Smartphone tie-ins haven't had a great year - the Nokia 8.3 5G was launched at the beginning of the year to coincide with the new Bond film, No Time To Die, which was subsequently pushed back over a year, and now a special version of the OnePlus 8T themed around upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077 seems set to release soon, despite a recent re-delay for the game.
On Chinese social media site Weibo, OnePlus stated that the OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 edition, first announced at the 8T launch, will get its own unveiling on November 2. We initially heard the phone would be on 'pre-sale' from November 4, but didn't know the phone would be getting its own launch event.
- These are the best OnePlus phones
- What you need to know about Cyberpunk 2077
- Check out our OnePlus 8T review
It's not clear if this is a global launch or a China-only one - the format of communication would suggest the latter. If you're excited for this phone and don't live there, you might find it easier to buy the standard OnePlus 8T, buy a themed case for it, and install a custom wallpaper to get the same feeling.
Someone might need to tell OnePlus, however, that Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed again, with the release date pushed back to mid-December. We were expecting the game to be released in November, though before that we were told September, and before that April, so we should have seen a delay coming.
Either way, this means the OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 edition will be available over a month before the game is.
What is a Cyberpunk phone?
We haven't actually heard too many specifics about how the Cyberpunk 2077 phone is different to the standard OnePlus 8T, beyond one key thing: design.
A few cryptic images show the CyberPunk 2077 OnePlus 8T as having a black design with yellow highlights, in the same style as much of the promotional material for the game.
We haven't heard anything about specs or camera power yet. If we were to hazard a guess based on other entertainment smartphone tie-ins, we'd expect it to be very similar to the base device but with a different design and perhaps a special game-themed wallpaper.
Would OnePlus host a whole launch event just to fully unveil what's basically the same phone? Perhaps not, so maybe there are more differences here. If there is anything important at the launch, and if you'll be able to buy this phone eventually, we'll bring you all the relevant information, so stay tuned to TechRadar for those details.
