OnePlus 2019 smartphone will be 5G ready, promises timely updates
Smartphone maker OnePlus took to the stage at Mobile World Congress in Shanghai to announce its plans for 2019, PCMag reports. In addition to working with U.S. carriers, the company plans on producing a 5G smartphone.
At the event, OnePlus CEO and founder Pete Lau explained that thanks to the company’s relationship with Qualcomm, it’s shaping up to become one of the first 5G mobile phone makers. Lau also said the release will align with the first year 5G will be available in the U.S.
Carriers and chipmakers haven’t been slacking on creating hardware or testing 5G around the country, and with preliminary results showing that it’s going to be extremely fast. According to the ITU’s draft specification back in February calls for a minimum of 20Gbps downlink and 10Gbps uplink per mobile base station.
While there weren’t any more details on specifications we can expect for the smartphone, Lau also expressed an interest in bringing OnePlus phones to a carrier in the U.S. — rather than focusing on direct sales. That way, users in the U.S. can experience the phones in person before making the purchases in order to have some hands on time with it.
Specific carriers weren’t mentioned, and it’s still unclear if the company is focused on breaking into only one carrier or multiple. But for those worried that bloatware, he assured OnePlus providing customers with a fast and bloat-free experience is what’s most important to the company.
The company also announced a new maintenance schedule for updates — which includes the OnePlus 3 and 3T, OnePlus 5 and 5T, along with the OnePlus 6. While OnePlus has always been mostly reliable with providing major updates and security patches to its devices, the new schedule provides users with a reliable timeline of when they should expect to see both.
Under this schedule, OnePlus states that “there will be two years of regular software updates from the release date of the phone (release dates of T variants would be considered).” The update will not only include new features and Android versions, but also Android security patches and bug fixes. There will also be an additional year of Android security patch updates every two months.
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