With 5G services expected to be rolled out in the US, handset manufacturers are gearing up to meet the market with compatible technologies. OnePlus may be one of the first smartphone makers to catch the bus with the company having announced the OnePlus 7 officially.
The company is currently in talks with telecom companies in the US to be part of the 5G service launch. Undoubtedly, the United States market is a key component in the worldwide smartphone business and the carriers there play a key role. That is slightly different from the other countries where the phone makers are used to selling SIM-free handsets. Even the top brands like Apple and Samsung work on similar arrangements with the carriers.
The possible launch of the new OnePlus 7 will be May/June 2019 to coincide with the 5G rollout and OnePlus enjoys a certain edge with its existing association with the chip maker Qualcomm. Others like Samsung and Chinese competitors of OnePlus, like Vivo and Oppo also have similar partnerships with Qualcomm.
In the meantime, there is also speculation if the company would release its OnePlus 6T version like it did with the OnePlus 5T. There are videos in circulation, but they appear to be only renders of the concept with a popup camera and whether this will be carried on to be released as a regular product, one has to wait and watch.
OnePlus 6 is meanwhile doing business, including in India, retailing at around Rs 35,000, while a 8GB RAM 256GB internal storage variant is available for approx. Rs 44,000.
The smartphone maker also announced that all OnePlus smartphone users will Android updates for 2 years after it releases the phone, including new features, Android versions, Android security patches and bug fixes and an additional year of Android security patch updates every 2 months. It announced that it will also be adding an extra 12 months of Android security updates.
This applies to all OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T, OnePlus 5, OnePlus 5T, and OnePlus 6 users, effective immediately.