It seems that the Chinese company OnePlus does not stop in its effort to be at the forefront. In addition to announcing that it will use the Snapdragon 855 processor in 2019, the company will also launch a OnePlus 5G phone, to accompany a 4G LTE model. In addition to these developments, the news of an association in the United Kingdom was revealed with telephone operators that support the 5G network, which shows the emphasis OnePlus is putting on the new technology.

As expected, these advances have led to a series of rumors, but now everything seems to indicate that we could see the phone in its initial stages earlier than had been speculated: OnePlus announced that it will show a prototype of the OnePlus 5G phone in the Mobile World Congress of Barcelona . This prototype will be released on February 26 at an event called ” Connect with the OnePlus Community over 5G “, which seems aimed at emphasizing games, and where attendees can “experience the capabilities of 5G gaming.”

Release date and availability
At the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai last year, OnePlus CEO and founder Pete Lau said that thanks to the company’s relationship with Qualcomm , OnePlus is becoming one of the first 5G mobile phone manufacturers. Lau said the launch will be aligned with the first year that 5G will be available in the United States, and that he is also confident that he will be the first to sell a 5G-capable phone in Europe, through a partnership with the telephone operator USA An earlier statement from OnePlus indicated that the phone would be available in early 2019, although after the date was postponed until May of this year.

Price
Prepare to pay more money than normal for the privilege of owning a 5G OnePlus phone. Lau estimated that it will cost between $ 200 and $ 300 additional to the 4G model, in an interview, which means it is likely to cost around $ 750 to $ 850 dollars. Still, it costs less than an Apple or Samsung flagship.

OnePlus is known for offering high-end specifications at a lower price. The OnePlus 6T starts at $ 550 and is powered by Snapdragon 845, the same set of chips present in the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Google Pixel 3.

First name
It is possible that the name of the 5G phone is not ” OnePlus 7″ , because that would continue with the 4G phone line, and that is why it is very likely that the company will adopt a new name for its 5G phones. In addition, it is a separate range of devices, and it will be the second time in the history of the company that they will sell more than one family of phones. The last one was the OnePlus X of short duration, that existed next to the OnePlus 2. We will keep you informed as soon as we know the official name of the new 5G phone of OnePlus.

Are they really the first ones with Snapdragon 855?
What started as good news for OnePlus at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii has taken a turn for the controversy, after the comments were clarified and more developments revealed. On the scene of the event, Lau said they would be the first manufacturer to launch a smartphone with the new Snapdragon 855 chip inside. However, it has now been clarified that this was a translation error, and should have said “one of the first”.

In recent years, Samsung has been the first to use the latest Snapdragon flagship processor in a new device, so the OnePlus announcement broke the tradition and could have been seen as a big deal for the newcomer OnePlus. The new Snapdragon chip is not only more powerful, but also highlights the improvement of artificial intelligence (AI), better camera processing, and other relevant functions. Now, in the light of the clarification, it seems that the OnePlus news is no different from the other manufacturers who will also use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855 in 2019.

How did this happen? Everything points to translation problems, and it is said that the error could have run through several pieces of documentation used by OnePlus and Lau in the event, concluding with the erroneous statement of “we will be the first”. A OnePlus spokesperson issued a statement to Engadget , saying: “We appreciate the opportunity to clarify that we will be one of the first to access and use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, and we apologize for the failure in communication.”

That “communication failure” even spread to OnePlus’s Twitter account , where the surprise announcement was highlighted in a message.

This is all that is known so far about the new OnePlus 5G phone, but we will keep you informed as soon as we get more news.