Rumor mill: Leaks around OnePlus' upcoming 9 Pro flagship have started to surface and, like Samsung, the company reportedly plans to launch the device a month earlier than usual. The phone's design, according to the renders, also appears to be heavily inspired by its Korean rival, with an S20-like curved display on the front and a rear camera bump reminiscent of the Galaxy Note 20.
Nearly a month after revealing details around the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S21, Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka Onleaks) has posted renders of the OnePlus 9 Pro over at Voice, which indicate that the Chinese phone-maker is increasingly following Samsung's lead, both in terms of software and hardware.
With the Android 11-based OxygenOS 11 that's currently rolling out, OnePlus borrowed heavily from Samsung's One UI in terms of visual design, and if renders of the upcoming 9 Pro are anything to go by, it appears the next OnePlus flagship will be a love child of the current Galaxy S20 and Note 20 series.
Reportedly featuring a 6.7-inch QHD 120Hz curved panel, OnePlus appears to be positioning this phone between Samsung's flat 6.2-inch 120Hz Galaxy S21 and its alleged 6.8-inch 144Hz curved Ultra variant. Although a prototype at this stage, the design also reveals the company's decision to stick with a punch-hole camera on its flagship (instead of a more fancy in-display unit) and a quad-camera array in the rectangular housing on the rear, which appears to be the only major design change over its predecessor.
There's also no word yet on the internals but it'll likely be among the first crop of 2021 Android phones to use Snapdragon's 875 SoC, alongside the usual hardware upgrades and an expected price bump. Like Samsung, OnePlus is reportedly bringing forward its flagship launch window and looks to release the 9 Pro a month earlier in March 2021.