OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has confirmed through the Qualcomm 4G / 5G Summit that was held earlier today in Hong Kong that the brand will be among the first to launch a 5G smartphone in 2019. Since OnePlus is expected to launch the OnePlus 7 next year, it is speculated that it could the company’s first 5G phone.
Multiple smartphone OEMs are gearing up to launch 5G smartphones. In fact, Xiaomi has recently confirmed that the Mi MIX 3 flagship phone that is scheduled to debut on October 25th will be the world’s first 5G smartphone. China and the U.S. are the two countries are gunning towards launching 5G smartphones. Leading carriers in both countries have successfully trialed 5G networks and are now prepping up to make it available commercially.
Qualcomm President Cristian Amon claimed that at least two flagship 5G phones will be arriving in 2019. Carl Pei joined Amon on the stage and confirmed that OnePlus 5G phone will be debuting in the first half of the coming year. The handset will be equipped with the Snapdragon X50 LTE modem and QTM052 mmWave antenna module. Pei also confirmed that OnePlus had successfully tested 5G connectivity in August.
The above image shows the list of OEs that are working with Qualcomm to make 5G phones a reality in 2019. Since Samsung and Huawei have their own production lines, they are not listed above. Apple is also absent from the list because of the legal fued between the U.S. based chip maker and Cupertino tech giant.
Starting from next year, many smartphone OEMs will be releasing 5G phones. The Samsung Galaxy S10 is pegged to debut in the first quarter of 2019. Huawei has confirmed that it will be announcing its first 5G phone by mid-2019. It is likely to be powered by the 5G-ready Kirin 980 chipset.
HTC is also rumored to be working on a Snapdragon 855 driven 5G smartphone. Vivo and Oppo have recently conducted 5G signal tests on the Vivo NEX and Oppo R15 smartphones. LG, Motorola and Lenovo are also speculated to release 5G phones in 2019.
Going by the release pattern of the OnePlus phones, it appears that the 5G enabled OnePlus 7 smartphone may get unveiled by the second quarter of 2019. OnePlus has been consistently increasing the pricing of its smartphones. The OnePlus 7 may be priced higher mainly because of the inclusion of the 5G technology.