Reports came out recently suggesting OnePlus was going to be the first manufacturer to release a phone powered by the just-announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip. As it turns out, however, this was a huge error on OnePlus' part.
At the time, a number of publications, including Tech Times, called the news particularly notable, especially since OnePlus' smartphone legacy isn't as massive as its peers, including Samsung and Huawei — typically the first manufacturers to come out with phones sporting Qualcomm's latest mobile platform.
As such, OnePlus was thrust into the limelight because of the enormous news. However, this is entirely false. OnePlus isn't going to release the first phone running Qualcomm's latest processor, after all. So what happened?
OnePlus And Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
Chinese versions of the slide deck Pete Lau used during his presentation at Qualcomm's Tech Summit at Hawaii said that the phone in question would be "among the first" smartphones to have Snapdragon 855. The problem? The English version of the deck said, without question, that the phone would be "the first." One word can make all the difference, of course. Not only was it a massive blunder, it also probably disappointed fans who took the slide as it was.
OnePlus Confirms Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Blunder
A spokesperson has confirmed the mistake to Engadget, saying that the person in charge of writing the presentation deck isn't a native English speaker. Because of this, publications took the slide in question at face value — oddly, though, OnePlus actually contributed to this miscommunication incident even further.
On multiple occasions, as Engadget notes, OnePlus spokespeople confirmed that its forthcoming phone would indeed be the first to have the Snapdragon 855 chip. It wasn't until the publication told OnePlus about the glaring inconsistency between its Chinese and English decks that any of the company's employees even noticed the issue.
"We appreciate the opportunity to clarify that we will be one of the first to have access to, and use, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, and apologise for the miscommunication," a OnePlus spokesperson said in a statement.
Apparently, the confusion centered around the use of the word "feature" — some employees assumed that by describing the phone as the "first to feature" it meant that the company was the first to get access to the chipset from Qualcomm. However, no matter how one looks at it, the slide in question is unambiguous in its clarity: OnePlus will be the first to use the said chip.
Don't count on it anymore.
