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OnePlus phone will be first to market with Snapdragon 855 (Update: no it won't)
Update, 12/06/2018, 06:11 ET: OnePlus’ 2019 flagship will not be the first to market with Snapdragon 855, a company spokesperson has confirmed (via Engadget). The slide used at the Snapdragon Tech Summit, where OnePlus CEO Pete Lau made the announcement (seen above), was said to be written by a non native-English speaker, which is apparently why it contained the error.
OnePlus’ 2019 flagship will reportedly be “among the first” smartphones to include the Snapdragon 855. For the full story, head here.
Previous coverage, 12/05/2018, 15:03 PM: OnePlus CEO Pete Lau took the stage today at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit in Hawaii to make a surprising announcement: the first device to hit the market featuring the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset will be made by OnePlus.
While OnePlus devices traditionally feature the latest-and-greatest Snapdragon chipset, the honor of being the first to market usually goes to Samsung, primarily with the Galaxy S series.
Lau didn’t elaborate on what, exactly, this OnePlus smartphone will be. If it will be the first to market with the chipset, that means it will launch before the Samsung Galaxy S10, which is expected to launch at the end of February. That would be very early to announce a new OnePlus flagship smartphone, considering the OnePlus 6T only launched at the end of October.
It may be that this OnePlus smartphone with the Snapdragon 855 will be the 5G-based smartphone OnePlus hinted at earlier this year. In fact, a OnePlus press release sent to Android Authority confirmed that the first commercial 5G smartphone to land in Europe will also be a OnePlus device.
We can’t say for certain, but it’s a good bet that OnePlus will release a Snapdragon 855-powered 5G smartphone in Europe and possibly other countries before the end of February. This standalone device would not be the OnePlus 7, but rather a new line of phones from the company.
If this all comes to pass, it will represent a huge leap in the industry for OnePlus. Not only would the relatively-young company usurp reigning king Samsung when it comes to launching with the industry’s premiere chipset, but it would also be one of the first companies to launch a 5G smartphone in the world.