Finally we no longer have to "speculate" on the announcement date of the OnePlus 8 smartphone range. In fact, the Chinese company has revealed that the presentation event will take place April 14, 2020 starting from 17:00 Italian time (there will be live streaming worldwide).
In addition to this, Pete Lau has decided to anticipate some technical features of the next devices to fans, providing us with interesting details. There are clearly also myriads of noise and leak. Let's go, therefore, to take stock of the situation on OnePlus 8, a few weeks after the announcement.
The alleged OnePlus 8 datasheet
Based on the official information we have, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has announced that the OnePlus 8 family will implement a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor and will have a display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz (touch sampling rate of 240 Hz) e MEMC chip for motion compensation (which should ensure fluidity similar to 120Hz even when playing videos recorded at 30 fps). There will be support for LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 3.0 internal memory and 5G. All standards that can bring important benefits, as explained by Lau himself on the official OnePlus forum.
As regards, however, rumor and leak, there has been rumors for some time of the existence of three models: Lite, base and Pro.
The "cutting edge" should be the latter: there is talk of the presence of 8 / 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 128 / 256GB of internal UFS 3.0 memory and a quadruple 48MP rear camera (f / 1.78, Sony IMX689) + 48MP ( f / 2.2, Sony IMX586, ultra-wide, 120 degrees) + 8MP (f / 2.44, 3x optical zoom, 30x digital zoom, telephoto) + 5MP (it is referred to as "Color Filter", but at the moment it is not very clear its operation).
The 6.78-inch AMOLED display it should instead have a QHD + resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, a brightness peak of 1400 nits, curved edges, support for HDR10 + and a hole for the camera in the upper left. Speaking of the front camera, the latter should be 32MP (some sources speak of 16MP).
For the rest, the battery should be 4510 mAh and support fast charging at 30W, both wired and wireless (reverse charging at 3W should not be missing too). Also interesting is the fact that OnePlus 8 Pro would be IP68 certified. The colors, however, should be Onyx Black, Glacial Green and Ultramarine Blue.
Moving on to the basic model, simply called OnePlus 8, we should find a 6.55-inch AMOLED panel with Full HD + resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate, so the difference at the screen level should be consistent. Not much changes, however, under the body: there are rumors of the presence of a SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, 8 / 12GB of RAM (though LPDDR4X) and 128 / 256GB of internal UFS 3.0 memory. Instead, there seem to be changes regarding the battery, which here would be 4300 mAh (however, 30W charging should not be missing).
Another important difference with the Pro model should also be the photographic sector. In fact, there has been talk for some time of the presence of a triple 48MP + 16MP (wide angle) + 2MP (telephoto) camera. The colors available would be Glow and Black Green, while the IP certification could be the IP53 (or not really exist, given that we are talking about OnePlus).
The OnePlus 8 Lite variant (which according to some rumors could be called OnePlus Z) is highly anticipated. In fact, the latter should bring the brand's smartphones back to the price range in which it made itself known until a few years ago. However, forget the top features of OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, as there is talk of the possible presence of a processor MediaTek Dimensity 1000.
In any case, the device could prove to be very interesting, as support for 5G and a 6.4-inch screen with a refresh rate of 90 Hz do not seem to be missing. There should be 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, 128 / 256GB of internal memory and a triple rear camera. The battery would be 4000 mAh with 30W charging. In short, OnePlus 8 Lite could prove to be a welcome surprise for fans of the smartphone world.
Arriving at prices and availability, there are rumors of a possible launch on the market starting a few days after the presentation (which will take place on April 14, 2020). However, we are also in a complex period for smartphone manufacturers and therefore we cannot unbalance ourselves too much. As for the costs, in a recent interview with Business Insider, Pete Lau wanted to reassure fans, declaring that in the USA the $ 1000 list price will not be exceeded.
So can we expect OnePlus 8 Pro to cost less than 1000 euros in Europe? We'll see. However, don't expect low prices for OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, as 5G is driving up costs everywhere and Lau himself has hinted that there are more technical obstacles than 4G.
The proposal for those who do not want to spend too much should therefore be OnePlus 8 Lite, which is rumored to have a list price of 500 dollars. We just have to wait for April 14 to find out more.
