OnePlus is not launching the OnePlus 6 in March 2018 as it was rumoured. The Chinese company is sticking to its trend of launching a new smartphone at the end of Q2 2018, meaning in June 2018. Also, the company has confirmed that the phone will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. Although the company hasn't confirmed the name yet, but the OnePlus 6 seems to be more possible and was earlier confirmed by a Snapdragon 845 SoC leak too.
Speaking with CNET in an interview, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has confirmed the device's launch at the end of Q2 2018. And the device will make use of top-of-the-line Snapdragon 845 SoC. "There's no other choice" for his company than the Snapdragon 845, Lau said in the interview. This was expected news as OnePlus users Qualcomm's flagship chip every year on their smartphones, and that's not going to change for a while.
However, Lau did not confirm the existence of OnePlus 6T. Looking at the last two years, we may see OnePlus 6T at the end of 2018, succeeding the OnePlus 6. Furthermore, Pete Lau also stated the company's chances of partnering with US carriers for the upcoming model.
In the United States, 85%-90% of customers buy their smartphones on a contract basis. So, OnePlus is losing a huge opportunity of selling millions of devices with carrier partnership. Finally, a Chinese company is looking to partner with carriers in the US. "If the right opportunity and right timing come along, we'll be very happy to experiment", Lau added.
But the chief person did not reveal any more details on the same. If manages to partner with carriers, it will be a huge boost for the Chinese company, especially considering what happened to the recent Huawei and AT&T deal. Huawei was all set to announce the Mate 10 Pro at the CES 2018 in partnership with AT&T as its first carrier phone for the US, but the latter pulled out from the deal right before the event due to some US-China issues.
The OnePlus 6 is expected to come with an 18:9 display as usual, but OnePlus should add some more features such as waterproofing, wireless charging, etc. to make the smartphone appealing. The phone is also expected to feature under-glass fingerprint scanner. In recent times, several top-tier brands such as LG, Sony have come down and priced their smartphones aggressively.
