As announced earlier, OnePlus has showcased prototypes of its upcoming 5G smartphone at MWC 2019. The prototypes are displayed at Qualcomm’s booth at the show, and make use of a 5G network set up by Qualcomm and Ericsson at the booth. The phones are powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset along with the X50 5G modem.
Not much can be seen of the devices, since they are covered by a white case and further enclosed within a glass box. While one of the devices displays a live feed of messages left by OnePlus community members on the OnePlus ‘Say Hello to 5G’ community page, the other simulates the possibilites of 5G cloud gaming – this essentially allows users to stream a large-sized game instead of downloading it thanks to ultra-fast 5G speeds.
In a statement to the press, Pete Lau, Founder and CEO of OnePlus said, “5G is a game changer. It can change everything from gaming to communication, to health and beyond. More than that, it can perform several, or all, of these at the same time. One great example of how 5G will change the world is gaming. 5G’s dramatic improvement in speed, latency, and network capacity can truly fulfil the promise of cloud gaming. Combined with powerful OnePlus devices, people can play advanced games anywhere they are, provided they are on a 5G connection.”
As of now, no hardware details regarding the OnePlus 5G smartphone are available. We do know that OnePlus has tied up with UK carrier EE to commercially launch the device later this year, but it’s unclear if this will be the OnePlus 7 or an entirely new device.