Earlier this week OnePlus teased us with the announcement that is was teaming up with performance car maker McLaren for a launch on December 11, and leaks pointing to a OnePlus 6T McLaren edition have now surfaced.
According to sources who spoke to MySmartPrice, the rumored handset will apparently come with a huge 10GB of RAM and sizable 256GB of storage.
To date, the top-end OnePlus 6T variant packs in 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, so if the leaked specs are accurate, the amount of RAM would not only be a first for the firm, but also a world first in a phone make it one of the first phones in the world to offer it, after Xiaomi launched the Mi Mix 3 last month (hat tip: Ian S).
The planned December 11 launch event is called 'Salute to Speed', so a rumor suggesting we'll see a handset with 10GB of RAM isn't overly surprising - however we do question whether it's really necessary.
Loads of RAM, but is it needed?
While increasing RAM improves multi-tasking, heavy lifting tasks and helps devices avoid performance bottlenecks, smartphones do have an upper limit of how much they can do.
Some of the best performing smartphones from 2018 pack just 4GB of RAM (handsets such as the iPhone XS, XS Max, Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL and Samsung Galaxy S9) and our in-depth reviews of these handsets show there are no obvious performance flaws.
The likes of the Galaxy S9 Plus (6GB) and Galaxy Note 9 (8GB) do pack in more RAM, but still only Xiaomi has hit the 10GB mark to date.
With 4GB still so common in flagship devices, it feels that if OnePlus was to speed ahead with 10GB in the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition, it may not make a noticeable difference on-screen.
And if the 10GB of RAM is going to be a key selling point for a handset which will likely cost more than OnePlus' currently top-end $629 / £579 handset (as we've seen with the prices for the Porsche and Lamborghini special editions from Huawei and Oppo respectively) it may be difficult to justify.
Of course, this latest rumor needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, as nothing is official just yet - although it is one of the more believable leaks we've seen.
