OnePlus is working on a crazy cheap phone with a ridiculously large battery
OnePlus Nord
But all of a sudden, the company appears to have radically changed the strategy that worked pretty well in putting the OnePlus brand on the global mobile industry map while severely restricting its growth opportunities across markets like India and even the US. You can now get a true, no-holds-barred flagship model for as much as $999 stateside, but also a mid-end 5G device priced at only €400 on the old continent with essentially unrivaled specs and an almost surprisingly premium design.
If you think the first member of the non-flagship OnePlus Nord family is impossible to beat in terms of value for money, wait until you hear how the company plans to expand the roster in the near future.
A $200 or so phone with a gargantuan battery for the US?!
It's true, at least according to an "insider source" quoted by Android Central that apparently proved 100 percent reliable in the past - the OnePlus "Clover" is coming to a bunch of "global markets" including the US.
While we can't be certain this is the specific product the company referenced last month, Clover is definitely just an internal codename and there's a good chance this thing will indeed be released as a Nord-branded device.
The key selling point is undoubtedly set to be a 6,000mAh battery, which sounds insanely large even by Moto G Power-series standards. In case you're wondering, the first-gen OnePlus Nord 5G packs a 4,115mAh cell that seems to do a perfectly adequate job of getting you through a typical day of work. With no 5G support, 90Hz display refresh rate technology, and a decidedly frugal Snapdragon 460 processor under its hood, the OnePlus Clover will certainly be able to keep the lights on for several days on a row before hugging a wall.
Obviously, fancy features like wireless charging and water resistance are out of the question for a handset tipped to sport a 6.52-inch screen with a modest resolution of 1560 x 720 pixels. But the 18W fast charging capabilities actually sound pretty remarkable for a price tag "in the vicinity" of $200.
That's right, this puppy is expected to slot somewhere below the Moto G Power in the US market, with a fitting Snapdragon 400-series SoC that promises to deliver a satisfying level of raw speed (all things considered) while supporting a triple rear-facing camera setup. We're clearly not talking about the world's most impressive imaging sensors, but a primary 13MP shooter and two unknown additional 2MP lenses definitely sound pretty good for the $200 "vicinity."
The OnePlus Clover is also pretty much guaranteed to feature 4 gigs of RAM, 64 gigs of internal storage space, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack, basically ticking all the right boxes for a decent $300 or even $400 Android smartphone in the US.
What else is OnePlus planning?
In short, the answer to that question seems to be "a lot." More specifically, a lot of different things aimed at different audiences, including a traditional "T" refresh of the high-end OnePlus 8 and a bunch of somewhat confusing mid-rangers.
While the entry-level device detailed today is almost certainly the same unnamed phone that first emerged in the rumor mill late last week, "Billie 1" and "Billie 2" might be something else entirely. At least one of the Billies rumored earlier this month is expected to pack a 5G-supporting Snapdragon 690 processor, which is obviously faster than the aforementioned 460 chipset tipped for the OnePlus Clover but slower than the 765 SoC powering the OG Nord.
OnePlus Billie 1 and Billie 2 concept renders
Then there's another mysterious mid-end handset recently seen benching a decent performance score with an outdated Snapdragon 660 processor on deck while curiously sharing the Clover codename with today's leaked low-end smartphone.
This doesn't look like the most coherent release strategy, but perhaps the solution to stagnant demand and a global pandemic is... to throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.
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