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Alright, that's it: OnePlus unveils its flagship before launch

Dominik Bärlocher
16.3.2021
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

The OnePlus 9 has been officially revealed. Apparently, the leaks were too much, as the Chinese company has decided to release its new flagship before the official launch.

The OnePlus 9 leaks are good. Too good. And one user, Bhouw over on YouTube, should be happy: there's little about the OnePlus 9 that isn't yet known. This despite the fact that the smartphone flagship only should've been unveiled during a webcast on March 23, 2021. With elaborately produced video packages, demos and all that pomp.

Yet a singular tweet put a spanner in the works.

Interesting: the tweet came from the OnePlus account. Looks like the grand smartphone reveal has been torpedoed by the manufacturer itself.

OnePlus leaks itself in China

OnePlus gladly provides further information. On its official Sina Weibo account, OnePlus announced further specs of the OnePlus 9.

There's talk of a 120-hertz display with 10 bit colour depth, of 8192 brightness levels and of bendable LPTO screen technology. The screen's refresh rate is said to be «smart», suggesting that it adapts to the user's behaviour and thus further saves battery. Simply put: if you're asleep, the refresh rate of the theoretical always-on display is throttled to 30 hertz, but if you're watching YouTube, then the screen might adjust to the refresh rate of the content.

A few days ago, we also got confirmation that OnePlus will install Hasselblad camera technology in its devices.

The rest remains unconfirmed

Now we know the look, the screen and one colour of the OnePlus 9 Pro. The silver hue is named «Morning Mist» and was apparently inspired by the «soothing glow of mist at dawn».

Right.

Dawn is also known for its snow, of course.
Dawn is also known for its snow, of course.
Source: OnePlus

Looks pretty silver if you ask me.

What's still missing from the complete unveiling are officially confirmed specs for the device. The official website doesn't reveal anything. However, public data from the benchmarking tool Geekbench has revealed a device named OnePlus LE2125, which is assumed to be the OnePlus 9 Pro. The OnePlus 9 without Pro would then be the LE2115.

If this turns out to be true, the specs for the OnePlus 9 and the Pro would look like this as far as we know:

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
  • 12 GB of RAM

The entire OnePlus 9 chipset that the company is currently working on is called «lahaina», possibly named after a location in Hawaii. However, lahaina devices could have been prototypes, even if that's extremely unlikely. A company doesn't make that many flagships per year, and only a few make it into final testing.

Otherwise, there are rumours that the OnePlus 9 will have a 120 Hz screen and can be charged wirelessly at 50 watts.

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Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.


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