As part of the company’s 9th birthday celebrations in China, we were given to an official teaser for the OnePlus 11 flagship phone, which is scheduled for release in the first half of 2023.

The teaser doesn’t reveal much, but we do get a good look at the phone’s massive camera bump on the back, replete with Hasselblad camera branding (Hasselblad is a firm that OnePlus has cooperated with in previous years for their photography needs).

You can take the OnePlus post on Chinese social network Weibo as you will, but a rough translation suggests that we are getting a “future performance leader” that will “challenge many impossibilities in the industry.”

One business, two products

The recent merger between OnePlus and Oppo was a hot topic during the anniversary celebration; rumour has it that Oppo would be investing heavily in OnePlus goods as part of a “dual-brand” strategy for the combined firm.

That means Oppo’s Find and Reno phones will keep showing up alongside the OnePlus series of handsets, though it’s unclear how they’ll eventually compare to the OnePlus lineup.

Many renderings have surfaced online depicting the OnePlus 11 in both black and green, and there have been many reports about the device. The teaser simply states that the OnePlus 11 “will be launched soon,” despite the fact that the company often unveils its flagship devices in the first few months of the year.

A new OnePlus for the new year

Back in 2014, when the first OnePlus phone was released, the company’s goal was straightforward: to provide a phone with specifications and a build quality comparable to that of high-end flagships at a price that was far lower than that of the iPhone and Galaxy.

Over time, however, OnePlus has shifted away from that approach, manufacturing more costly phones while simultaneously creating the OnePlus Nord series to provide greater value to customers in the mid-range price bracket.

Now that the Oppo merger is finalised, OnePlus can start again and figure out what it wants from its premium smartphone lineup. The 2022 OnePlus 10 Pro has some issues but was otherwise a wonderful phone for the price.

Everything we know about the OnePlus 11 so far suggests that it will have the specs and the polish to compete with anything Apple, Samsung, or Google have planned for 2023, but as usual, the cost will be essential.