OnePlus CEO may have confirmed the existence of OnePlus Z

OnePlus recently came under fire from its core fanbase for its new smartphone strategy that includes making more premium smartphones in order to compete against industry leaders like Samsung and Apple. Besides premium smartphones, OnePlus will also release lower-priced smartphones — a strategy that many popular flagship brands like Apple and Samsung are pursuing.

In an interview with Fast Company, Lau said, “We can look at it as having a more affordable product offering.” These affordable smartphones will be up to the OnePlus standard as per the CEO. The ultimate goal of the company is to reach more customers and making lower-priced OnePlus smartphones available to the market will allow the company to achieve that goal.

OnePlus CEO didn’t talk about any specific smartphone, but if you read between the lines, it seems that the company is talking about OnePlus Z, a revamped OnePlus X that was launched back in 2015. Also, the company seems to be interested in launching these OnePlus Z-like smartphones in the future as well. The smartphone is expected to retail for $400.

These lower-priced smartphones like OnePlus Z won’t be available exclusively to the Indian market as predicted by many experts. In fact, the Shenzhen-based company will make these smartphones available for users in North America and Europe.

OnePlus isn’t revealing any of those products yet, but a glimpse of the new strategy will arrive soon with an announcement for India. Later this year, the company hopes to bring lower-priced devices to other markets, including North America and Europe.

Rumor has it that the upcoming OnePlus Z will feature a 6.4-inch or a 6.5-inch AMOLED display panel, under which there will be a fingerprint sensor, Type-C port on the bottom of the frame, an alert slider on the side and no headphone jack. The smartphone will feature a flat display with a centrally-aligned hole punch design. The company is looking forward to releasing its budget flagship phone in the month of July this year.

via Pocketnow; 9to5google