OnePlus 5 might beat the iPhone 7 Plus by unapologetically copying it
The wait for the OnePlus 5 is almost over.
The smartphone startup that's taken the world by storm will officially unveil its next flagship Android phone on June 20 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time during a live online keynote.
Sounds good, but a new leak might have just spoiled everything.
Android Police, which has a solid track record with leaks, published what it claims is a press image of the front and back of the OnePlus 5. Needless to say, it looks like a blatant copy of the iPhone 7 Plus.
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Noted phone leaker Evan Blass also says the image is the real deal. SlashLeaks also posted the same image with profile views and the bottom half of the phone.
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Yep, it looks just like the iPhone 7 Plus. The similarities are uncanny.
Dual cameras with bump in the corner? Check. Microphone and dual-LED flash outside of the camera module in the same exact positions? Check. If you look closer at the purported OnePlus 5 image, you'll even see a similar antenna band.
Save for different locations for the power button, the notification mute switch, volume rocker, and the OnePlus logo in place of the Apple logo, the two phones look like long-lost twins.
Reactions to the leak have been both positive and negative. The obvious uproar is that it's an iPhone ripoff, and OnePlus should be ashamed of itself if this is indeed the final design. On the other hand, some fans don't seem to mind having an iPhone that runs Android. After all, lots of people think Google's Pixel/Pixel XL look like iPhones (at least from the front) and are fine with that.
It's easy to mock OnePlus's lack of originality (again, if this is the final design), but they wouldn't be the first to blatantly copy the iPhone. YouTuber SuperSaf reminded me Oppo's R11 looks like an iPhone 7 Plus clone, too:
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Yeah, it's unbelievable how obvious the cloning is, but at the same time, phones have also pretty much reached peak industrial design.
We could sit here pointing fingers, but at the end of the day OnePlus will have last year's design for its 2017 flagship. Phones like the Galaxy S8 and LG G6 have long edge-to-edge displays that set them apart (for now), and Apple's likely to follow with the iPhone 8. Other phones like the Essential Phone are even more daring with edge-to-edge screens on three sides.
As for what to expect inside of the phone? We might know a few things.
OnePlus has teased some of the OnePlus 5's features over the last few weeks, and it's shaping up to be quite the device.
We know the phone will come with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 835 chip (same one in the Galaxy S8), some potential new colors, and it'll likely have a headphone jack.
Though the rest of the phone's specs haven't been confirmed, a comprehensive (and unconfirmed) leak in May claims it'll come with a 5.5-inch Quad HD resolution screen, 8GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, a 4,000 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery, and dual cameras on the back.
We'll have to wait a few weeks (unless it leaks out by then) to find out when the phone will be available in the U.S. and Europe. Fans in India, however, might want to start marking their calendars; Evan Blass says the OnePlus 5 will launch on June 22 and sold exclusively on Amazon India.
Let the countdown to June 20 begin.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
