Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Tech Advisor reports that OnePlus is unexpectedly entering the gaming handheld market with a leaked 8-inch device featuring physical controls and shoulder buttons.
- The gaming handheld appears powered by a Dimensity flagship processor and could fill the market gap left by Asus’s exit from gaming phones.
- This strategic move surprises industry watchers given recent rumors about OnePlus’s potential decline in the smartphone market.
A new OnePlus device has leaked online, but it isn’t a new smartphone, tablet, or watch.
Over on Chinese social network Weibo, two tipsters have offered tantalising tasters of a proposed OnePlus gaming handheld.
Digital Chat Station will be familiar to anyone who frequents these news pages, as they tend to be a reliable source for phone leaks and rumours. They have posted a picture of a mysterious OnePlus-branded device with a thick body, exaggerated hand grips and physical shoulder buttons.
Digital Chat Station
It looks every inch the gaming handheld to us, though the presence of a pair of cameras on the back hints at a smartphone core.
According to a separate Weibo tipster, The Panda is Bald, “OnePlus is planning an 8-inch handheld console” (via machine translation). It seems this new device type will be powered by a Dimensity flagship processor.
While Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite processors rule the roost when it comes to market saturation, Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek turns out its own mobile System on Chip (SoC) products – and the top-end examples are extremely competitive with Qualcomm’s best efforts, often at a lower price.
The Oppo Find X9 Pro demonstrated this with its Dimensity 9500 chip, offering competitive (if not quite class-leading) results.
What this means for the future of OnePlus
Given that most of the notable rumours surrounding the OnePlus brand of late have concerned its potential demise, this claimed launch into a brand new product category has understandably caught us off guard.
Is this a last-ditch play for the mobile gaming space from the Oppo-owned brand?
We know that Asus is sitting this year out when it comes to gaming phones – and indeed phones in general – with no replacement for the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro in the foreseeable future.
That leaves Nubia and its Redmagic 11S Pro as the only really serious gaming phone option released onto the market on 2026.
There’s a gap there, alright, and OnePlus appears to be looking to fill it by doubling down on the ‘gaming’ part of the ‘gaming phone’ equation.
