OnePlus, the Chinese company, that took the mobile world by storm when it unveiled the 2014 flagship killer OnePlus One and continues to make its presence felt with the OnePlus 3, is reportedly halting the production of OnePlus 3 smartphone to make way for a new variant based on Snapdragon 821. The new variant of OnePlus 3 is likely to be called OnePlus 3s or OnePlus 3 Plus. If reports are to be believed, OnePlus is already working on incorporating the latest Snapdragon 821 processor.
OnePlus 3 currently features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor. The Snapdragon 821 is the successor of 820 and is designed to support superior connectivity, graphics, photography, power and battery efficiency. The Snapdragon 821 helps smartphones take the VR experience to a whole new level. The X12 LTE in Snapdragon 821 offers 3x faster peak upload speeds and 33% faster download speeds compared to X10 LTE. The 821 provides 10% performance increase over the 820, which is good enough a reason for OnePlus to halt its production to make way for Snapdragon 821.
Latest tweets from the official OnePlus India twitter handle also hint at the possible launch of the new variant of OnePlus 3. One of the tweets says – “What do you think OnePlus is up to? All shall be revealed soon”. The tweet provides options for readers to choose from – New Software Experience, New Product Unveiling, New Smartphone Color Variant or a New Shopping Experience. Going by the history of OnePlus announcements, it’s very likely that a new variant of OnePlus 3 will be revealed soon. Rumors also claim that the new OnePlus 3 variant – OnePlus 3s or OnePlus 3 Plus – will likely sport LCD panels instead of the current AMOLED panels. Shortage of AMOLED panels is likely the reason for this decision.
Meanwhile, OnePlus 3 may soon receive Android 7.0 Nougat upgrade. Many users in India and other countries are eagerly waiting for the Nougat upgrade. The official date of upgrade release has not yet been announced. And although nothing is final about the new OnePlus 3 variant, Snapdragon 821 is too good to give it a miss. This may very well prompt OnePlus to release a new variant of OnePlus 3 featuring this new processor.
An official announcement about the next big thing from OnePlus – whether it’s the new product launch or the new software experience or the shopping experience or even a new smartphone color variant – is expected soon.