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Alleged OnePlus 7 pops up in real life photo. Reveals tiny but fun detail

By Preslav Kateliev

Updated: Feb 19, 2019, 6:31 AM

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Alleged OnePlus 7 pops up in real life photo. Reveals tiny but fun detail

The design of OnePlus' "flagship killer" phones is a living, breathing entity. Despite the fact that the company launches two phones per year, it will always apply a facelift to its product, upgrading the design in one way or another.

Last year, OnePlus gave us two phones with a notch — the OnePlus 6 had a rather large, iPhone-esque notch up top, while the OnePlus 6T had the "waterdrop notch", where the cutout on top of the screen is more of a nub, giving it a much cleaner look. Rumor has it that, this year, we will get a completely notchless design with the selfie camera being hidden behind a slide-out mechanism.

Now, the first photo — allegedly of the OnePlus 7 — has popped up online. Check it out, and we will discuss it further below:

First things first: you probably noticed that the device has a slightly bigger "forehead" and that its hardware buttons seem to be positioned in odd locations. This is because we are, most likely, looking at a slider phone turned upside down. So, the chin, which is usually a bit "meaty" as it holds the display driver, is at the top, giving this "leaked device" a slightly different appearance. And, obviously, the volume and power buttons are way out of place at the bottom of the device's frame, as opposed to being placed in the top half of the device.

So, why turn it upside down?

Well, if this is a fake leak, then the would-be leakster probably wanted to fool people by just flipping an already-existing phone and taking a snap of it.

Or, if it's real, it could be there to showcase how the user interface of the OnePlus 7 is able to flip in either direction, even upside down. This would a new feature from the company. And hey, if the phone is simply a rectangle, with (almost) uniform bezels all around, why not be able to just flip it any way you like, right?

Will this slider be as cool as the one on the Oppo Find X?

Oppo released the Find X last year and it was definitely a jewel to behold. What put the icing on the cake was that its slide-out camera was completely mechanical, popping out and retracting by itself, whenever the phone needed to use it. There are other sliders out there in the market — like the Honor Magic 20 or Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 — but they are not as advanced (and expensive), as their mechanism requires you to squeeze the phone and slide the camera out by hand.

Now, OnePlus and Oppo are... very close — same manufacturing plant kind of close. And we have seen in the past that whatever Oppo develops, OnePlus may adopt (like its Dash Charge, which Oppo calls VOOC Charging, phone designs, and other tidbits). But, tempting as it is to hope that the OnePlus 7 would have the same slider as the Oppo Find X, we kind of think that won't happen. Simple reason — OnePlus wants to cut corners and stay on the affordable side of things and that thing does look expensive.

Hey, we'd love to be wrong on that one!

Is this picture real, though?

You may feel like the icons on the photo are a bit small, in proportion to the phone's body, possibly being evidence that the image is doctored. However, the OnePlus interface does allow for icon resizing and it does look to us that the sizes shown in this picture are consistent with the "small" icon option found in our OnePlus phones' settings. The icons themselves look like the default Oxygen OS icon set.

In other words, you may want to take this with a grain of salt. But it's worth noting that the picture does present a phone that matches all the rumors and leaks about the OnePlus 7 we've heard so far. Just check out this render, which was fan-made and based entirely on leaked information:

To top it off, reports have claimed that OnePlus has prototypes of its next phones ready to be presented behind closed doors to partners at the upcoming MWC.

But still, due to the potato quality of the photo and questionable decision to shoot the phone upside-down, we can't guarantee this image here isn't a spoof.

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Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.