Is this really the OnePlus 5?

The OnePlus 3T was one of the best smartphones of 2016. We’re looking forward to seeing what its successor, the rumored OnePlus 5, will bring to the table this year. Although we’re still a few months away from its launch, a first render of the device has allegedly been leaked by India Today.

The render only shows the back of the device, revealing just a dual camera setup. Just like the OP3T, the rendered device appears to feature a metal body and a slightly curved back that should make the device feel more comfortable in the hand. The design is very simple and doesn’t stand out from the crowd, which is something we’re used to seeing from OnePlus. Other than that, the render doesn’t really reveal anything else.

So far so good, but there are some details that make us doubt the authenticity of the render. Putting the render next to literally the first image that shows up in Google Search when you search for “OnePlus 3 black” reveals that the OnePlus 3 and the alleged OnePlus 5 are almost identical in shape.

(In the image below we punched up the contrast/lighting settings of the leaked pic to bring up the details.)

Sure, this similarity could be because OnePlus would keep the same general design for the OnePlus 5. But it’s more likely that someone simply took an OP3 image and doctored it to look like something new.

The most suspicious part of the leak seems to be the camera. Looking at it closely, it seems like someone used the clone tool in Photoshop to duplicate the OnePlus 3’s camera lens, with a few adjustments to make it look different.

Then there’s the fact that OnePlus tends to make significant design changes from one generation of its flagship to the other. It would be surprising to see such a highly iterative design for the OnePlus 5, especially given that OnePlus has already released a second edition – or an “S edition” if you will – of the OnePlus 3, the OnePlus 3T.

We might be overly paranoid here, and we will be the first to admit if that’s the case with this render. But until we see more evidence to support it, we’ll file it in the “highly suspicious” folder.

Let us know what you think!