OnePlus has teased – for the second time this month – that it’s engaged on its first foldable smartphone, due later this yr.
Talking as a part of a ‘From Quick & Easy to Past’ panel occasion on its sales space on the MWC commerce present in Barcelona, OnePlus President and COO Kinder Liu confirmed that the corporate has a foldable telephone within the works, which can launch within the second half of the yr.
Liu wouldn’t reveal way more than that, besides to trace that the telephone will pack flagship specs to match OnePlus’s most interesting, the OnePlus 11 – which itself solely launched earlier this month.
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“Our first foldable telephone could have the signature OnePlus quick and clean expertise. It should be a flagship telephone that doesn’t settle due to its folding kind, when it comes to industrial design, mechanical know-how, and different elements.
“We wish to launch a tool that goals to be on the pinnacle expertise of right this moment’s foldable market,” stated Liu.
Nonetheless, it’s just a little extra concrete than our final tease, which got here as a tag on the finish of the India-only phase of the OnePlus 11 launch earlier this yr. That noticed the corporate promise “one thing phenomenal” to return in Q3 – i.e. July to September – with a graphic resembling the corners of a folding telephone, however the phrase ‘foldable’ by no means truly got here out.
OnePlus
OnePlus has already confirmed that it has no plans for a OnePlus 11 Professional or 11T this yr, clearing the corporate’s schedule for high-end gadgets. That would imply the longer term foldable will land within the August slot historically occupied by the half-step improve ‘T’ telephones, which falls conveniently in the midst of that broad Q3 window.
Rumours of a OnePlus folding telephone have been swirling for years, and intensified after father or mother firm Oppo introduced its Discover N foldable, since adopted by the Discover N2 and Discover N2 Flip, the latter of which simply launched in Europe and all over the world.
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We don’t but know any specs of the upcoming OnePlus system, nor whether or not it will likely be a bigger book-style foldable or a clamshell flip telephone. Both means, it’s prone to bear a resemblance to one of many two newest Oppo handsets, doubtless with a number of OnePlus twists alongside the way in which.
That is the second announcement of the present from OnePlus, which beforehand revealed an idea telephone primarily based on its OnePlus 11 flagship. The imaginatively named OnePlus 11 Idea encompasses a new liquid cooling system, with a clear again design to render the blue cooling pipelines seen always.
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Elsewhere at MWC we’ve seen Xiaomi give a world launch to its 13 and 13 Professional flagships, Honor reveal the Magic 5 Professional and launch its Magic Vs foldable formally, and Motorola exhibit a rollable idea telephone with an extending show.