OnePlus smartphones have a massive following especially in price-conscious markets like India. The company recently realigned its priorities and decided to come up with an affordable avatar of its now premium-priced flagship smartphone. While the OnePlus Nord saw its global unveil last month, the phone got a mixed bag of reactions.
However, it looks like the Chinese smartphone maker has now decided to add more competition to the mid-budget segment where companies like Xiaomi, Realme and Samsung are fighting a fierce battle.
A leakster has suggested that OnePlus is readying a new smartphone powered by a Snapdragon 662/665 chipset and will be released at the end of September. While he’s not one of the most trusted sources or known for regular leaks, the launch cycle coincides with the regular T variants of OnePlus flagship phones.
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OPPO in early September: release a phone using Snapdragon 662 priced under 20k in IndiaOnePlus at the end of September: release a phone using Snapdragon 662/665 priced around 16-18k in India pic.twitter.com/s26n3S27o2August 23, 2020
The most interesting part of this leak is that Chun suggests that this phone may be priced around Rs. 16-18,000 in India and the SoC used here doesn’t support 5G connectivity, this phone may only be intended for the Indian market.
On further dissecting the tweet one can see the obvious omission of the “Nord” branding which suggests that this phone could be different from the rumoured Nord Lite that we have covered here and here.
The fact that there is a mention of a similar specced Oppo phone (with Snapdragon 662) in the same tweet should not be a surprise as most of the OnePlus devices are rebranded Oppo phones with some changes in the design and Oxygen OS for obvious reasons. According to the tweet, this Oppo phone will also be priced under Rs. 20,000
Changed stance, again?
While we have stated that the leak may not be accurate, however, if OnePlus does plan to launch such a device, it would come out as a shock to most fans. Its co-founders had the time and again stated that there will be no budget smartphone with OnePlus branding, however, we did get to see the Nord, hence stranger things may happen.
If for a moment we believe that such a device is in making, it could be launched under the Nord branding keeping a clear demarcation between the “premium” and “affordable” OnePlus phones.
Talking about the SoC’s that are suggested here, it is worth noticing that the Snapdragon 665 came out in April last year while the Snapdragon 662 was unveiled in January this year. The Snapdragon 665 has been seen in many devices in the sub-15,000 segment. We have devices like the Moto G8Plus, Redmi Note 8, Mi A3, a couple of Realme device, etc and most of these phones are around a year old suggesting that the SoC has passed its prime already. We are yet to see Snapdragon 662 powered phone in India as of now.
Do you fancy a budget OnePlus phone? Let us know.
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