A New OnePlus Mid-Range Phone Is On The Horizon
OnePlus has drifted away from its initial mission of making refreshingly powerful flagship killers at winsome prices. The company has been diversifying its lineup to fill this gap, making room for entry-level and mid-range smartphones next to its premium models like the OnePlus 10 Pro. After recently launching the OnePlus Ace in China — which will arrive as the OnePlus 10R in India by the end of April — the company now appears to be gearing up to launch another mid-range device with similar specifications, but at a reasonably lower price.
A OnePlus smartphone was recently listed on the Chinese telecom regulatory body TENAA with the model name PGZ110. The listing reveals vital specifications about the smartphone while also giving us a crude glimpse at the design of the upcoming handset. Based on the specifications, we can presume this device to be a constructional downgrade over the OnePlus Ace (or 10R) without any significant changes in the performance.
Documents show lackluster design
In terms of its design, the new OnePlus smartphone appears to take cues from the OnePlus 10 Pro and derives the shape of its camera bump from the Pro device. The camera assembly seems to be a part of the back panel — as previously seen on the Galaxy A53 or the OPPO Find X5 Pro — instead of a separate element.
The smartphone sports three rear cameras and a flash arranged in a square shape. The triple camera setup includes a 64MP primary camera, an 8MP secondary (presumably ultrawide-angle) camera, and a 2MP tertiary (macro or monochrome sensor), according to the TENAA certification. The back of the OnePlus PGZ110 also features a OnePlus logo in the center. As per the documents, the smartphone comes in a grayish-blue color.
On the front, the OnePlus phone uses a 6.59-inch Full HD+ display with what appears to be a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera on the top left corner. OnePlus uses an LCD instead of the usual AMOLED, and that displaces the phone further away from the segment of premium or quasi-premium smartphones the company typically targets. The selfie camera on the smartphone has a resolution of 16MP.
The hardware likely won't disappoint
Inside, the smartphone is powered by an octa-core chipset with a maximum CPU clock speed of 2.85GHz. While the TENAA page does not reveal the exact make of the SoC, the peak frequency suggests this will be a MediaTek Dimensity 8100 — the same model found on the OnePlus 10R. The chipset brings inherent 5G connectivity for NR-NSA and NR-SA networks.
In addition to the 5G chipset, the smartphone will come with an option between 8GB and 12GB RAM along with either 128GB or 256GB storage. The smartphone is also equipped with a 4,890 mAh battery (which might be marketed as a 5,000 mAh battery at launch) and it supports fast charging. The smartphone will run OxygenOS based on Android (and ColorOS on units sold in China), but the exact version of the operating system is not listed in the certification. While it is likely to be Android 12, we wouldn't be very surprised if OnePlus chooses to launch the phone with Android 11 instead.
Details on the launch remain elusive
Judging from the sides of the smartphone, it will feature a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that doubles as a power button. As with the OnePlus 10R, the listed smartphone is also expected to skip on the alert slider, which has been a distinctive element of OnePlus devices for years. There is no information about the launch of the OnePlus PGZ110. Considering all of its specifications are already listed on the Chinese regulator's website, we can expect it to arrive in May or June 2022 — most likely before the alleged OnePlus 10, which is also thought to be in development and set to arrive later in 2022.
Meanwhile, there is no word on what the phone could be called in the market. The similarity it bears with the OnePlus 10R in terms of specifications suggests it could be the OnePlus 10R Lite. Whether that will ultimately be the case is yet to be seen, of course.