OnePlus Nord Launch Might Not Just Be Online But Also In AR

As a smaller company in a sea of big fish, OnePlus is used to doing more with less. Its launch events aren't exactly grand and can even be considered more "grassroots" than large corporate press parties. It does, however, always been more ambitious and daring with those exactly because it can afford to be more flexible and unorthodox. It isn't, for example, unfamiliar with holding events online but since everyone's doing online launches this year, it will reportedly put a hi-tech twist to the OnePlus Nord's debut.

OnePlus is also not unfamiliar with unconventional launch events. Both the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus 3 held their events in a VR-compatible format. OnePlus even launched a smartphone-powered VR headset just for that occasion. To stand out from the crowd this year, OnePlus will supposedly hold the OnePlus Nord's announcement in augmented reality instead.

That surprising tidbit came via an accidental "OnePlus Nord AR Launch Invite" listing on Amazon India. The item is now gone, of course, which only confirms the speculation. That said, it could have also been posted in error with a date not meant for the public debut.

If it were true, however, it would interesting how OnePlus plans to pull this event off. Holding a VR event is considerably easier than a proper AR one, the latter requiring powerful and expensive hardware. Even if OnePlus were to simply employ mobile-based AR, generating live content suitable for AR consumption could actually be more interesting than what OnePlus will announce that day.

According to that same listing, the OnePlus Nord is likely to debut on July 21. The phone is already generating quite a lot of excitement despite its mid-range specs, largely impart due to its expected price tag. Whether OnePlus' "return to roots" will live up to those expectations, we'll hopefully know in two weeks.