OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has confirmed that the company does not plan to release its traditional T series devices in the second half of this year. He also announced that next year’s OnePlus flagship mobile phone will run a new unified operating system after the company has integrated OPPO, a subsidiary of BBK Electronics. OnePlus announced that it will merge the code base of its Android-based OxygenOS operating system with OPPO’s ColorOS in July.
This means that we are unlikely to see OnePlus 9T after this year’s OnePlus 9. Despite the similar names, the company’s T-series phones have been significantly upgraded compared to their flagship phones earlier this year. For example, the charging speed of 8T is about twice that of 8, while 7T will increase the original 7 display to a higher 90Hz refresh rate.
We will not launch T series products this year, Liu Zuohu said through an interpreter in a roundtable interview. This will be the first year since OnePlus adopted the release schedule on the OnePlus 3T in 2016, there will be no T-series devices.
During the merger between OnePlus and OPPO, the two companies will unify the underlying code bases of OxygenOS and OPPO’s ColorOS. Liu Zuohu said that the two Android-based operating systems will continue to have their own brands and unique features, but the code supporting them will be the same, and they will be developed by a unified team. According to OnePlus’ description, this method will produce an operating system that is “fast, smooth” and “clean and lightweight” like OxygenOS, and it is also “reliable” and “smart and feature-rich” like ColorOS.
Liu Zuohu said that the code base integration of the two operating systems was completed in June, and it has helped achieve more frequent software updates. But we must wait until next year to see the first OnePlus flagship machine with a new integrated operating system on the market. It’s not just that the new OnePlus phones get a new operating system-it will also appear on OnePlus’ old devices because they are still planned to receive support.
These support periods include three major updates for flagship phones, two updates for most Nord devices, and one update for Nord N phones. Last week, Oppo announced that the OnePlus 9 series will receive a beta version of the new software in October, followed by the OnePlus 8 series in December. OnePlus said that it is necessary to integrate its business with OPPO, which can make it more efficient and will streamline its R&D resources “to support more products and work more efficiently.”
In addition to integrating the operating systems of the two companies, OnePlus also said it will integrate its Warp Charge fast charging standard with Oppo’s SuperVOOC. In the briefing, Liu Zuohu downplayed the possibility of layoffs related to the merger with OPPO. “[Redundancies] is not something that happened during the merger,” Liu Zuohu said through a translator. “Our focus is to integrate the teams of OnePlus and OPPO so that the advantages of both parties can be brought together into the merged entity.”
