Despite the near ceasing of activities across the world following the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus is going ahead with the launch of its next flagships the OnePlus 8 range on April 14, 2020. This will be an online launch event since the era of lockdowns all over does not permit the company to hold physical events.
This would be an international launch and the specifications and feature rich 5G smartphones should be in the hands of the buyers a little after the launch.
If you have not followed the rumours earlier, the company is likely to launch three models this year, OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro and OnePlus 8 Lite. The April 14 launch may see only the first two being introduced since the coronavirus lockdown in China appears to have delated certain components for the ‘Lite’ version. Its launch may be a couple of months away.
As you would expect, the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro would be fitted with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865SoC processor along with the Qualcomm X55 5G modem. The display size will be 6.6-inches and the screen refresh rate 120Hz. Speculation is that the 120Hz refresh rate may be provided only in the OnePlus 8 Pro model and will be limited to 90Hz in the OnePlus 8.
The differentiation can come in the form of the battery size; 4,000mAh and 4,500mAh respectively on the two models.
Being 5G-enabled devices, the company is pushing the “fast and smooth” experience as the USP of the new devices in their marketing communications.
OnePlus’ CEO Pete Lau usually conveys a lot of information through his Twitter handle as well as posts on the Chinese social media site Weibo. This time too, he has personally confirmed this online launch date. In earlier communications, Lau had hinted at increasing the prices this year primarily due to the addition of the 5G modem and the antenna required for that.
The launch event will be at 8:30 pm IST on April 14, via livestream on the OnePlus official website.