While it's just been over a month after the OnePlus 5 hit the global markets, OnePlus is now interestingly set to launch its new variant. The Chinese company is likely to compete against the upcoming Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Note with its expanded OnePlus 5 lineup.
OnePlus on Wednesday (August 2) teased the arrival of the new variant through a post on its official Facebook page. Without revealing any particular details, the company announced that there is something new is in its pipeline.
"5omething new coming up! Can you guess what it is?" the Shenzhen-headquartered company writes in the post.
Alongside the text, OnePlus posted an image that showcases the Midnight Black and Slate Grey color options of the OnePlus 5 in addition to the vector image of the new variant.
History repeating itself
OnePlus has been following a trend of releasing new variants of its flagship since the launch of the OnePlus 3T in December last year. The "T" addition to the company's 2016 flagship had brought a more powerful, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset over the original Snapdragon 820 that was debuted on the OnePlus 3. The upgraded variant also included a 16MP front camera sensor.
However, this time around OnePlus is not in plans to entirely upgrading the device that is taking on giants like the Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7 Plus. The company is instead expected to add a new color option to the existing model.
In a tweet ahead of the OnePlus 5 launch back in May, OnePlus asked its followers to pick a color for their next smartphone. The company listed black, red and gold color options in addition to an entirely new "unicorn" that had a gradient between cyan and magenta. The tweet received a large number of preferences for a mix of black and red color options.
Red paint job could be the next
Out of the four color options, OnePlus might be planning to go with the audience decision and bring the new variant in bold, red color. This decision would help the smartphone maker to directly compete against the iPhone 7 Red series that has no major Android contender so far.
Further, OnePlus has already tested the market performance of its gold color flagship with the launch of the OnePlus 3 Soft Gold variant last year. Gold is indeed a premium option yet quite common and exists across most of the Chinese offerings, starting from the entry-level Redmi 4 by Xiaomi to mid-rangerGionee A1 Plus and Huawei P10. This was the reason the company didn't prefer the same shinning color even for the OnePlus 3T.
Possibilities are, therefore, quite high for a red-colored OnePlus 5. It would debut sometime later this month to grab some eyeballs just before the announcement of the iPhone 8 and Galaxy Note 8.
