OnePlus’ new mid-range smartphone is coming to Europe and India in July

Leaks and rumors about a new mid-range device from OnePlus have been floating around since late last year. The device, which was initially referred to as the OnePlus 8 Lite, was expected to launch alongside the OnePlus 8 series. But we later learned that the device would be launched later in the year under the OnePlus Z branding. Late last month, OnePlus finally confirmed that the company was working on an affordable smartphone that would give more users the chance to experience OnePlus devices. However, the company had released no information about its release date, other than mentioning that it will launch in July 2020.

Now, in a recent post on the OnePlus community forums, CEO Pete Lau has revealed that the company will soon be launching a new affordable smartphone product line in Europe and India. While Lau didn’t reveal an exact date for the launch, previous rumors suggest that the new mid-range OnePlus series will be announced on July 10th. The post also reveals that the company has set up a new product team for the affordable series which is led by Paul Yu, who has previously led hardware development for several flagship OnePlus devices.

Furthermore, OnePlus has set up a new Instagram account for the upcoming affordable series. The account goes by the name onepluslitezthing and it’s followed by the official OnePlus India account, which addresses any doubts that we might have had about its legitimacy. The account has also been shared by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei over on Twitter. At the time of writing, the account had only four posts, with one of the posts featuring morse code that translates to July. This suggests that the new mid-range device will be launched next month.

OnePlus Lite Z Thing https://t.co/K2jjBs2sjP

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) June 23, 2020

One of the posts takes a dig at Apple and states:

It’s been a while since we’ve done anything like this. But we think you’ll like what’s coming. Unfortunately, we don’t have any news for you right now. But if we did, this would be the first place to look. Unless we forget a prototype in a bar.

It’s also worth noting that since Lau has clearly mentioned that the company is launching a new “affordable smartphone product line,” it’s possible that we might get more than one new device at the upcoming launch event. Interestingly, XDA Portal tipster and Senior Member Some_Random_Username has also found references to two new project IDs in the OnePlus 8 series Android 11 Beta 1 build. While this does not conclusively prove anything, it does indicate a possibility that there are at least two devices in the upcoming mid-range series. We’ll find out soon enough.

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