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Last year, OnePlus got back into the business of making cheaper phones with the launch of the OnePlus Nord. Rumors promise more Nords to come, but there’s another cheaper new device on the way: the OnePlus 9 Lite.
This phone will launch alongside the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro, and is configured to come with a Snapdragon 865 chipset. That’s in place of the flagship Snapdragon 888 that we expect on the other two, as well as upcoming Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy. S21.
This news comes from a Android Central source, who claims that the typical two-phone launch from OnePlus will now include a third. Although it is a cheaper phone, you will have to sacrifice a few things to save money, hence the Snapdragon 865.
While OnePlus has gone the extra mile to budget for mid-range phones, rather than just the flagship-chasing phones it’s known for, opting for a Snapdragon 865 doesn’t mean the OnePlus 9 Lite will be a cheap phone.
The Snapdragon 865 appeared in many flagship phones from the 2020s and is still a very powerful chip despite being replaced by the Snapdragon 888. As such, the OnePlus 9 Lite is likely to be a slightly cheaper version of the OnePlus 9, offering a lot of its features with a few corners cut off, say a less RAM or less camera lens. We’ve seen such a situation with the $ 699 Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, a premium mid-range version of the Galaxy S20, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see OnePlus try to do that with the 9 Lite.
This segment of the smartphone market has really heated up this year, with not only the Galaxy S20 FE leading the charge, but there is also the Google Pixel 5 and iPhone 12, all priced at $ 699. At $ 749 , the OnePlus 8T could be seen as a competitor in that field, but its higher price puts it at a disadvantage. So there is scope for OnePlus to use a ‘Lite’ phone that offers a premium mid-range phone that could undermine rivals Samsung, Google and Apple.
What will also be interesting to see is how OnePlus differentiates the 9 Lite from its predecessors, given that it is configured to use the same chipset. But by using a slightly older chip, the company is prepared to save some money by developing the phone; savings that could then be passed on to your customers.
We don’t know much else about the OnePlus 9 Lite, but we can expect the rest of its specifications to be quite similar to the standard OnePlus 9. The OnePlus 9 is also expected to come with a 6.55-inch FHD + with a 120Hz update. speed, a 4,500 mAh battery, three rear cameras and a variant with at least 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
The OnePlus 9 Lite could share many of those specs, but it could use a smaller screen, have less memory, and one less rear camera; that’s all speculation, however.
The OnePlus 9 range is anticipated to launch in mid-March 2021, so we should expect to know more about the OnePlus 9 Lite in the coming weeks as we move into 2021.
