OnePlus 8-series rumour round-up
EDIT [2020/02/04 01:20 IST]: FoneArena has reported about the 8 and 8 Pro being listed on the Amazon Affiliate page, which means the launch of these phones is quite close.
The rumour mill about the 8-series had started quite a while back, but one of the reasons why we waited before publishing an article about this is the fact that leaks tend to get more accurate as the launch date comes closer. This article is a round-up of the latest but mostly accurate rumours (as of today). We might update this article if we get any new information.
Note: remember that, for now, those leaks aren't 100% correct. Some leakers have a good reputation - hence why we mention them, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are 100% accurate either.
Renders
At October 3rd, just 7 days after the 7T-series launch, the first images of the next OnePlus phone were already leaked by OnLeaks (a leaker with a great reputation on leaking smartphone renders). According to OnLeaks, this is the OnePlus 8:
As we can see in the render, it's supposed to get a hole-punch front camera. The OnePlus 6T, 7, and 7T all had waterdrop notches. But thanks to the hole-punch, the front camera takes a bit less space than a waterdrop notch, which means: a little bit more screen. The only other difference is the position, which is moved from the middle to the left in this render.
On the back we can see a triple camera set-up, which was also present on the OnePlus 7T-series. So we can conclude that this is the back of the OnePlus 7(T).
OnLeaks also says that "OnePlus is finally rolling out the much anticipated wireless charging feature in the OnePlus 8." and that OnePlus "has also modified the design of this device’s speaker at the bottom."
About 15 days later, OnLeaks also came up with the OnePlus 8 Pro renders:
And here again, OnePlus will choose for a single hole-punch on the front of the screen, which means OnePlus will no longer use a pop-up camera like on the 7 Pro and the 7T Pro. On the back we can see 4 cameras. The camera on the back near the other 3 cameras, is a Time-of-Flight sensor, according to OnLeaks. This ToF sensor can help improve portrait photos, thanks to improved depth-recognition.
Later, OnLeaks also posted the most recent render of the OnePlus 8 Lite:
This is the first time since the OnePlus X that OnePlus will most likely release a mid-range smartphone, which should be cheaper, hence the name. With this Lite model, OnePlus put 3 cameras on the right and a hole-punch on the front-mid.
It appears that OnePlus wants to put an under-display fingerprint reader on all the phones of the 8-series, even the 8 Lite, as there's no fingerprint reader to be seen anywhere else on the phone.
Specifications:
OnePlus was always about a relatively cheap phone with the latest hardware, and as we look to the leaked specs, this time that won't be different (except that the price is surely about to be higher than 7T-series). I made this sheet based on known rumours on Tweakers.net.
In a conversation with The Verge, Pete Lau confirmed that "the next OnePlus phone will get a 120Hz display with a 240Hz touch input." The resolution is 1440p. He also said that the phone will get a MEMC-chip (Motion Estimation/Motion Compensation). Normally those chips are only found in TVs, but OnePlus is supposedly going to use them in their smartphone, to increase the number of frames to 120Hz (120fps) on videos. The user will have an option to set it back to either 90 or 60Hz. The MEMC-chip can also be disabled, Pete Lau said.
A while later OnePlus confirmed this explicitly in a forum post.
Thereby, an image of the settings menu > display > screen refresh rate has also appeared. Here we can see that OnePlus will offer 3 options:
- 120Hz
- 90Hz
- 60Hz
A few days ago on the moment of writing, MobileScout reported that OnePlus joined the Wireless Power Consortium. This is good news for people who wanted OnePlus to add wireless charging as a feature in their phones.
If you joined the WPC, you'll have to stick to the Qi, which is a standard for wireless charging. It offers higher speeds for wireless charging. OnLeaks and Max J (two quite reliable leakers) confirmed that one or more phones of the OnePlus 8-series will get support for wireless charging.