We’ve got more OnePlus 11 news for you: OnePlus has announced that the flagship phone will debut in China on Wednesday, January 4, and has also released official photos of the phone in two different colors.
It’s all from Chinese social networks Weibo (opens in a new tab) (pass Engadget (opens in a new tab)), emphasizing that this is likely to be a fairly broadly regionalized launch event. That said, it’ll be the same phone no matter where in the world you buy it.
As we’ve previously reported, OnePlus’ global launch event is scheduled for Tuesday, February 7, and we’ll no doubt hear more about international availability and pricing then — even after everything else about the phone has been revealed.
Spec Appeal
OnePlus isn’t shy about sharing OnePlus 11 specs, features, and promotional images online its Weibo page (opens in a new tab). In fact, there won’t be much to reveal at the upcoming official launch events in January and February.
As expected, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset will run the show, while memory configuration options will start at 12GB — up from 8GB in the OnePlus 10 Pro that launched earlier this year.
As for what the phone will look like, the official images match the previously leaked renders. OnePlus says it’s a “black hole-inspired aesthetic design” (according to Google Translate), with a large cutout for the rear camera module.
Analysis: 2023 for mobile starts here
If the launch event in China on January 4 is counted as an official launch, the OnePlus 11 will be the first flagship phone to hit the market in 2023. There’s some value in being first, but it also means other manufacturers have longer to perfect and develop their phones before launching them.
According to the latest rumors, we will see Samsung unveil the Galaxy S23 series of phones on Wednesday, February 1st. Three high-end phones will be on display: the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The Google Pixel 8 is expected to launch in October, since that’s when Pixel smartphones usually come out. Before that, though, we’ll likely see Google’s foldable phone and the mid-range Pixel 7a.
The iPhone 15 will go up against Android flagships. If Apple sticks to its usual schedule, we’ll see several iPhone 15 models debut sometime in September, and we’ve already heard that the camera is getting a big upgrade, and some models in the lineup may Equipped with solid state buttons.
