Fresh off Qualcomm's unveiling of the Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, OnePlus just confirmed that it will release a flagship device in 2019 which sports the latest chip and offer 5G connectivity.
During Qualcomm's Tech Summit in Hawaii, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said that with the help of UK-based carrier EE, this forthcoming device will be the first phone in the European market to feature 5G.
OnePlus 5G Phone
It was suggested previously that OnePlus had access to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 development before any other smartphone manufacturer, and this news certainly gives credence to those early rumors. To be sure, there's no doubt OnePlus is going to release a phone with Qualcomm's latest chip in it — the surprising thing here, really, is that it's going to be the first to do so. Usually, it's Samsung or some other major manufacturer.
New OnePlus Product Line
Interestingly, the phone in question doesn't appear to be OnePlus 7, the inevitable successor to the OnePlus 6T. For this phone, OnePlus is said to be introducing an entirely new product line, perhaps to further differentiate it from the rest of the pack and better highlight its 5G capabilities. That's certainly a smart, if a little risky move. OnePlus has only deviated from its main smartphone line just once, particularly in 2015 with the release of the OnePlus X.
Perhaps more interesting is the fact that OnePlus is going to be responsible for Europe's first 5G-capable phone, and that's a pretty big deal considering how young the company is compared with its rivals. In the United States, when it came to building the first batch of 5G phones, Verizon and AT&T leaned on Samsung, which makes sense considering the South Korean company's steadfast research in 5G and strong economic background. In both regards, OnePlus can't hold a candle to Samsung — to be fair. However, the company has been hard at work on its own 5G research over the past few months.
The Arrival Of 5G
In Europe, the stage is set for 5G. EE's network will span 16 UK cities in 2019, starting with London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham, and Manchester. Later, 5G speeds will roll out to Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, and Bristol.
5G will eventually push out 4G LTE data speeds with a connection that's up to 100 times faster. That means downloading entire movies or big-sized games in just seconds.
