WAILEA, Hawaii—OnePlus announced two new phones at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit on Wednesday morning: a 4G, Snapdragon 855-based phone we're calling the OnePlus 7 and a new, unnamed 5G phone for the EE carrier in the United Kingdom.
The 4G model will be one of the first phones to feature the new Snapdragon this year, OnePlus confirmed later. We expect to hear the first Snapdragon 855-based phone announcement from Samsung in late February; OnePlus could make its announcement around then as well. Earlier this week, we saw a prototype of Samsung's Snapdragon 855-based, 5G phone, which most people are calling the Galaxy S10.
"The pursuit of speed has defined the OnePlus DNA since OnePlus was founded five years ago. There's no one more suitable than OnePlus to make a 5G smartphone. Our users are always eager to try new things and they are now ready to experience the next generation of connectivity and speed. In response, OnePlus has poured efforts into 5G research since 2016," OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said at the event.
OnePlus has been booming in the past year. Lau said the smartphone maker, which only generally sells one phone model at a time, doubled its revenue last year and "in 2018, our growth looks very nice as well." The company inked its first sales deal with a US carrier this fall, selling the OnePlus 6T through T-Mobile.
"We're now among the top five high-end Android smartphone brands across the world," Lau said.
Lau didn't announce the names or any other features of the two new phones. Later in the day, a OnePlus spokesman clarified that the 4G unit would be available globally and would continue OnePlus's current product line, while the 5G unit would be an EE exclusive to start and would be the start of a new product line. So yes, for the first time since the OnePlus X, the company will be selling two phones at the same time.
The details of EE's 5G system, meanwhile, mean that the phone wouldn't automatically be appropriate for any US 5G network. EE uses 5G on the 3.5GHz band, which US networks won't initially use.
Later in the day, Lau praised low-frequency 5G networks as easier to build devices for than millimeter-wave networks. Although he wouldn't confirm any specific US 5G plans, that may mean OnePlus is leaning more toward supporting Sprint or T-Mobile on 5G than AT&T or Verizon.
Lau has said previously that he's working with US carriers on a 5G device, but didn't give more details at this show. It could be a different SKU of the phone just announced or a different device.
We've heard various 5G phone announcements at this show, but they were all for the US, not Europe. AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon have all said they're working with Samsung. Verizon has a 5G Moto Mod, and Sprint has previously said it will have an LG phone.
"Users of OnePlus are the earliest adopters. These are tech fanatics," Lau said. "Members of our community have been discussing 5G for over two years now."
"We have a very demanding customer base, very much into high tech, high quality, and high speeds," said Fotis Karonis, BT/EE executive advisor for 5G.
Editor's Note: This story was updated on 12/6 with more information from OnePlus.