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    OnePlus's budget smartphone likely to sport dual front cameras, may be named 'Nord'

    Synopsis

    The first phone from the budget range will be announced in the second week of July.

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    The company’s latest flagship device, the OnePlus 8 Pro costs Rs. 54,999, only Rs. 10,000 less than the iPhone 11 and the Samsung Galaxy S20.
    OnePlus has been around since 2014, and it has come a long way since anointing itself a ‘flagship killer.’ With the first generation of its smartphones, OnePlus earned a reputation for dishing out a package that had the best specifications at a price point the fraction of what similarly endowed phones from the likes of Apple and Samsung cost. The cameras were underwhelming, but that did not dissuade price-conscious buyers from embracing the brand.

    However, with each successive iteration, OnePlus has gradually moved away from its stated claim of being a working class hero. It has upped the stakes on the technological front. Consequently, the prices have also risen - to a point where the descendants of the OnePlus One, the original flagship killer, have come to resemble the scions of the iPhone and Galaxy families, in terms of both specs and price.

    Barring the OnePlus X, each successive OnePlus phone has cost more than the incumbent. While this is understandable, the slope of the curve has been steep. The company’s latest flagship device, the OnePlus 8 Pro costs Rs. 54,999, only Rs. 10,000 less than the iPhone 11 and the Samsung Galaxy S20. In the United States, the OnePlus 8 Pro costs $899, which is only $100 less than the iPhone 11 Pro and the Galaxy S20.


    But things could be about to change. In a blog post published this week, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau hinted that the company could be returning to its roots. He confirmed that OnePlus is working on a new product that would be more affordable than its flagship. Lau said that the new product line will initially debut in India and Europe, before being released in the North American markets.

    According to reports, the first phone from this range will be announced in the second week of July. One of the names for the new device doing the rounds is OnePlus Nord. It could alternatively be called the OnePlus Z or the OnePlus 8 Lite, as per comments in the company’s forum. The brand also took to social media to post promotional content which revealed that teal is one of the colour options available.

    The tech website Android Central further said that the new phone could have dual front-facing cameras, with a 32-megapixel primary sensor and an 8-megapixel secondary sensor propping up the wide-angle lens. The Nord will reportedly have a camera cutout at the top-left of the screen. OnePlus has largely stuck with a single 16-megapixel camera on the front for most of its phones, starting with the OnePlus 5.


    On the performance front, leaks suggest that the Nord will feature a Snapdragon 765G processor and a 90Hz AMOLED display. Speculation has been rife about how much the Nord will cost. In a veiled tweet, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei suggested that the Nord could fall in the same price bracket as the original OnePlus One.


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