OnePlus 7 price, specification, and launch/release: what we know so far

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It’s that time of the year again and OnePlus has released their yearly ‘T’ model refresh with OnePlus 6T. This also marks a significant milestone, as OnePlus begins carrier collaboration in USA with 6T on T-Mobile. While the news is hardly old, OnePlus has undoubtedly started making the way for their next flagship AKA OnePlus 7. Only a handful of credible informations about OP7 has surfaced till now – and we are summarizing them up here.

First:
OnePlus 7 design elements are ‘inspired’ by OPPO ___

Let’s admit it: the relation between OnePlus & OPPO is hardly a secret now. The physical designs of every OnePlus phones are remarkably similar with one of the OPPO phones so far. Our interview with Oxygen Updater developer Arjan Vlek even reveals that both OEM use same CDN for FOTA distribution.

Notched display becomes a generic feature nowadays (or is it?), and OnePlus as a OEM is certainly putting attention to enhance it. In-display cuts or more precisely, display holes are seem to be the next big thing which will allegedly be seen on future phones by LG, Samsung & Asus. As hinted by popular leakstar Ice universe (@UniverseIce), upcoming OPPO R19 will follow the same trend. Pretty safe bet that it will be going to be the baseline of OnePlus 7 as well, cause concepts started to popping up.

Second:
5G master race!

The hype train is on, as OnePlus is indeed going to be the part of the first set of OEMs shipping 5G smartphones. While development status looks promising, OnePlus 7 won’t be the first phone from OnePlus featuring 5G NR support. According to the statement issued by OnePlus, there will be a new lineup probably or another refresh with updated components instead.

Readers should note that the upcoming Snapdragon X50 5G modem is not an integrated part of Snapdragon 855/8150 but a separate module. Combining the power hungry mmWave modem and related antennas into the SoC is not an easy task. Thus having Qualcomm’s 2019 flagship SoC inside your phone doesn’t mean 5G support, or any future OTA that can enable it.

Third:
USB-C Power Delivery vs. proprietary fast charging

It’s 2018 (and we are talking about 2019) and still we are dealing with proprietary charging mechanisms! While OnePlus’s DASH (now phased out) and OPPO’s VOOC charging (which are exactly same) do have some nice improvements, USB-C PD has a nice warmth of standardization and you don’t need to look for proprietary power bricks.

Well, OnePlus 7 will not feature USB-C PD anyway. OPPO introduced another variant of VOOC (5V/4A 20W), named SuperVOOC (10V/5A 50W) which is limited to only handful of devices right now. With the close relationship between two OEMs and the newly applied trademark for WARP CHARGE, it is evident that the new tech will be a part of OP7.

Fourth:
Low light photography

While OnePlus climbs the ladder to the premium segment, Google’s Pixel lineup is still considered best-in-class for their outstanding photography capabilities. With the introduction of Night Shift mode, they just blow away their competitors and set the benchmark of low light photography to much higher extent.

Pete Lau, the CEO of OnePlus has shared some of his thoughts towards mobile photography few days before the global launch of OnePlus 6T.
“I believe a smartphone camera is at its best when it’s able to produce images that remain faithful and true to the scene it’s representing.”
Together with that notion and the recent news about setting up an R&D centre in Hyderabad, India, it is safe to assume that OnePlus is preparing to give a good fight in the domain of photography with OnePlus 7.

That’s it for now. You will hear from us again when we learn anything new about OnePlus 7 (except it’s codename will be based on foodstuffs).

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