OnePlus 'Clover' Entry-Level Phone With 6,000mAh Battery May Launch Soon

OnePlus has an entry-level smartphone in the works with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 SoC, according to a report. The new phone by the Chinese company seems to be a more basic option compared to the OnePlus Nord that was launched in India and Europe last month. The model is reportedly codenamed “Clover”, which sounds identical to the phone recently spotted on a benchmark website but with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC. OnePlus is said to offer an HD+ display on the new phone as well as a 6,000mAh battery.

The OnePlus Clover will go on sale in the US with a price tag of around $200 (roughly Rs. 14,700), reports Android Central, citing a person familiar with the development. The smartphone will reportedly debut shortly and will reach global markets alongside the US.

On the specifications part, the blog claims that the new OnePlus smartphone will come with a 6.52-inch HD+ (720x1,560 pixels) display and will be powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 SoC, paired with 4GB of RAM. It is also said to have at least 64GB of onboard storage along with microSD card support as well as a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. The phone is also said to have a triple rear camera setup, with a 13-megapixel primary sensor along with an f/2.2 lens and two 2-megapixel sensors with f/2.4 lenses on top.

The entry-level OnePlus phone is said to have the 6,000mAh battery along with 18W fast charging support. It is also said to have a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Although the official details aren't available at this moment, the reported specifications suggest that the new OnePlus phone may have many similarities with the Realme C15. It is natural as OnePlus and Realme both share the same parent, BBK Electronics. Nonetheless, the presence of the Snapdragon 460 would make the new offering a distinct model as the Realme model comes with a MediaTek Helio G35 SoC.

Earlier this month, a phone namely OnePlus Clover surfaced on Geekbench with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC. That model also had 4GB of RAM and was running on Android 10, according to the benchmark listing. Similarly, a tipster recently suggested that an entry-level OnePlus phone may launch in India with a price tag between Rs. 16,000-18,000. That phone was, however, speculated to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 or Snapdragon 665 SoC.

Late last month, co-founder Carl Pei revealed in an interview that OnePlus had plans to bring a Nord-branded phone in the US later this year with a distinct set of specifications over what's available on the original offering. Some references from an OxygenOS beta release suggested that the Nord-branded phone for the US market could be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 SoC.

Given all these details, OnePlus may have a couple of entry-level models in development. These could be priced way below the OnePlus Nord to help the company expand its reach in the market. However, the strategy of widening the portfolio would mean a big change from the company's existing strategy of launching only a few models each year.

Is Nord the iPhone SE of the OnePlus world? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.