OnePlus Nord 2T Launch Likely Imminent As Press Photos Leak

2022 has been a fairly busy year for OnePlus, with the company launching as many as four smartphones within the past five months. Among the devices the company introduced in the past months include its flagship smartphone for the year — the OnePlus 10 Pro — and a bunch of mid-range handsets that range from two Nord-series devices (OnePlus Nord CE 2 and Nord CE 2 Lite), and the India-specific OnePlus 10R.

OnePlus — as of publishing this article — is yet to announce a vanilla OnePlus 10 smartphone for this year, and several reports have talked about the likelihood of the company coming up with the OnePlus 10 a few months from now. These reports also discussed the possibility of OnePlus coming up with an entirely new Nord series device called the OnePlus Nord 2T. This new smartphone was rumored to launch by the end of April 2022 — or early May. With April already past us, and as we approach mid-May, there is no sign of the OnePlus Nord 2T, at least from OnePlus' official channels.

Recently, however, this smartphone did make an appearance on Thailand's certification authority NBTC, which indicated an imminent launch. Adding further credence to the OnePlus Nord 2 T's imminent launch was a set of leaked images of this upcoming device on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The photos show the rumored OnePlus Nord 2T in spectacular detail.

While the recent leaks did not reveal the Nord 2 T's expected spec sheet, previous reports (as linked above) have discussed the phone likely being powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC. The phone could also feature a 4500 mAh battery that supports 80W fast charging. There was also talk about the device using Sony's IMX766 image sensor for one of its rear-facing cameras.

From the recently leaked images, the OnePlus Nord 2T seems to get a triple camera setup. There was also talk about all three rear-facing camera sensors on the Nord 2T getting 50MP sensors. As evident from the photos, the rectangular camera bump of the phone houses twin circles that contain the camera lenses. The phone, interestingly, seems to come with dual LED flash modules. We can also make out at least two color options (black and green) from the leaked images. The images also show the left-aligned hole punch for the front-facing camera — additional details of which train shrouded in mystery.

If launched, the OnePlus Nord 2T will spawn an entirely new Nord-series sub-class for OnePlus, and make it the first Nord device to sport a "T" moniker. The phone also doesn't seem to be a direct successor to any of the OnePlus' existing Nord series devices — although some may say it is a successor to last year's OnePlus Nord 2.

Additionally, the mid-range specs of the phone could cause some serious sibling rivalry and cannibalize the sale of OnePlus' existing mid-range devices. Therefore, there is a good chance that the Nord 2T will launch in markets where OnePlus did not launch any Nord-branded smartphone in 2022.

Key among such markets is the U.S. itself where OnePlus is yet to launch a Nord series device this year. In fact, the only OnePlus device that officially made it to the U.S. in 2022 is the OnePlus 10 Pro.