OnePlus Nord preorders have already begun. Here are the features it needs (and doesn’t need)

A few weeks ago, OnePlus teased “something new” was coming. At the time, it was suspected that the Chinese phone maker was cooking up a new midrange device, following its April release of the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro. This was later confirmed on June 23 when CEO Pete Lau reported that OnePlus was announcing a “new, more affordable smartphone product line.” Then, the project was dubbed “OnePlus Z ‘Thing,”http://www.cnet.com/” but the official name of the new device appears to be the OnePlus Nord.

Though pricing and specs are unknown, Lau did say that the phone will be “below $500” in a video promoting the Nord. And despite releasing almost no information about the phone, preorders have already begun. The phone will be available in India and Europe, but will not come to North America.  

Only once has OnePlus launch a cheaper phone that was separate from its flagship and rebooting this endeavor would be notable for the company. Debuting in 2015, the OnePlus X was a beautifully designed $300 phone that had mid-tier specs compared with the OnePlus 2, which was also released the same year. It was meant to be a one-off phone for the company and a successor was never mentioned. 

But earlier this year, rumors of an 8 Lite surfaced. And now that OnePlus confirmed such a device is happening, it’s good to see the company return to its roots and do what made it popular in the first place — selling well-made phones at far lower prices than its competitors. While it’s true that current OnePlus devices still sell for hundreds of dollars less than Apple, Samsung and Google, it’s been hard for OnePlus to keep prices low. Compared with other brands, OnePlus has had one of the highest increases in cost from model to model.

Case in point: the latest OnePlus 8 Pro itself. It has 5G, a 120Hz display and reverse wireless charging. It starts at $899 but the higher 12GB of RAM/256GB model costs $1,000. The company also showed off the Concept One at CES 2020, a phone with a “disappearing” rear camera that tints black when not