The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro can be accompanied by an affordable flagship brother – the OnePlus 9 Lite – but it may have an older chipset.
The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro will likely use the same leading Snapdragon 888 chipset that other 2021 flagships will boast, while the OnePlus 9 Lite will pack the Snapdragon 865 featured on major 2020 phones, a source said. Android Central.
While the source did not provide any other details about the OnePlus 9 Lite, it would presumably compete with other cheaper flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Google Pixel 5.
We cannot do more than speculate, but we can make an informed estimate according to the phone line – for example, the OnePlus 8T was launched in late 2020 at a price of $ 749 (£ 649 / about AU $ 1,175) for its more robust 12 GB of RAM / 256 GB of storage model, so we hope the OnePlus 9 Lite comes with that.
OnePlus Shakeup
OnePlus has been messing with its line throughout 2020. You may have noticed that the OnePlus 8T was not accompanied by an 8T Pro, for example, and the mid-range OnePlus Nord was followed by Nord N10 5G, which appeared to be so similar that it looked like a rushed version to give early 5G users an affordable option.
Thus, OnePlus 9 is an opportunity to launch a new range of phones with definitive price ranges aimed at specific consumers. Veterans of OnePlus, on the other hand, who have enjoyed the extreme value of the older philosophy of the brand’s main specs at low prices and have long criticized the rising prices of the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 8 lines, can look at a OnePlus 9 Lite as a return to form.
After all, the Snapdragon 865 is still a great chipset, and phones with it regularly outperform the flagships with less powerful silicon, like the Snapdragon 765 with Google Pixel 5. But until more specs leak, we will be cautious with our estimates of that OnePlus 9 Lite is capable of.