Leaked live photo shows the OnePlus 8 Pro's back panel (Nope, they're fakes)

A live image of the OnePlus 8 Pro has just surfaced thanks to tipster Slashleaks, who says that the image was found in the official OnePlus discord server. Revealing the back panel of the device, we see the vertically mounted camera module with three lenses, a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor to the left of the module and an LED flash just below it. The live photo matches a recently leaked CAD render of the phone's backside right down to the placement of the OnePlus logo.

UPDATE:Graphic Designer Max J. (@MaxJmb) sent out a tweet today stating that these live images of the OnePlus 8 Pro are fake.

Expected to be introduced as soon as next month, the rumored specs for the OnePlus 8 Pro include a 6.7-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a QHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. This will make scrolling and video game animation even smoother than the experience found on the OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus 7T and OnePlus 7T Pro. The trio, all offered by the manufacturer last year, each sport a 90Hz refresh rate.

The OnePlus 8 Pro will be powered by the 7nm Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform and we could see configurations ranging from 8GB of memory paired with 128GB of storage to as much as 12GB of memory with 512GB of storage. The aforementioned camera module is expected to feature a 64MP primary camera (with an aperture of f/1.4), a 20MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.2) and a 12MP telescopic camera (f/2.4) with 10x hybrid zoom. As we've already pointed out, the leaked photo shows a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor; this measures the time it takes for an infrared beam to bounce off of a subject and return to the phone. Armed with this data, an accurate depth calculation can be made to help deliver a more natural bokeh blur on portraits. Additionally, the ToF sensor can improve the capabilities of AR features and create secure 3D maps.

The pop-up selfie camera is being replaced with a 32MP punch-hole camera which will still be able to give the OnePlus 8 Pro thin bezels. OnePlus has not only added wireless charging capabilities to the OnePlus 8 Pro this year, a tweet disseminated by tipster Max J. last week hinted at an IP68 rating for the "Pro" model. This means that the device is impervious to dust, and can be submerged to a depth of nearly 5-feet for as long as 30-minutes. You might recall that to save money, OnePlus opted not to have the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro receive a certified IP rating. Despite the lack of this rating, OnePlus produced a video showing that the OnePlus 7 Pro could survive a toss into a bucket of water. But it appears that OnePlus now sees the advantage of marketing its most premium model with an IP rating.

As for the OnePlus 8, the handset is believed to feature a 6.5-inch Fluid AMOLED display with an FHD+ resolution. While it will sport the same triple camera module on the back as the OnePlus 8 Pro, it will be sans the Time of Flight (ToF) sensor. Both models will have 5G connectivity and come out of the box with Android 10 pre-installed.

OnePlus is also adding a lower-priced entry-level model this year, the OnePlus 8 Lite. This phone will reportedly be powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 1000 SoC. The chip features an integrated 5G modem and sports CPU cores similar to the Snapdragon 865, although they run at lower clock speeds. The device is said to be equipped with a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with an FHD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The screen will have a 90Hz refresh rate and there will be a triple-camera setup on the back of this phone as well (rumored to include a 48MP primary camera with an aperture of f/1.7, a 20MP ultra-wide camera, and a 12MP telephoto camera delivering 5x hybrid zoom).

It isn't clear yet whether the coronavirus pandemic will force OnePlus to delay the introduction of its new phones. For now, a March-April unveiling seems to be in the works.