OnePlus 4 (or 5?) - What To Expect In The Next Flagship-Killer?

If you’re looking for the latest information about OnePlus 4 then you and I are in the same boat. Speculated specifications and ripe rumours are abound in the guise of “confirmed news”. But I’m not having any of it.

One Plus 3T has built a bridge across a valley and we have all been happy for the past few months but I can already see the next valley approaching. I also know what kind of equipment I would like to see to build the next bridge. So without further ado, here are some features that the Chinese startup will, hopefully, power into its next flagship-killer.

More screen, man!

No, I don’t mean a bigger screen. OnePlus has been adamant right from the start about their 5.5-inch screen setup and any other size for the OnePlus 4 would be risqué. What I’m talking about is more screen – 4K of it, to be precise.

4K resolution smartphones will be the mainstay pretty soon and OnePlus better keep up if it wants to thrive in the market.

In fact competition from rivals is probably a secondary reason when it comes deciding screen resolution. There is a more immediate reason that comes to mind. The future of smartphones can be described in two words – Virtual Reality. OnePlus seems to be taking VR very seriously. They handed out free VR headsets with the OnePlus 3 launch. The OnePlus 4 VR experience would have to be good enough to last an entire year at least and good screen resolution would be a big step in that direction.

Fewer battery stops

For a minute, imagine that you have bought the latest Lamborghini Gallardo with a devastating V16 engine and 1,200 horses pushing all four wheels but there’s one major drawback – you have to make a fuel stop every hour.

This is largely what was done with the launch of OnePlus 3 which sported a measly 3,000 mAh battery. OnePlus 3T improved marginally with a 3,400 mAh powerstation but remember that the phone has 6GB of RAM with a Snapdragon 821 and a 5.5-inch display – hardly worthy of a mid-range capacity battery.

Sure they were equipped with Dash Charge and all that jazz but it would be nice to have a smartphone that actually makes it through the day under moderate usage on a single charge.

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Power power power!

OnePlus smartphones have been touted as flagship-killers (although they chose to drop the tag a while back). They pack a punch that knocks out the competition with sheer value-for-money. So with the OnePlus 4 I am going to adopt a “never settle” strategy and put my money on 8GB of RAM.

The OnePlus 3T already comes with 6GB of RAM. 7GB is an odd number for RAM, so to speak. So 8GB is only to be expected? I think so.

Moreover, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 830/835 that is expected to power the device supports 8GB of RAM.

It goes without saying that more RAM powers more applications, delivers quicker transitions, gives better multi-tasking and provides a smooth overall user experience.

Expandable storage please?

This one is a real bummer across the entire OnePlus spectrum except OnePlus X. Maybe the engineers didn’t want to bother with one extra hole inside the smartphone to deal with a microSD card slot. Or perhaps it was the developmental headache that comes with extra space and external memory.

OnePlus smartphones may look and feel like iPhone replicas (not my words) but using the same marketing and pricing strategies really isn’t going to work out for very long. I hear you say that the OnePlus 3T sports 128 GB of internal memory – which is big and good… Definitely more than what I would need. But have you ever heard the saying about putting all your eggs in one basket?

Then there is this stunning render of a OnePlus 4 concept with a bezel-less screen, dual rear cameras and a waterproof body.

OnePlus lovers with a keen mind would also realise that a flagship-killer smartphone can’t actually be launched before the flagship it is supposed to kill. Samsung already confirmed that the G8 won’t be launched at MWC and the HTC 11 is delayed due to unavailability of the latest Snapdragon processors. So our much awaited OnePlus successor may have to be delayed as well.

Over to you!

Now I leave it up to you, the reader, to articulate your imagination because that’s about all the fantasy I can fit into one feature without attracting the wrath of the engineers at OnePlus. Don’t forget to leave a comment!

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Vivek
A full-time lover of all things which move on two wheels and a part-time blogger.

4k needs to stay where it belongs==> ON F***ING BIG screens

sudione
February 10, 2017
1. 8GB RAM
2. USB-C with DisplayPort
3. Possibility to change phone to personal computer.
4. Pins build in the phone like Lenovo Moto Z (e-ink, solar panel or QWERTY keyboard)
Manuel Fonseca
February 10, 2017
2k 5.7″ screen
OIS on both front and back cameras
stereo speakers
Rachmad Hakim Sutarto
February 11, 2017
2k display, better baterai and camera

angus watt
February 11, 2017
Phone upgrades.
Battery.. Non lithuim. Flexible and new.
Waterproof
2k screen
Bluetooth 4.5
Fingerprint scanner.. 3d or otherwise. Built into the glass.
Flexible screen. Wrist strap or just flexible.
Fitness/health capabilities.
5g
Usb 3.1 reversible.. Proper specs
Wireless charging. Using new WiFi microwave to charge phone without mat. Wattup
Google pay
Better nfc
Smaller screen LED’s than 5.5
Better camera software.
Better speakers
Encryption
Less bezel
Solar panel in screen. Sapphire glass. Smudge and germ proof
- FuRaNoT Fraidrich
  February 11, 2017
  You want OnePlus to invent a new battery technology? I know making a wish list for the next handset from the Chinese company is fun, but don’t expect things that will never happen in the closest year: that only leads to disappointment. How many phones have we seen in recent years with non-li-ion batteries? Not many. Sure, graphene is nice and all, but it is not ready for consumer grade production. So no new battery tech this year, I believe.
  Making a waterproof phone would be a great decision by OnePlus, but Apple is the only company I know of making an IP67 rated aluminium phone, and they are way bigger than OnePlus. I don’t say OnePlus will make a waterproof phone, and not even necessarily another aluminium “flagship killer”.
  A 4K screen would be great. As many high end phones from 2016 had 1440p screens, it would make sense for OnePlus to again top that and to have improvements over the 3(T).
  Bluetooth 4,5 should not be any real issue, judging how Bluetooth antennas take little room and are fairly cheap.
  OnePlus never was a company to invent anything mind-blowing new tech, but rather make good handsets with existing technology at a good price. I doubt that we will see pioneering, great inventions from OnePlus anytime soon. I myself have a OnePlus 3 and it is great, and I sincerely hope they incorporate some fancy things into the next “flagship killer”.
- FuRaNoT Fraidrich
  February 11, 2017
  You want OnePlus to invent a new battery technology? I know making a wish list for the next handset from the Chinese company is fun, but don’t expect things that will never happen in the closest year: that only leads to disappointment. How many phones have we seen in recent years with non-li-ion batteries? Not many. Sure, graphene is nice and all, but it is not ready for consumer grade production. So no new battery tech this year, I believe.
  Making a waterproof phone would be a great decision by OnePlus, but Apple is the only company I know of making an IP67 rated aluminium phone, and they are way bigger than OnePlus. I don’t say OnePlus will make a waterproof phone, and not even necessarily another aluminium “flagship killer”.
  A 4K screen would be great. As many high end phones from 2016 had 1440p screens, it would make sense for OnePlus to again top that and to have improvements over the 3(T). A 4K screen might need more power, but the OnePlus of today already has pretty good battery life.
  Bluetooth 4,5 should not be any real issue, judging how Bluetooth antennas take little room and are fairly cheap.
  OnePlus never was a company to invent anything mind-blowing new tech, but rather make good handsets with existing technology at a good price. I doubt that we will see pioneering, great inventions from OnePlus anytime soon. I myself have a OnePlus 3 and it is great, and I sincerely hope they incorporate some fancy things into the next “flagship killer”. There will not be any flexible phones coming from them either in 2017.
  Fitness support comes from apps, for the most part.
  If you want an aluminum phone, wireless charging is impossible.
  The OnePlus 3 and 3T both support Android Pay.
  “Better” Nfc? I think NFC is great already. And what do you mean by that? Better range? With a big enough range, we will just have an electromagnetic Bluetooth. Better transfer speeds, maybe? NFC chips work with so small amounts of data that sending and receiving messages happens almost in an instant.
  If anyone will make support for 5G, it is Qualcomm. And they have decided not to, this year. 4G is faster than a lot of phones that support it and many places, 4G does not give announced speeds. So there is no real need for any 5G yet IMO.
  How is a smaller than 5,5 inch screen an improvement?
  The camera software is good IMO, the camera needs more improvement. The speaker is decent for it’s placement, and frankly, I would have waterproofness rather than a better speaker. Encryption is a part of the OS (Android) already, down to a file level. Smaller bezels is very possible for the next OnePlus phone, however, the bezels on the latest OnePlus phones are quite small, compared to the iPhone and S7 (not the Edge).
  As I said, OnePlus don’t incentive new tech, and we will certainly not see solar panels integrated into the screen, and probably not into the phone at all. Sapphire glass would make the phone so expensive that it would not be a flagship killer anymore, but it would became a flagship.
  So that’s my breakdown.
- Vandelin
  February 11, 2017
  Angus. Why are your parents letting you use the computer? Poor child. We all want phones that can help us teleport and use Li-Fi but unfortunately technology in this current era prohibits us from doing that. FuRaNoT has the best reply so I won’t say any more.
- Vandelin
  February 11, 2017
  Wait something else you said bothers me – germ proof?! In that case One Plus would make a device in which you would not be able to hold…great thoughts.
  - angus watt
    March 26, 2017
    It’s a wish list. Go as crazy as you want. Likely it’ll be a bump in screen Resolution. Maybe a bigger battery and 830 chip. May e wireless charging. The German free screen is a product used on a phone but i cant remember the name. Some unknown one. Shall time. Oneplus is known for its dash charger. Unlikely they would be first to jump on new battery tech but someone eventually has to especially after note7 failure

Paul Youngs
February 11, 2017
Get rid of the alert slider. Adds to manufacturing costs and removes valuable functionality for Priority Notifications. Check out the Nexus or Pixel to see how it’s meant to work!
- pauladev
  February 11, 2017
  I love the mechanical alert slider. So convenient to use when preventing interruption. Just needs a vibrate only setting for all types of notification.
  - Zach Champion
    February 11, 2017
    I say keep it but give the option to disable it/change what it’s used for (may already have that, not sure as I don’t have a 3 or 3t). I wouldn’t use an alert slider, but switching between performance profiles or display resolution (something like Samsung in the Nougat update to improve performance) could be useful.

Alejandro
February 11, 2017
Are you serious? The battery on my 3t gives me around 5h SoT EVERY DAY with moderate-heavy use (sometimes leaving Pokemon Go for around an hour or so just for the sakes of waisting battery), and that’s kinda crazy. I still haven’t managed to need to charge it before the end of the day -and trust me, I tried. This thing is a killer, flies around the UI and if you are a light user you can get 2 days of battery from it.

Mike
February 11, 2017
Since nougat update, I’ve been getting massive boost to my battery. At least 25% better in reduced power consumption. 4000mah would be awesome!
Spec’s I’d like to see
– 5.5″ 2k (4k would further increase battery draw)
– 128gb onboard
– second Sim slot doubles as SD card reader for expanded storage.
– keep it usb type C
– snapdragon 835 is a given
– 6gb of ram is enough frankly. I’ve never managed to see use over 4.5gb so seems overkill to put 8.
– 7.1.1 nougat (probably higher at release)
– am I asking too much for a removable battery? When they released the oneplus 2 (terrible phone) I ended up going LG G4 for the time being. How great was it buying a couple spare batteries then when it dies, pop the back, pop in new battery and boom! 100% again!
Of what I listed, my 2 biggest complaints have been expandable memory and removable battery. I’ve had the oneplus 1, oneplus 3 since day 1, and I’m waiting for the oneplus 5 for my next phone. The fast charge is great but a design like the LG G5 (for battery removal, not for modular components) would be super. The microSD Sim combo would be awesome! I never use my second Sim slot, but I would use a microsd. If you combo it, literally won’t take up any extra space in the phone and give 1 Sim users an option.
- Sere83
  February 11, 2017
  Who do you need more than 128GB? Removable battery is nice in theory but not practical for making ultra thin aluminium unibody designs, LG attempted it on the G5 but its wasn’t even a real aluminium unibody. I’d much rather see oneplus improve their camera experience, they are way behind samsung, apple and the google pixel line in this regard. One thing that baffles me is the touch latency/response on my op3, compare it to an iphone and you will notice the difference. I like my op3 a lot but its far from perfect, would rather a 4.6-5inch phone too, one hand ed use is pretty bad on 5.5 inches.
  - February 11, 2017
    Are you kidding? 128 is nothing these days. When I had my G4 back in the day I had a 256gb microsd and it had about 4gb free on it. If you’re talking 2k or 4k video, one movie can take up 50gb. Storage is always a premium and the flexibility of an SD card is handy. Again, if it’s built as a 2-in-1 on one of the Sim slots, it literally takes up no additional room whatsoever and adds less than 80 cents to build cost. I know my surface pro 3 has 512gb ssd and another 300gb SD and I still needed a 256gb slim usb taking up my usb port and I’m almost out of storage. My desktop has a 1tb ssd, a 4tb hybrid, and 4 8tb storage drives and only 4tb free. Just like you can’t buy a big enough fish tank or a big enough boat, at no point can you say “I have far too much storage”
    As far as removable batteries go, yes G5 did it. Overall the dimensions weren’t THAT much larger. You could easily build in a battery dock (much less complicated than the G5 design) that would barely add 1-2mm to the overall width. Would you prefer a sleek uni-body design on a dead phone or something where you’re boosted instantly to 100% in a matter of seconds? Sometimes you don’t have access to a charger and carrying a slim battery in your pocket to swap out is very useful.
    - Lee Martin
      February 11, 2017
pauladev
February 11, 2017
Don’t need 4k on a phone. Lower power drain better. I want separate switches for data use on each sim card, option for memory increase via micro sdhc and the biggest possible removable battery.

Vandelin
February 11, 2017
I’m sorry Vivek you deluded fool, you said it has to have a 4k display to stay in line with current and upcoming competitors…erm no. 1080p is great for battery life, I think a 2k display would make more sense in your ‘screen’ rubric Vivek. Besides, the Z5 Premium, which was released more than a year ago, was the only device to release with a 4k screen. Use your logic, which evidently isn’t in great abundance, to figure that out. Exactly. So your article is flawed directly from the outset. If the device has a 1080p screen, as long as it is vibrant and possesses a significant advantage in regards to conserving battery life, I personally would prefer that. Mainly because I am a power user. A 2k display would be great but wouldn’t complain if it was full HD.
I know there will be a lot of keyboard warriors ready to comment against this, but take heed: I won’t be reading your bollocks. Especially considering half of it won’t be in English.

Sere83
February 11, 2017
Lol this article is crazy. 6GB ram is already overkill why anyone would need 8 I have no idea, would be absolutely no real world advantages for 99% of users. The iphone 7 has 2GB lol and 7 plus has 3GB. 4K screen again utterly pointless, would just add battery drain and is completely unnecessary considering there would be no noticeable difference over a 2K display. Wouldn’t even bring that much advantage for VR. Expandable storage? Again pointless with 128GB option available. Waterproofing and better speakers would be nice though. However i would much rather see oneplus refine their cameras and offer larger micron sensors with lower aperture lenses, maybe a dual camera setup. Plus improve their mediocre camera app a improve touch latency which is a problem. I would also much rather they addressed the neglected part of the android market and release a high end 4.6-5 inch device,
- February 12, 2017
  How is 128gb enough? I have 3 games alone on my phone that take up 7gb for the install and caches 2gb. On top of that, have you ever recorded 4k video? A few minutes is a gig by itself. Sounds like you don’t do anything constructive on your phone. Maybe an snapdragon 802 for $100 might be up your alley.
Bojan Radovanović
February 11, 2017
I don’t think this one wil be killer phone, since it’s price will also going to be 550-600$

Reggie
February 11, 2017
Oneplus you never settle
Oneplus 5 need
5.5 inch screen BEZEL LESS 2k resolution
Ultra sonic finger print
Stereo speakers
High body ratio keeping the 5,5
Last SoC snapdragon 835 8gb ram
Winter Nai
February 11, 2017
OnePlus 5 🙂
4k OLED curve n bezelless screen?
Ip68 screen?
10000 mAh?
Faster dash charging but by wireless ?
Headphone jack in lossless audio?
Sony new super slow motion sensor camera?
Stereo speakers ?
1Tb internal storage ?
Hopefully it becomes reality ?????
BTN
February 12, 2017
Oneplus 5:
5.2 inch screen OLED 1080p
Ultra sonic finger print
Stereo speakers
Last SoC snapdragon 835
4gb ram
128GB rom
Latest, stable and highly optimized Android
and we dont need more!!
Dan
February 13, 2017

OnePlus 4 (or 5?) – What To Expect In The Next Flagship-Killer?