OnePlus 5 leaks: Are they fake?

Recently, OnePlus released renders of their upcoming flagship, the OnePlus 5, and many Android and OnePlus fans were outraged at the design’s similarity to Apple’s iPhone 7/7+.

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Left to right: iPhone 7 Plus, Oppo R11, alleged OnePlus 5. Photo: Android Authority

However, this “leak” by the company itself might not actually be a leak at all. By releasing these renders on official OnePlus accounts, OnePlus effectively silences any other renders from being published ahead of their June 20th launch. Case in point: Android Police published a leaked image (an actual image, not a computer-generated render) of the alleged OnePlus 5.

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Photo: Android Authority

The design here is not particularly new or interesting, but it does fall much closer in line with OnePlus’ design language and is much less of a blatant copy than the current images.

But due to those current images, Android Police updated that article, saying that “this also debunks an earlier alleged live image of the phone, which we can state confidently is not representative of the production device.” Why could they state it so confidently? Because these renders came right from the company account, that’s why, and that also means that any future leaks would be dismissed down as “false” and “fake.” Good for OnePlus, which means that their June 20th launch would have a huge surprise for the public: something that Samsung, Apple, and others have failed to do.

Further helping this theory, on June 7th, Carl Pei replied to an earlier tweet of his from May 11th.

It’s pretty obvious that the “5” in “new5” refers to the OnePlus 5. His timing; however, is more interesting; why would he dig up a month-old tweet and reply “Alright” to it? A logical train of thought would be that he’s hinting that the OnePlus 5 renders are indeed fake news.

If the renders do turn out to be fake, this would be an unprecedented marketing stunt; one that no one else would be able to pull off without looking like a copycat and one that truly masks the identity of the OnePlus 5 until the official date.

Featured-image: Android Police