OnePlus’ sub-$500 smartphone launches July 21

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  OnePlus' event invitation. [credit: OnePlus ]

OnePlus appears to have picked a date for the launch of its midrange smartphone: July 21. Invites for the event were posted early to Amazon India (a major launch country for the device) and first spotted by leaker Ishan Agarwal (the actual tweet has been deleted, but XDA has a backup). Amazon pulled the page down, too, but a Google cache copy still exists.

OnePlus has been slowly dripping out information on its next smartphone, which will see a return to a cheaper price tag. Early rumors called the phone the "OnePlus 8 Lite" or "OnePlus Z," but the company confirmed the phone will go with the odd moniker of "OnePlus Nord," a word that means "north" in several languages. We might not know all the specs, but OnePlus has already confirmed the price will be "under $500."

OnePlus says the phone will come with a Snapdragon 765G and will sport a "flagship camera." Sadly, North America does not seem to be in the first wave of countries for this release, with OnePlus CEO Pete Lau saying, "we are going to start relatively small with this new product line by first introducing it in Europe and India. But don't worry, we're also looking to bring more affordable smartphones to North America in the near future as well."

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