Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus may have a handset dubbed OnePlus 3 mini in the works.
An unknown device has made an appearance on GFXBench with similar specs as the OnePlus 3's. Only the screen size of this phone is smaller, which hints that OnePlus may launch a mini version of the OnePlus 3.
According to the GFXBench website, the unknown phone sports a 4.6-inch touchscreen with at least 5 finger gesture support. The handset has a display resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels.
Under the hood are 2.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and Adreno 530 GPU. The handset comes with 64 GB of internal storage and it also includes 6 GB of RAM, which will boost multi-task performance. The OnePlus 3 does not have a microSD card slot, and it is likely that the mini version will also not have the option for a microSD card slot.
The OnePlus 3 mini may be equipped with a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. It runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.
OnePlus officially launched the OnePlus 3 in mid-June this year touting a 5.5-inch screen. The mobile phone has witnessed high demand since its launch in many countries across the world.
In fact, the massive rush for the OnePlus 3 has led the company to stop sales in some countries such as China, Ireland, France, Greece, Spain, Austria and more. The sales will be briefly halted to re-stock the smartphone from Aug. 9 to Sept. 12.
"We are working hard to secure more stock and fire up more production lines so that we can fulfill our goal of putting premium products into the hands of as many people as possible. With this note I wanted to give customers in affected regions enough advance notice to be able to purchase a OnePlus 3," says Carl Pei, the co-founder of OnePlus.
The high demand for the OnePlus 3 does not suggest that the company will consider launching another model soon. However, many smartphone customers do not like smartphones with bigger screens and prefer a device with a smaller display. Therefore, OnePlus announcing a mini version of the OnePlus 3 might attract more customers.
OnePlus has not confirmed any detail about the OnePlus 3 mini, and for now it makes sense that the company will focus on meeting the demands for the OnePlus 3.
Many smartphone lovers will want to buy a smaller version of the OnePlus 3, especially if it packs the same hardware specs as the original phone. However, customers should take rumors of the OnePlus 3 mini with a pinch of salt.
