OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus 7T flagship amid much fanfare just a few days ago. The 7T has received an overwhelming response from consumers in India and other countries. It hasn’t even hit the store shelves in the US and UK. Just days after the OnePlus 7T launch, the first OnePlus 8 leak has emerged. It not only reveals the upcoming phone’s design but also some of the specs.
Reliable Twitter tipster Steve H.McFly aka @OnLeaks teamed up with Indian website CashKaro to share design renders of the OnePlus 8. McFly and CashKaro created the renders based on schematics obtained from a company insider. McFly has an impressive track record of spilling the beans on unannounced gadgets.
The OnePlus 8 launch is still several months away. The company would launch the flagship in the second quarter of 2020, if it adheres to its traditional refresh cycle. As per the leak, the OnePlus 8 would look similar to OnePlus 7 Pro, which was launched a few months go. But there will be some small differences.
The OnePlus 7 Pro has a pop-up mechanism to house the selfie camera, which popups up whenever you need to take a selfie or make video calls. But the OnePlus 8 would have a punch-hole display featuring a tiny hole in the top-left corner of the screen for the selfie camera. Samsung, Huawei, and many other vendors have been using the punch-hole design on their smartphones.
Except for the OnePlus 7 Pro, all recent OnePlus smartphone featured water-drop notch for the selfie camera. If the regular OnePlus 8 is getting a punch-hole display instead of the water-drop notch, how will the company differentiate the OnePlus 8 Pro? It could feature the pop-up selfie camera instead of the punch-hole design.
According to the OnePlus 8 leak, the upcoming phone will have a narrow-bezel display with curved edges. OnePlus has so far kept the curved edges exclusive to the Pro variant. CashKaro revealed that the upcoming flagship would feature a 6.5-inch display. OnePlus said recently that the future devices would get a Fluid AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate.
On the back panel, the OnePlus 8 won’t have a circular camera module like OnePlus 7T. Instead, it would feature a triple camera setup arranged vertically in the top-center of the back panel. The round camera design could be a one-off concept that the company tested with the OnePlus 7T.
On the sides, you’ll see a new design for the speaker grille. The device gets an Alert Slider, a USB-C port, and the usual buttons. The OnePlus 8 leak suggests the device would measure 160.2 x 72.9 x 8.1mm in dimensions.
Wireless charging finally coming to OnePlus 8
CashKaro claims that OnePlus will finally add wireless charging to the OnePlus 8. The existing OnePlus devices don’t support wireless charging because the company says it is slower than wired charging. However, wireless charging is catching up fast. Xiaomi’s recently launched Mi 9 Pro 5G supports 30W wireless charging.
Not much else is known about the OnePlus 8 at this point. It’s worth pointing out that the device won’t launch until the second quarter of 2020. The company could still change the design elements. We expect it to run Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon 865 processor and at least 8GB RAM. OnePlus has also been focusing aggressively on cameras, so further camera upgrades are also likely on the cards.
For now, you can get your hands on the OnePlus 7T, which has been priced at $599 for the base model. It features a 6.55-inch Fluid AMOLED display, Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, 8GB RAM, a triple camera setup on the back, and the latest Android 10 software with OxygenOS skin on top.
OnePlus has released the OxygenOS 10.0.03 software update to 7T users. The update brings bug fixes and camera improvements such as better photo quality and enhanced image stability. The update is being rolled out incrementally over the next several days.
