Early this morning, OnePlus virtually confirmed through its Twitter account that we’re going to see a new phone announced on October 29 at an event in London. With a picture of a big lit-up ‘X’ and the words “See you October 29, London”, the company doesn’t leave much room for doubt…
At an event in India this morning, OnePlus announced that it has partnered with Foxconn to start making phones at the Foxconn Rising Stars factory in the Sri City Integrated Business City in Andhra Pradesh. OnePlus expects they will begin to assemble phones there by the end of this year. Pete Lau, OnePlus’ co-founder was at an event in Bengaluru this morning and stated:
“Producing smartphones in India is one of the most important decisions that we have made so far at OnePlus, and we are thankful to the Government of Andhra Pradesh and Foxconn for helping us make this happen. India being one of our biggest markets worldwide, we are committed to a long term sustainable growth path. This move will strengthen our presence and help us step up momentum in India.”
OnePlus isn’t the first phone maker to take part in the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Just a few weeks ago, one of China’s biggest manufacturers, Xiaomi, announced a brand new phone which was made in India, for the Indian market. Like OnePlus, Xiaomi is making its phones in the Foxconn Rising Stars factory.
Once up and running, OnePlus will be able to use its 30,000 square foot facility to manufacture up to 500,000 smartphones every month, employing 1,000 new full-time workers. The first ‘batch’ of phones, likely to be the unreleased and unannounced ‘OnePlus X’ will be made available in India before 2016 swings in.
The OnePlus One
OnePlus has a budget handset on the way, and just this morning, Pete Lau, the company’s co-founder, came out on Weibo to tease the device. We don’t know much about the phone yet, but we do know that OnePlus has an announcement to make in India on October 12th. We’ll probably see the company’s third phone announced at this event, and if these FCC images are to be believed as credible, we might now have our first look at the device in the flesh…
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OnePlus first announced a couple of months back that it will be releasing a second phone this year. It confirmed that it wouldn’t be a flagship-killing OnePlus 3, but rather, a more budget-friendly smartphone. We’ve already seen some sketchy render leaks, and today further details have seemingly been revealed.
GizmoChina — which has a somewhat hit-and-miss reputation when it comes to rumors — has heard from its sources that the OnePlus ‘X’ will be powered by a Snapdragon 801 processor, the same found inside the original OnePlus One. The device could also feature a 5-inch display, although the publication seems unsure whether it’s going to be 720p or 1080p resolution. Either way, with last year’s flagship chip inside, it should easily offer fast and fluid performance, especially given how light and smooth OnePlus’ Oxygen OS is.
We’re expecting OnePlus to release the device in time for the holiday shopping season, and GizmoChina states that we could see an announcement as soon as next month. Pricing could be around $249, and we’d be surprised if it was any more than. If it’s too close to the $329 price point of the OnePlus 2, it’ll surely make the device redundant.
Pinch of salt at the ready? A leaked render published this morning seemingly shows what OnePlus’ second phone of the year will look like, and it seems a bit of a change from the angular, flat frames and edges of the current devices. At least, it does from the back. From the front, the renders look very familiar; with the chrome-finished edges surrounding a large, flat, glossy black panel.
From the back, the smartphone seems to be a solid piece of plastic with slightly rounded edges and corners. The bottom edge looks to be hosting a USB Type-C connector, flanked by two identical sets of machined holes, presumably for the microphone and single loudspeaker like the OnePlus 2.
