Recent leaks and renders point towards an imminent July 2020 launch for the purported OnePlus Z. For the uninitiated, the OnePlus Z was supposed to be OnePlus’s budget-friendly answer to buyers who were unable to afford their current offerings – the 8 and 8 Pro. Not much light has been shed with regards to pricing or feature set thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and its foiled launch plans.
Keeping with OnePlus’s so called “5G future”, the phone will offer a 5G ready modem courtesy of the rather cheap Mediatek Dimensity 1000 chip. OnePlus’s move to Mediatek silicon suggests that the company is targeting an aggressive price point (500 USD maybe?). One thing you should probably know is that manufacturers that use Mediatek chips have a propensity to push very irregular updates thanks to being bogged down by optimization problems. Qualcomm chips are a dime a dozen and developing software for them from multiple sources is quite an easy task.
Remember the OnePlus X? The phone that used the previous year’s flagship Qualcomm processor (SD 801) to pull off a miracle at a meager price of 250 USD? Yes, that seems to be the secret sauce that OnePlus hopes to re-indulge in with the OnePlus Z (if is even called that). But, the absence of a Snapdragon SoC makes me wonder how OnePlus would deliver on its promise of spoiling its customers with speedy updates.
The phone will most likely offer an OLED display with a centered hole punch to differentiate itself from its siblings. Multiple cameras on the back and a glass sandwich design are a given to keep with OnePlus’s signature design language.
As and when we have more information on this budget offering you can count on TechQuila to keep to informed.