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The OnePlus family is about to get a +1. The Chinese phonemaker has announced that it will launch its newest phone, the OnePlus 5, on Tuesday, June 20. And yes, we're skipping right over the OnePlus 4 -- it's an unlucky number in China -- and going straight to 5.
The company has made a name for itself by making high quality phones with the latest hardware, for much less money than the likes of Samsung and Apple typically charge. CNET called the OnePlus 3 "the best budget Android phone you can buy".
OnePlus habitually leaks its own news, and this time is no different. Since CEO Pete Lau posted a teaser picture on Weibo to announce that a new phone was in the works, the company has been dribbling out hints of what's to come. Taking a page from Apple's playbook -- and doing the exact opposite -- OnePlus seems to be both reveling in the speculation around the 5 and fueling it, tweeting out clues on a nearly daily basis.
As to be expected, the internet has complemented all of that official and semiofficial content with a steady supply of unofficial leaks and renders. We're collecting the most promising and interesting below.
Specs rumored for the OnePlus 5:
Launching June 20, 2017
OnePlus will unveil the new phone at a live online launch at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, June 20, to be followed by a series of "pop-up events" hosted in retail locations in the US and Europe. Early reports by the Vergeand CNET that the phone would debut this summer were followed by speculation on phone nerd sites, which included purported event posters, that the reveal would come on June 15.
Will the real OnePlus 5 please stand up?
More images show up every day. Are they real? Are they fake? We don't know -- OnePlus has declined to comment on their authenticity. In May, Android Authority posted a photo of phone that looked awfully similar to the OnePlus 3T -- but with a vertical dual camera array -- that the site claimed was a OnePlus 5 protoype. More recently, Android Policepublished a radically different phone -- the one at the top of the page -- that also has two rear cameras, and which looks a lot like the iPhone 7 Plus.
Going full unicorn
OnePlus has invited its 1 million Twitter followers to pick the color of the OnePlus 5. In a May tweet, the company offered up options such as black, red, gold and a green/blue/purple gradient that the company later referred to as "unicorn."
Serious hardware
We know for sure that the OnePlus 5 will have a Snapdragon 835 processor, because Qualcomm said so, and so did OnePlus CEO Pete Lau. It's Qualcomm's fastest chipset, which also powers the Samsung Galaxy S8. That means that the OnePlus 5 could be thinner than its current flagship phone, the 3T -- which kicked serious butt in our benchmark tests -- and deliver longer battery life and faster speeds when you navigate around and edit photos and video.
Ecommerce site Oppomart, which has a mixed track record of predicting specs, lists a handful of other possible components including 6GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB of storage capacity, a fingerprint scanner and OnePlus's Android variant, OxygenOS.
Stepping up to dual lens?
The camera situation is murky. Official images recently posted to Twitter appear to show a single lens on the back of the OnePlus 5. But some of the alleged pics posted online (Weibo, Slashleaks, Twitter) seem to have a dual-lens array and the specs posted to Oppomart include two 12-megapixel Sony camera sensors.
In May, OnePlus announced a partnership with DxO, a photography software and accessories shop. The nature of the partnership remains unclear beyond a promise to "enhance your photography experience."
Previous OnePlus devices had cameras that were just OK -- not stellar. This is one department where the phone lags way behind the Google Pixel, so an upgrade would be welcome.
Price tag and release date
Oppomart lists the price as $449 (approximately £350 or AU$600) and gives an estimated ship date of early June -- so take it all with a plus-sized grain of salt. But the OnePlus 3 and 3T combined premium design, features and performance with an accessible price tag, and we expect a similar deal from the OnePlus 5.
Source: CNET
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