OnePlus One successor gets hyped by insider source

The OnePlus One smartphone is a rather strange beast. It became one of the most wanted smartphones of the year despite being widely unavailable to a global market. Or perhaps it was precisely because of that rarity that it became highly desired. Of course, there's the high end specs and cheap price, too. Chinese startup OnePlus seems to believe that it can recreate that phenomenon, hopefully minus the sore points, with the OnePlus One successor. But what exactly will the OnePlus Two or OnePlus One Two look like?

An insider source claims to have the scoop on the next generation smartphone, but hasn't provided less vague details. The next OnePlus One, for example, is said to be more customizable than the first. Of course, this isn't referring to the modular smartphone concept ala Project Ara but is more about changing back covers and maybe skins. That said, the OnePlus One also made that promise, including different textures and materials like those on Moto Maker, but the company failed to deliver on that in the end. Perhaps OnePlus will be aiming for covers with matching themes like Jolla's "The Other Half" concept, which could tie in with Cyanogen's launch of its Themes app.

The source also says that the phone will still cost lower than $500 off contract, which may not be the news people want to hear. At the moment, the 16 GB OnePlus One costs only $299 while the 64 GB has a $349 price tag. For something that might cost $499, the next smartphone better have all the bells and whistles of a high-end smartphone by the time it rolls around. There will also be "surprises", though what those surprises are will be, well, a surprise.

OnePlus has proven itself quite capable of drumming up hype and desire for its device, but availability, whether through invite or pre-order, has always been a point of contention. It seems, however, that the company is slowly expanding its scope, but probably not as fast as some would wish and not in places they might want. OnePlus and Amazon has just revealed a collaboration that will bring the smartphone to India, exclusively from the retailer giant. There is still some sort of invite in place, according to OnePlus, which complicates the situation further. How this will play out, we'll just have to wait and see when the smartphones do arrive in the sub-continent.

SOURCE: Business Insider

VIA: BGR, Android Community