The OnePlus 8 just leaked weeks before the OnePlus 7T's release

The OnePlus 7T was announced last week and isn’t due to hit shelves until Friday, October 18. However, according to tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer, OnePlus is already hard at work on its first flagship smartphone of 2020 – the OnePlus 8 – which has just leaked in a bunch of renders courtesy of CashKaro.

Despite being a direct successor to the soon-to-be-released OnePlus 7T, the OnePlus 8 actually looks a lot more like the OnePlus 7 Pro and its upcoming T-branded sibling. That's because the 2020 flagship features a glass panel on the rear which is adorned by a vertical camera layout rather than the circular module OnePlus recently added to its cheaper phone. Presumably, the next-gen device will include a range of upgraded sensors but at this moment in time, there's no info about them. Instead, for now, you'll have to make do with the fact it's a triple-camera setup. As per usual, the rear sensors are accompanied by an LED flash, the OnePlus logo, and the company's name below.

From the look of things, the OnePlus 8 features an aluminum frame sandwiched between the two glass panels. It's home to a USB-C port, speaker, and SIM card slot along the bottom, a volume rocker on the left, and the power key and Alert Slider over on the right.

Moving on to the front of the device, OnePlus appears to have equipped it with a curved edge display. This marks a drastic change in direction for the non-Pro lineup which has used flat displays complete with notches since October 2018. It also isn't identical to the setup featured on this year's OnePlus 7 Pro and OnePlus 7T Pro because the company appears to have ditched the pop-out camera module in favor of a punch hole that's similar to the one found on the Galaxy S10.

Although the OnePlus 7 Pro was met with praise when it launched in May, many people criticized its overall size. The OnePlus 8 will reportedly address this by adopting a smaller 6.5-inch display that helps the phone's overall dimensions drop from 162.6 x 75.9 x 8.8 mm to 160.2 x 72.9 x 8.1mm. Also, for those of you wondering how it compares to the OnePlus 7T and OnePlus 7, these devices measure in at 160.9 x 74.4 x 8.1 mm and 157.7 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm respectively.

Like all OnePlus phones, next year's flagship is expected to ship with Qualcomm's latest and greatest. By the time of release, this should be the upcoming Snapdragon 865 which will likely be paired with a minimum of 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. But as per usual, more expensive storage configurations are to be expected.

In terms of software, Android 10 coupled with the latest version of Oxygen OS will be pre-installed and the phone should support 4G LTE networks as standard. A 5G version seems unlikely because OnePlus will probably reserve this feature for the pricier Pro model. It's unclear at this stage what battery capacity the OnePlus 8 will support but Warp Charge 30T is to be expected. Additionally, despite OnePlus admitting earlier this week that wireless charging isn't quite up to scratch, Hemmerstoffer believes the 2020 flagship will be its first to incorporate the technology.

Such an early OnePlus 8 leak suggests the company could be planning a revised launch timeline for 2020. This could involve introducing its first lineup of flagships in February or March in an attempt to better compete with the likes of the Galaxy S11, LG G9 ThinQ, and Huawei P40 Pro. If OnePlus maintains its usual September/October launch for T-branded models, the change would also increase the number of months between flagships from four to around six.

Official pricing is yet to be confirmed but an increase to $649 wouldn't be surprising. The current-gen OnePlus 7T retails at $599 but the OnePlus 6T cost $549 at launch and the OnePlus 5T could be purchased for $479.