OnePlus has officially announced that in summer of this year, it will be releasing its follow up to the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T smartphone devices. The newest offering from the Chinese phone maker will be called the OnePlus 5. Some may be wondering why the device is called the OnePlus 5 when the company has not released any OnePlus 4 yet, but we will get to that later.
It is safe to say that hardly anybody knew about OnePlus half a decade ago, especially with industry leaders Samsung and Apple hogging all the attention in the world of smartphones. But in the last few years, the Chinese mobile manufacturer has managed to build a solid following, mainly due to a lineup of handsets that, although limited in number, delivers quality in upper midrange prices.
So far, the company has already released four devices -- the original OnePlus One, the OnePlus 2, the OnePlus 3, and the OnePlus 3T. By this summer, the lineup welcomes its fifth member, which begs the question -- where is the OnePlus 4? There is no official explanation from OnePlus yet, although some industry watchers believe that it may have something to do with the fact that in China, the number four is not considered a lucky number. Still, The Verge reported that the OnePlus 5 may be inspired by retired NBA basketball player Robert Horry, who had worn the number back in his playing days. It also helps that in OnePlus’ office, a couple of paintings of Horry hang on the wall.
Meanwhile, OnePlus is having a bit of fun teasing the public. Just a few days ago, Pete Lau, the chief executive officer of the company, had posted a teaser image via Weibo. And last May 4th, OnePlus also tweeted a picture of the number four crossed out by a couple of devices meant to look like lightsabers no doubt in celebration of Star Wars day, or maybe suggesting that the OnePlus 4 device will be skipped.
As expected, not much official information has been made available regarding the upcoming OnePlus 5 smartphone. Retail site Oppomart, however, already has a listing for the device leaked in the interwebs. And the specs reportedly include: a 5.5 inch QHD display screen with resolution of 2,560 by 1,440 pixels, 12 megapixel dual cameras on the rear side, an 8 megapixel camera on the front side, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip set, 6 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), and a fingerprint sensor on the front side. The listing includes a $449 price as well as an estimated ship date of early June.
