OnePlus 5 CEO teases ‘big surprise’ on Weibo, thanks team for working tirelessly

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has posted the first teaser of the highly-anticipated smartphone OnePlus 5, and has teased a “big surprise.” The handset is expected to debut in the second half of this year. With the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8 out of the bag, the flagship from OnePlus is the next most talked about handset.

OnePlus handsets have quickly risen to glory as flagship killers by offering the best of specs at most-affordable prices. The company has a number of upcoming releases up its sleeve, though the prices are slowly increasing. Rumours suggest that the upcoming flagship will also offer heavy-duty specs at an affordable cost, seriously undercutting the competition. The teaser Lau posted does not reveal much. It basically serves as a confirmation that the smartphone is already in the works and that it will be surprising.

Lau shared the image on his personal Weibo account teasing the flagship for the very first time. The message states that the OnePlus team is working tirelessly to make the big surprise available to the fans. Lau encouraged his team to get going. The message was posted with the hashtag #NeverSettle, which has become iconic for the company. This phrase has been the company’s motto for several years now. It emphasizes the power of its flagships compared to the competition.

A new render is making rounds on the Internet showing the rear side of the device. The render is based on eyewitness reports. Hence, should be taken with a pinch of salt. The leaked rear does not show a fingerprint scanner. This could mean the Home button would double as the scanner. A radical change in design is not expected. Thus, an edge-to-edge bezel-less display is definitely not a possibility. This may be disappointing for certain fans, as bezel-less displays are becoming the order of the day.

Price of the smartphone is expected to be below US$500 (AU$670 approx). OnePlus is said to be jumping in the bandwagon of dual-camera set-ups. Experts expect one of the rear cameras will be of 23MP. Just like the OnePlus 3T, the front camera could be of 16MP. It’s not known whether OnePlus is going for a telephoto or wide-angle solution. The smartphone will most-definitely go for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, ones that are powering the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

The smartphone could have a 5.5-inch display. The company may also put a 1080p panel on the display. It seems the smartphone-maker is not yet ready to jump into QuadHD displays. The upcoming flagship’s display could be an AMOLED one.