OnePlus 6 smartphone detailed information and concept photos.

OnePlus has really disrupted the market with its series of very good, reasonably priced phones. The OnePlus 5 continues this tradition, albeit at a price that’s closing in on its more expensive rivals – if they weren’t galloping away towards an even higher price, that is.

Still, OnePlus’ motto is “never settle” and that gives us licence to think about next year’s OnePlus 6.

The Chinese company had teased a mysterious event in Paris on 19 September which many thought may be a OnePlus 6 event, or more likely a OnePlus 5T. Instead, this meeting ended up being a collaboration event during fashion week with French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.

Then, the OnePlus 5 went out of stock in both the UK and US. At the time of writing, only the gold version of the OnePlus 5 is available direct from the manufacturer, while O2 is still offering the Slate Gray models in both storage options, but only if you get the phone on a contract. This led to the following leaked image on Slashleaks, which suggests a OnePlus 6 – or 5T perhaps – that looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S8.


We're not 100% convinced, to put it mildly – and not least because it's a pretty low-resolution shot that would be extremely easy to fabricate. It's entirely possible that the OnePlus 6 will ape the S8's edge-to-edge design, but this doesn't feel like proof one way or another. Especially given OnePlus' watchword has always been price, and this kind of display tech pushes costs up – just look at the £1,000 iPhone X.

Information is near non-existent at this point, there are a few hints of what the OnePlus 6 may hold if you dig deep enough. Here's a round up of them.

OnePlus 6: Rumours

As you might imagine, there the ren’t really any rumours yet –  though during a recent Reddit AMA, founder Carl Pei did joke that the rumour mill would start spinning when he asked a user if they prefered the fingerprint scanner on the front or back of a handset. At the very least, you have to say the company is open-minded its designs, but you'd hardly call relocating the fingerprint reader a commitment.

Other than that, expect the phone to continue with a dual lens camera, given the success of the model on the OnePlus 5. We’d expect a screen resolution upgrade this time to 2K to help VR content shine, but we’ve been expecting that for some time now, so who knows?

If you’re concerned that the OnePlus 4 will follow in the footsteps of Apple and Motorola in ditching the headphone jack, we think you’re safe. That’s not to say that OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei hasn’t considered it – it’s just that he put the matter to his Twitter followers, who roundly dismissed the idea:


Just because nothing has been announced, doesn't mean that people can't madly speculate. The most interesting concept design comes courtesy of Upcoming Phones which imagines the handset following modern trends for thin bezels and an end-to-end display. Complete fiction or not, you have to concede that it would be quite a looker:


The trouble with these kind of videos is they tend to imagine that money is no object. For a company like OnePlus that likes to undercut the opposition, you can't really imagine the OnePlus 6 having everything suggested, but if nothing else it makes for an appealiong wishlist.

OnePlus 6: Release date

Let’s take a look at the history book: The OnePlus One launched in April 2014. The OnePlus 2 followed in July 2015, and the OnePlus 3 emerged in June 2016. The OnePlus 3T was bucked the trend with November 2016, but it was an incremental update, before the OnePlus 5 arrived in June 2017.

With that in mind, June-July 2018 seems like a good bet – unless they treat us to a OnePlus 5T.

: Price

The OnePlus series has undergone some serious price inflation since it first launched. The OnePlus One launched at £229. The OnePlus 2 nudged it up to £239, before the OnePlus 3 pushed it to £309. Then Brexit pushed the price of that up to £329, before the OnePlus 3T appeared at £399. The OnePlus 5 arrived at a price of £450.


In a recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), the company suggested it would consider making a smartphone that costs over $800 (~£612). During the same AMA, CEO Carl Pei quite reasonably added: “Costs are increasing YoY, we only make flagship products, and we don't believe in selling products at a loss.”

See related
OnePlus 5 review: The best mid-range smartphone around is unbeatable value for money
With these two factors in mind, you’d expect the gradual inflation to continue – but crucially for the company to remain competitive compared to other handsets.  With that in mind, my prediction is a handset that costs £500 when it launches – but as ever, we’ll revise this when more details on the specification come through.