OnePlus Clover: Everything we know so far

The OnePlus Clover sounds like another big move for OnePlus. The company has been showing an increasing interest in more affordable phones, such as the recently released OnePlus Nord. The Clover is an even bigger deal, because it's said to have a cheaper price and will be available in the U.S.

Currently, most of the OnePlus Clover info comes from a single source. However, the Clover sounds impressive based on what's been leaked thus far, especially since it's rumored to be priced around $200. This includes a giant battery and a rear triple-camera setup. 

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Could the Clover be one of the best cheap phones yet? Here's everything we've heard about the OnePlus Clover so far.

OnePlus Clover release date and availability

According to Android Central, which is the source of many of these pieces of information, the Clover will launch by the end of this year. More importantly, there will be U.S. availability this time. OnePlus sells its flagship OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro models to American customers, but the mid-range OnePlus Nord is exclusive to Europe and India.

OnePlus Clover price and models

The Clover is apparently a shockingly cheap $200, which is half as much as the Nord, the current cheapest OnePlus phone. What we don't know if that's just the basic version among a couple of configurations, or the single version available.

We only have details of one model for now, which has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. OnePlus often sells its phones with a couple of different memory specs, with the Nord and OnePlus 8 series being available with either 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, or 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. 

OnePlus Clover design

There's been no comment on what the Clover will look like, but let's make some educated guesses based on OnePlus' current range.

The front will likely be a notched display, either a punch-hole like the current phones OnePlus sells, or perhaps a waterdrop notch like last year's OnePlus 7T had, if OnePlus doesn't mind the Clover looking a little old-fashioned.

The back of OnePlus' phones have their cameras arranged in a vertical stack. On the 8 series they're placed in the center of the phone's back, but on the Nord they're pushed over to the left. We'd expect the Nord to be more of the template for the Clover than the 8 series, so we'll predict more left-aligned cameras.

We also hear that the Clover features a 3.5mm headphone jack, something that's a rarity on more expensive phones. This move makes sense, as many shoppers in the sub $200 may not have upgraded to one of the best wireless earbuds yet.

There's rumored to be a fingerprint sensor for security purposes on the back of the Clover. It's not as neat-looking as an under-display sensor, which OnePlus uses on the Nord and 8 series. It is cheaper to mount it on the back though, which is clearly a big priority for this device.

OnePlus usually does a smart but limited range of metallic color options, but the Nord bucked that trend with its glossy Blue Marble and Gray Onyx options. Again, we'd expect the Clover to follow the Nord's example with some more shiny and vivid colors on offer.

OnePlus Clover display

The Android Central leak says the Clover uses a 6.52-inch HD+ LCD display. That's larger than the OnePlus Nord's 6.4-inch OLED screen, but the Nord's got a higher FHD+ resolution. Plus, OLED panels generally offer better viewing angles, more viviid colors and superior black levels to LCDs.

There's no reference to a high refresh rate within the leak. OnePlus' Nord and 8 models both have 90Hz panels, while the range-topping 8 Pro gets a 120Hz display. At this price, we'd be shocked if the Clover didn't feature a 60Hz display.

OnePlus Clover cameras

We can expect a trio of rear cameras on the Clover. Its camera resolutions are 13MP, 2MP and 2MP, but we don't know the functions of these sensors yet. Our guess would be a main sensor, a macro sensor for super close-up photographs and a depth sensor to help with portrait mode effects like bokeh.

We're basing this on the fact that the Nord's two smallest sensors have these functions, although its depth sensor is 5MP instead. Don't expect an ultrawide or telephoto sensor at these resolutions or this phone's low price.

As for a selfie camera, we have nothing to go on. OnePlus uses 16MP front cameras on its 8 and 8 Pro flagships, and a 32MP main and 8MP ultrawide combination on the Nord. If we were to guess from these existing sensors, we'd imagine OnePlus would install the smaller 16MP sensor on the Clover, but it may have something else planned that we've not seen before.

OnePlus Clover specs

At the heart of the Clover, we're getting a Snapdragon 460 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. That will without doubt put the Clover near the bottom of any performance face-off, but should help keep the price to that low $200 figure. 4GB RAM sounds about right for the chipset it's accompanying, but 64GB storage is maybe a little too small for an average phone user these days. Happily there's apparently room for a microSD card if you need to expand.

There was a previous leaked Geekbench listing for a phone called the OnePlus Clover that uses a Snapdragon 660 (or 665) chipset with 4GB RAM. That would still make the Clover less powerful than Nord's Snapdragon 765 chipset. But it would mean much more power than the Android Central leak is claiming.

OnePlus Nord battery and charging

The most remarkable spec on the Clover is its rumored 6,000 mAh battery. That's almost 1,500 mAh more than the current largest battery in OnePlus' stable, the 4,510 mAh cell in the OnePlus 8 Pro. Considering OnePlus' phones usually have pretty decent battery life, we expect great things from the Clover if this is indeed the size of its power pack.

Less impressive is the 18W charging brick that will be filling the battery. OnePlus currently packs in a 30W charger with the 8 series and Nord, but presumably that's too expensive to include with the Clover. 

OnePlus Nord software

To nobody's surprise, the operating system for the Clover is said to be OxygenOS 10, the OS OnePlus uses on the Nord and 8 series, based on Android 10. OnePlus usually upgrades to the new version of Android quite quickly after it's announced, so expect the Clover to use Android 11 for the majority of its life.

Outlook

The OnePlus Clover has the potential to be one of the best phones yet for those on a tight budget, especially with its huge 6,000 mAh battery. It could give phones like the Moto G Power a run for their money on our best phone battery life list. The display size also seems generous, even though it's an LCD.

If the leaked specs are accurate, you're going to have to make some trade-offs for this sub-$200 price, including the processor and RAM. But we're excited to see just how much phone OnePlus can deliver.

It's unclear at the time of writing whether the rumored OnePlus Nord Lite is a separate handset or not. Either way, OnePlus customers with small budgets, particularly those in the U.S. who missed out on the Nord, should have their ears to the ground for more Clover news in the near future.