Forget what you think you know about smartphones and flagship models. Never mind Samsung's Galaxy and Note series, not after the distressing battery-exploding incidents from the past few weeks. Never mind Apple's headphone-jack-less iPhone 7s. You might even have to skip Google's upcoming Pixel.
China's OnePlus 4, next year's flagship model of their underdog OnePlus series, is already being hailed as the "ultimate flagship killer" because it's touted to be the next best smartphone out there and will be really affordable for what it can do. It might sound too good to be true, but China's brands are starting to become small powerhouses in their own right, like Huawei and their heavily-praised, Leica-packing P9, so Chinese phones are ones to look out for.
The main rumors about the OnePlus 4 are all saying that the smartphone will have a whopping 8 gigabytes of RAM, more internal memory than most straight-out-of-the-factory laptops and desktop computers, the newest iteration of Android, 7.0 Nougat, as well as a turbo-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 chipset. WCCF Tech says that the Snapdragon 830 will be the first to be built on a 10nm chipset.
The OnePlus 4 is also said to be packing a set of cameras that will be even better than the iPhone's highly-praised camera and the Huawei P9's Leica dual cameras. The phone is purported to have a 23 megapixel rear camera, a huge leap from the OnePlus 3's and most current smartphones' 16MP camera. Meanwhile, the front camera will be as good as 8 megapixels, also a stunning achievement in technology. They'll complement this high camera power with what's said to be a 5.5-inch (diagonal) Optic OLED screen with 4K and 3D capabilities. The phone will reportedly have a 5.5-inch diagonal screen with an aluminum casing.
There's no word yet on when exactly OnePlus is unleashing the OnePlus 4 out on the world, but the rumors are swirling that they're targeting around April and May next year for the release. The company has also just put out the OnePlus 3 Plus, which some thought would be the OnePlus 4, but is a different release. The good part about the OnePlus 4, and what will possibly make its viability, is that they're targeting a price point of $300-400. There has to be a catch somewhere, but for now, it's looking really, really good.