The OnePlus 9 series from earlier in the year took the company to new heights in the smartphone market, finally offering a worthy competitor in the ultra-premium segment. A new development suggests that we won’t see a follow-up to them any time soon.
The OnePlus 9, 9 Pro and 9R were unveiled in March — a month earlier than its usual launch cycles. At Rs 69,999, the OnePlus 9 Pro became the most expensive smartphone from the brand to date, bringing all the latest specifications and vastly better cameras. Many expected its successor to arrive later this year, but that might not be the case now.
Why would you need a 9T? What would you expect this phone to do better?A better screen? Better than 9 Series? -NoBetter charging? Better than 65W? -NoNew SoC? The 888+? Maybe, but the 888 is just fineA better cam? 9 Series is already good – maybe some software tweaksJuly 27, 2021
Max Jambor, a tipster who has often revealed interesting bits around upcoming OnePlus products, took to Twitter to say “no 9T”, suggesting that there will not be a OnePlus 9T device this year. In an eventual tweet, he explained the rationale behind this move. His point was that there isn’t much left to upgrade on the existing OnePlus 9 lineup, as the screens, charging tech, performance and cameras are already adequate; a new smartphone with minor improvements would not be viable. This is especially true for the Pro variant.
His logic is quite sensible, as the only clear change would be to offer the Snapdragon 888 Plus, which is nothing more than an incremental update. However, optimizing a device for a new chipset might be a more difficult task, which might not even bring the performance gains that are possible. The ongoing semiconductor shortage is also likely to have an impact.
If this ends up being true, this would be the first time since 2015 that OnePlus will follow a refresh cycle of longer than 6 months. There are likely to be bigger reasons for the shift in strategy apart from the existing lineup being “good enough”.
Possible reasons why the OnePlus 9T won’t exist
OnePlus might not be only smartphone maker to sit out of the second half of 2021 flagship game, as Samsung and a few others are also expected to stick to only one hero product this year. Apart from better utilizations of resources and greater economies of scale, this would also allow them to launch their next crop of devices a little earlier. Rumours point at a January 2022 unveiling for Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and Note 21 phones. If the OnePlus 10 series arrives in early Q1, it could compete with Samsung and not allow it to take a lead in the market.
This move could also be predicated on the recent Oppo-OnePlus merger. While the brands maintain that they will continue to function independently, we can’t help but think about how they wouldn’t want to have similar products at similar price points around the same time to avoid internal product cannibalization. So there could be a possibility that Oppo unveils another flagship later this year, while OnePlus opts for early next year.
Then there’s also the factor of chipset development. The successor to the Snapdragon 888 is expected in December and should make its way to global markets early next year. With Samsung likely to stick with Exynos for most countries, and the rest of the competition expected to be limited to China for a bit, it could let the OnePlus 10 be one of the first to adopt the next flagship chipset from Qualcomm.
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