OnePlus is working on a smaller phone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite

Smaller flagship smartphones may be few and far between, but it seems like they're here to stay. We don't mean small devices, just smaller ones than the mainstream sizes - think iPhone 16 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, Xiaomi 15, vivo X200 Pro mini, that sort of thing. They've all congregated around the 6.3" screen size, and now a new rumor out of China claims OnePlus wants in on the action too.

The company is reportedly working on a device that is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, has a 6.3" screen with "1.5K" resolution, and a 50 MP main camera using Sony's IMX906 sensor.

This device doesn't have a periscope zoom camera and its camera island design is horizontal and a little bit similar to what Google is doing for its Pixels. The current prototype reportedly has an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, but OnePlus is still considering whether to go with ultrasonic instead.

This means the launch probably isn't right around the corner. Speculations abound that this phone will be part of the Ace 5 series, either an Ace 5 mini or an Ace 5 Pro mini. We'll let you know when there's more information about it.

Source (in Chinese)