OnePlus teases mysterious McLaren device that could be a 5G smartphone

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business
Insider

• OnePlus is announcing a new device on December 11 in
  partnership with McLaren F1, the McLaren Formula 1 team. 
• No details about the device have been shared — it could be a
  new edition of the OnePlus 6T, but it could also be a brand new
  line of smartphone separate from the usual phones OnePlus
  releases. 
• The new smartphone could also come with 5G
  connectivity. 

OnePlus is announcing a new device during an event on December 11
in the UK in partnership with car-maker McLaren, which has a
pedigree in Formula 1 racing. 

The slogan for the event on December 11 is “Salute to Speed,”
which suggest it’ll be fast, whatever it is. 

There aren’t any details yet of what exactly will be announced.
It could be a special edition of the OnePlus 6T smartphone, the
latest phone from OnePlus.

If not, it could be the launch of an entirely new, secondary line
of smartphones from OnePlus in the same vein that Samsung and LG
have two lineups of premium smartphones — think Samsung Galaxy S9
and Galaxy Note 9, or the LG G7 and LG V40.

My personal hunch is that it could be a brand new device with 5G
connectivity that’s separate from the regular OnePlus lineup. Why
do I think that? Because OnePlus previously confirmed a 5G phone
arriving in early 2019, according to
CNET Spain who spoke with OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei.

To top it all off, the December 11 timing of the event also lines
up with a device release in early 2019.

5G is the evolution of the 4G LTE networks we use today for
sending and receiving data on our smartphones, and it’s said to
be significantly faster and more responsive than 4G LTE. Faster
and more responsive is certainly something I associate with
sports cars, like a McLaren, perhaps?

Pei also told CNET Spain that the OnePlus 5G phone won’t be the
OnePlus 7, the supposed successor to the OnePlus 6T that hasn’t
been announced yet, which would line up with my hunch that the
OnePlus 5G phone will be an entirely separate line of OnePlus
smartphones. 

OnePlus also highlights sending the first-ever tweet over the 5G
network as an achievement on its OnePlus/McLaren website.
The inclusion of 5G in the OnePlus/McLaren website could mean
nothing, but I’m taking the approach that every detail on the
website is deliberate. 

OnePlus

It should also be noted that one of the sketched smartphone
designs above also indicate a headphone jack, which is a feature
that OnePlus recently removed on the OnePlus 6T model. Again, it
could mean nothing. 

Considering that 5G connectivity would require a new kind of
chip, it’s entirely likely that the upcoming 5G OnePlus will come
with the latest and fastest from mobile chipmaker, Qualcomm.
Indeed, Qualcomm announced at an August event that its 5G-capable
chips will start rolling out to devices in early 2019. And Pei
made an appearance at the Qualcomm event, too.

Still, everything here so far is speculation based on industry
and company announcements. All we know for sure is that OnePlus
is announcing something soon. We’ll find out
on December 11.