Depending on how you look at it, there might either not be a OnePlus 11 or not be a OnePlus 11 Pro, at least according to one prominent leaker.
Max Jambor – who isn’t one of the most prolific tipsters but has a reasonable track record – has claimed on Twitter that the next OnePlus flagship will be called the OnePlus 11, and that we won’t see a OnePlus 11 Pro alongside it.
However, if you were hoping for pro-grade specs you don’t need to worry, at least according to Jambor, as the OnePlus 11 will apparently be the OnePlus 11 Pro in all but name.
The upcoming OnePlus Pro model is called OnePlus 11.October 17, 2022
Effectively, if this rumor holds true there won’t be a phone called the OnePlus 11 Pro, but there also won’t be a phone with the specs we’d expect from a standard OnePlus 11.
In a follow-up tweet, Jambor claimed that the OnePlus 11 will land in the first quarter of 2023 (meaning sometime between January and March next year), and suggested that they don’t know what’s planned beyond that, so it’s not impossible that a standard OnePlus 11 will land later – but if it does, it will seemingly need a new name.
Analysis: a confusing naming strategy, but then so is the current one
If OnePlus does ditch the Pro name in 2023 then it risks confusing potential buyers, who might assume the OnePlus 11 is more of a 'standard' flagship than a top-tier one (akin to the iPhone 14 and Google Pixel 7, sat beneath their respective Pro-branded siblings). But it’s also a change that makes some sense, given that this year OnePlus instead launched a OnePlus 10 Pro, with no standard OnePlus 10 alongside it.
That in itself is confusing, since it’s reasonable to assume that the 10 Pro would be the Pro version of the OnePlus 10 – a phone that doesn’t exist.
This problem stems from the fact that previously, OnePlus was launching both standard and Pro models, and back then the names made sense, but with the switch to just one flagship model in the first half of the year, things have become confused.
So this naming change – if it happens – fixes one confusion while creating another. Still, whatever this upcoming handset is called, it will be worth paying attention to, because based on past form there’s a high chance that it could find a place among the best phones out there.
