A leaker with no proven track record recently posted an alleged image of the OnePlus 7 on Twitter, providing no additional details about the handset. The picture showed us an all screen phone with no notch whatsoever, seemingly confirming a previous report that suggested the phone will have a slide-out camera system seen on various smartphones in China, including devices made by OnePlus sister company Oppo. The same leaker now posted a second photo of the same device, but this time around, the image was quickly proven to be a fake.
@Steven_Sbw isn’t a leaker we’re familiar with, so it was surprising to see a OnePlus 7 leak originate from someone with no track record. A few days ago, he posted this image:
https://twitter.com/Steven_Sbw/status/1095740960573538304
There’s nothing in the photo to confirm the authenticity of the handset. More puzzling is the screen orientation, which made the phone look like it was upside down. The giveaway is the bigger bezel that’s placed at the top of the phone in this image, since thicker bezels are usually found on the bottom where the display controller is located.
Now, the same leaker posted this image to follow up his first “leak”:
https://twitter.com/Steven_Sbw/status/1097856863620583425
The photo is still tagged with #oneplus7 and shows the same phone as before. However, this time around, the thicker bezel is located at the bottom of the phone. Again, there’s nothing to confirm this is the OnePlus 7. And we don’t get to see the phone’s selfie camera either. But others quickly exposed the image as a fake. In fact, it’s a horrible, obvious fake.
How about this?
It seems like you played a little with Photoshop…😎 pic.twitter.com/u3vOKOhZq9— Chris Delpinsky (@Delpinsky) February 20, 2019
Here’s one more:
Nice Photoshop man. Spend a bit more time on faking things next time :) pic.twitter.com/8w6IVLuAyf
— Marco De Donno (@Marco_DD_) February 20, 2019
OnePlus launched two versions of the OnePlus 6 last year and they both featured notch designs. The OnePlus 6T, however, had an even smaller notch than the OnePlus 6. Eliminating it entirely would make some sense for OnePlus. Not to mention that such a design might be easy since the company has access to components used for Oppo sliders. However, slide-out cameras aren’t an ideal compromise for making all-screen phones with no notches. Durability is one reason to worry. The camera module can break, the slider mechanism can stop working, and the risk of water damage increases.
OnePlus is expected to deliver some news about its first 5G phone at MWC next week. The OnePlus 7, meanwhile, isn’t expected to be released for another few months.
