OnePlus is gearing up for its next flagship reveal but in the meantime we are getting our scoop of OnePlus’ future plans revealing that the Chinese manufacturer might be planning to launch a sort of budget flagship in the OnePlus 9 series along with the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro dubbed as OnePlus 9 Lite.
A recent AndroidCentral report suggests that the OnePlus next flagship series, the OnePlus 9 will be including a third smartphone dubbed as the OnePlus 9 Lite and not the OnePlus 9E, and it will be the cheapest of the lot, sitting in the middle of OnePlus 8T, and the vanilla OnePlus 9.
OnePlus 9 Lite Rumored Specifications
AndroidCentral’s source who’s familiar with the development claims that the OnePlus will be going with the Snapdragon 865 for the OnePlus 9 Lite to achieve that affordable price tag. Meanwhile the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro will be holding on to the recently launched Snapdragon 888.
With the OnePlus 9 Lite, the OnePlus is trying to imitate Samsung’s success with Galaxy S20 FE’s success. The OnePlus 9 Lite is expected to borrow a lot of hardware cues from the OnePlus 8T. So we can expect it to have a higher refresh rate AMOLED panel either 90Hz or 120Hz, Warp Charge 65T, and a similar camera arrangement, saving OnePlus some costs. Further, it is also being suggested that the OnePlus 9 will be featuring a plastic back differentiating it from the rest of the OnePlus family members.
OnePlus 9 Series Pricing
As far as pricing is concerned, the OnePlus 9 Lite is expected to be priced around $600, and it makes sense to have a Lite model considering OnePlus’ new strategy of making more of flagship sort of smartphones instead of “flagship killers”. Considering OnePlus’ current pricing, the OnePlus 8T starts at a price of $749 and as per the trend, the OnePlus 9 would start somewhere at $800, while the Pro would be selling in between $950 and $1000, competing with the likes of iPhone 12 and Samsung S21 at that time. So, launching an affordable flagship will give OnePlus an edge against the other budget flagships including iPhone 12 Mini, Google Pixel 5, and Samsung Galaxy S20 FE.
The OnePlus 9 series is rumoured to launch ahead of its usual schedule in March 2021. It will be interesting to see a budget flagship again from the OnePlus as it has been years since we got one. Only time will tell how much disruptive OnePlus’ next flagships can be.