G actually takes over. That could take a while, though.
OnePlus had introduced its new OnePlus 8 flagships not long ago. Both of those phones come with the Snapdragon 865 SoC, and Snapdragon X55 modem for 5G.
The two devices have a similar design, and are fueled by the same SoC, but are quite different on the inside. The OnePlus 8 Pro offers considerably more features, and is more powerful, but the OnePlus 8 is nothing to scoff at.