Leak reveals purported OnePlus 6 with glass body and screen notch

Image: raymond wong/mashable

Everyone’s favorite phone startup, OnePlus, is gearing up for another flagship Android phone launch very soon.

Despite not showing up to Mobile World Congress, the company still managed to steal some attention from the year’s largest mobile tech conference after alleged images of its upcoming phone, the tentatively named “OnePlus 6,” surfaced online.

Chinese site ITHome has published two images of what it claims might be OnePlus’s next phone. Though the website calls the leaked device the OnePlus 7, it’s more likely the phone will be called the OnePlus 6 when it gets released; the current flagship is called the OnePlus 5T.

Looking at the photos of the purported device, we can see a few noticeable changes that deviate from the current 5T. 

The backside of the phone appears to be made of either glass or polished metal. OnePlus has stuck with a unibody aluminum design since the OnePlus 3. Switching to a glass back could mean the phone will finally come with wireless charging.

The dual cameras also appear to have moved from the upper corner to the center, just above a redesigned fingerprint reader.

But more interesting (or disappointing) is what the front of the phone might look like. If the below image is real, the next OnePlus phone might have a notch of its own, just like the iPhone X does. The notch looks considerably smaller than the iPhone X’s, though. And despite it being narrower, there’s still a “chin” bezel below the screen.

The earpiece also looks way smaller and a single selfie camera suggests there wont’ be any kind of advanced facial recognition system like the TrueDepth camera system on the iPhone X or the iris scanner and IR sensor on the Galaxy S9.

The photo of the front also reveals a few other other potential upcoming features, including the Android version (8.1.0) and how much storage (64GB) and RAM (6GB) the phone might come with.

OnePlus released the OnePlus 5 last June and then the 5T less than six months later in November. If history repeats itself, the company’s next phone could come in just a couple of months. The big question is: can OnePlus still sell phones at around $500 while adding new features?