It’s a Real Shame the OnePlus 16 Is Launching Only in China

OnePlus may be dead in most of the world, including the United States and Europe, but that doesn’t mean the company is done making interesting smartphones. In fact, quite the contrary: the OnePlus 16, just unveiled in China, looks pretty great.

The OnePlus 16 runs on Qualcomm’s latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip. It has a 6.78-inch OLED screen, a huge 9,000 mAh battery, and some built-in lights that show a set of galactic coordinates, as The Verge notes. These lights also alert the user to incoming calls, messages, and other notifications. It’s not just neat but practically pointless space-related numbers.

The space theme also shows up in the phone’s colorways: Starlight, Martian Masterpiece, and Dark Forest, which admittedly has nothing to do with space.

The OnePlus 16’s overall design aesthetic carries forward quite a bit from last year’s OnePlus 15, a somewhat disappointing end to OnePlus’ time as a global smartphone brand. After the excellent OnePlus 13 used Hasselblad-branded cameras to great effect, it was a shame to see the brand fall from grace with the OnePlus 15. It was fine, but felt like a step back in the camera department.

OnePlus hopes to right the ship a bit with the 16. It has a 200-megapixel main camera with a Type 1/1.4 image sensor and a 23mm equivalent f/1.6 lens. This is a big change from the OnePlus 15’s 50-megapixel main camera with a 24mm f/1.8 lens. The 15’s main camera featured a Type 1/1.56 sensor, by the way.

The 200MP primary camera is flanked by a 50-megapixel telephoto with a Type 1/1.95 sensor, 73mm equivalent lens, and f/2.6 aperture. There’s also a 50-megapixel 116° ultrawide camera with a relatively small Type 1/2.88 sensor.

While the ultrawide camera is unchanged, the telephoto looks like a step up. The lens is a bit shorter — 73mm versus 80mm equivalent — but it’s faster (f/2.6 versus f/2.8). The image sensor is also considerably larger. The OnePlus 15’s telephoto camera featured a Type 1/2.76 sensor.

Unfortunately, most of the world will not get to enjoy the OnePlus 16. For now, the device is launching exclusively in China, starting at 5,699 Chinese yuan, or around $850. OnePlus may have an exciting new smartphone on offer, but the company has still officially exited the North American and European markets.

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Image creditsOnePlus