OnePlus May Have A Mega Device In The Making

Today we've put together a few clues that appear to indicate OnePlus MIGHT be making something sort of extraordinary. You're going to have to take the following with a grain of salt, as we're pretty far out from any hard and fast clues, but read though what we've got so far and see if it shakes anything loose. These clues come as sort of an addendum to an article released earlier today on an OPPO patent for a foldable smartphone.

In the article published earlier today, we got a look at a foldable smartphone patent from OPPO. Here we're taking a look at an additional patent as well as a newly-revealed OnePlus Roaming Data Plan feature on the OnePlus 6. This feature was revealed over the weekend in the form of a Beta software update to the OnePlus 6, and is not available (yet) on any other OnePlus device.

According to the OnePlus update, "OnePlus Roaming lets you surf the internet without a local SIM card. It's like a virtual sim (only data, no calls); it should work globally in most of the countries/regions, and it will list out the plans available for the country/regions you are in so that you can purchase a suitable plan and access the Internet without a SIM."

This manner of working on a mobile device with the functionality of a virtual SIM is very similar to that of the modern iPad. Apple includes a way in which users can purchase mobile data from the iPad using the device's built-in hardware, removing the need to physically enter a mobile data provider store to attain a SIM card. In this way, OnePlus effectively opens the door to future tablet or tablet-like devices with mobile data features.

Published on November 15th, 2018, a patent was revealed to the public by the USPTO. This patent was assigned to Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., LTD., Dongguan (CN). While OnePlus and OPPO are not the same company and indeed have different leadership, there exists a set of coincidences that here come into play.

Each year for the last several years, OPPO released a device in their OPPO R series. In 2018 they released an Oppo R15 Pro shortly before OnePlus released their OnePlus 6. One device looks a lot like the other. They're not the SAME, but they're very, very similar. Take a peek at a few clues on that, then look at a few more clues followed by some very recent OPPO F9 clues to round out the bunch.

Now, with the most recent patents from OPPO, we get to see just the bare minimum of illustrations for their next most-different sort of release. Their description of the technology is interesting.

"A front face of a current mobile phone is generally provided with a fingerprint identification sensor and a display screen, and the fingerprint identification sensor and the display screen are superimposed to increase a screen-to-body ratio of the mobile phone. At the same time, a flexible display screen can be used to form a foldable mobile terminal, to achieve a large screen display."

Imagine OnePlus has the idea that they might take a country like India by storm by leveraging the big-time market lead they've got in the country. Imagine they've got not only a new smartphone, but the ability to corner this "emerging market" for tablet-sized devices, too.

A device could be made by OnePlus that's both a smartphone and a tablet, where users could choose to use said device as a smartphone and pay for standard mobile data and voice and text costs. OR they could choose to buy this device without a standard SIM card, using it instead with mobile data and Wi-Fi only. That might be just the ticket in India.

And given the current state of things here in the USA with a massive lack of big-name mobile tablets, OnePlus might also make a big bang. Assuming Samsung doesn't eat the whole market first with their upcoming Samsung Galaxy F or X. Cross your fingers for some excitement, one way or the other!