OnePlus confirmed its new budget-smartphone, putting all rumors and speculations to rest and said that it is working on a “new, more affordable smartphone product line” that will first launch in India and Europe. OnePlus co-founder and CEO Pete Lau revealed the new development via a forum post on the OnePlus community site. An Instagram account has also been created by the company, in which the user has written “OnePlusLiteZThing”, which confirms the July launch date. Lau has not provided any details about the launch of the first smartphone in the new range. However, if we look at the rumor mill and consider the newly created Instagram account, it will most likely be the OnePlus Z.
“As we have always tried something new, we are going to make a relatively small start with this new product line by introducing it first in Europe and India,” Lau said in a forum post. “But don’t worry, we’re also trying to bring more affordable smartphones to North America in the near future.”
OnePlus will have a new product team led by Paul Yu, who currently heads its mobile development division. This new team will have employees from all over the world, the executive said.
July launch confirmed
To get some publicity ahead of the official launch of the new smartphone line, OnePlus started an Instagram account which is currently private but has four posts. The latest post on the Instagram account shows Morse code which translates to the text “July”. This suggests that the first smartphone under the new line will be launched in July.
OnePlus Z aka OnePlus Nord launch details are shown on Instagram via Morse code
There are rumors that suggest the launch date of the rumored new smartphone as OnePlus Z, aka OnePlus Nord, on 10 July. However, it is safe to take that rumor with a pinch of salt until the company confirms its end.
New tricks to attract new audiences?
This is not particularly the first time OnePlus is trying to bring something affordable to the market. It was the first attempt and failure with the OnePlus X launched in November 2015 as a budget model by the company.
Nevertheless, the new move is likely to help attract customers who were recently avoiding OnePlus phones due to premium pricing. The company began its journey as a “major killer” producer in 2014, after all.
Is OnePlus 8 Pro the right premium phone for India? We discussed our weekly technology podcast on Orbital, which you can subscribe to via the Apple Podcast or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button below.
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