OnePlus has managed to engrave its name in the premium flagship space and the Chinese startup is looking to take a profitable piece out of the budget smartphone space soon. The news of OnePlus building an affordable smartphone has been floating around for quite some time and now the company's general manager for India, Vikas Agarwal, has confirmed that a new device is set for release by the end of this year.
In an interview with Economic Times, Agarwal said, "We're introducing a new device by the end of this year. Diwali would be the ideal time, but next quarter for sure. It would be a global launch, but India will be the biggest focus."
India has become a primary market for several smartphone makers due to its significant growth. For OnePlus, India has the potential to become the largest market among its top three countries where it sells smartphones and accessories.
Currently, Europe and the US are the biggest markets for OnePlus. The overall OnePlus sales in India accounted for 7% last year and over 40% of global sales in the first quarter.
According to ET, the affordable OnePlus smartphone will be priced between Rs 12,000 and Rs 20,000. The product range is the fastest moving category in smartphones and highly competitive. Majority smartphone sales in India come from handsets priced between Rs 8,000 and Rs 15,000. If OnePlus manages to hit the right price, which is most likely, the affordable variant is expected to share success of OnePlus One and OnePlus 2.
An affordable OnePlus smartphone, the Mini, has been leaked several times. The handset was expected to make debut alongside OnePlus 2, but it did not happen. The OnePlus Mini renders and benchmark results were leaked recently, leading us to witness the possible specifications of the handset.
According to a BGR report, OnePlus Mini will feature a Full HD display and use a MediaTek MT6795T chipset paired with a 2GB RAM, 32GB memory and a PowerVR G6200 GPU. A 13-megapixel sensor will serve as the primary camera with a duo-cam setup. It is likely that the company will continue its invite-only model to sell the upcoming handset.
