The only thing OnePlus couldn’t be faulted with this year was its lack of reach – it sold phones to impress and sold even more to stay on the buyer’s budget. But there was a clearly defined gap between the Nord series and OnePlus 8 entries this year that could be bridged. Indeed, we heard earlier that the company intends to fill this gap in 2021 and is now learning more about how to fill it.

What turned out to be the original Nord phone began life in the rumor mills more or less as the “OnePlus 8 Lite”. But it could be, according to Android Central, that there is a OnePlus 9 Lite that will be released and marketed alongside the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro next quarter. It will also tow the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 of the current generation as its powerhouse against the Snapdragon 888 of the latter two. Other hardware details are guesswork at the moment, but they include 65W wired charging and the same cameras for the OnePlus 8T.

Likewise, right now OnePlus is shaping up to be a standout company with episodic downsizing, leadership turnover, and, likely very much related to revenue, a consistent void in its product strategy. Of course, the OnePlus 9 comes at a time when consumer demand may be wiped out in a post-holiday pandemic economy – which in itself has led to a lot of financial uncertainty for businesses – without a clear recovery path.