The OnePlus 8 will be the first big Android launch to come after the Samsung Galaxy S20 series, and likely with many similar features. One of those was always likely to be 5G compatibility, and now some new pieces of news have all but confirmed it.
Android Authority came across a LinkedIn profile belonging to a OnePlus engineer, which lists among their skills working with the Snapdragon X55 5G modem and the Snapdragon 865 chipset (codenamed SM8250). You can see for yourself in the screengrab below.
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Other combinations of codenames point to this individual working on the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G and the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G McLaren. It's not much of a surprise that OnePlus will make its next flagship 5G-compatible, particularly when CEO and founder of OnePlus Pete Lau has said in a recent interview with CNET that the company is "all in on 5G."
The other noteworthy piece of news from this snippet of LinkedIn profile is that this engineer was specifically working on the Verizon version of the phone. Verizon already sells the OnePlus 7 Pro, and sold the OnePlus 6T before that, so it would be surprising if it turned down the next version of what's been a successful and well regarded series of phones.
The only downside to this focus on 5G is that OnePlus is gradually shedding its identity as the phone maker that sells its users the best tech at a surprisingly low price. The OnePlus 7 Pro already heralded a shift towards higher prices. And depending on what other tech the OnePlus 8 adds, which is rumored to include among other things a 120Hz display and wireless charging, the price could only get larger on the OnePlus 8.
