OnePlus is expected to unveil its OnePlus 8 series in the second week of April, likely on April 14. A new APK teardown of the latest OnePlus Launcher done by XDA editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman hints at the device’s availability on Verizon and support for NFC customization wallpapers.
The teardown was done on OnePlus Launcher v4.3.3 that recently got rolled out in Google Play Store. The latest update brings an AMOLED black theme for OnePlus Shelf and the ability to hide icon labels.
Early evidence regarding the existence of Verizon OnePlus 8 was first reported by AndroidPolice last September. Later this January, they reported that the OnePlus 8 series may launch with support for mmWave 5G connectivity.
XDA has now found strings in OnePlus Launcher’s source code that confirm the existence of Verizon OnePlus 8. To be specific, there was a method called “isVerizon” that returns true if the software type is Verizon and a switch statement in the DeviceHelper class that says “OnePlus8VZW” along with “OnePlus8TMO” and other OnePlus phones.
Another interesting find in the report is something OnePlus calls “NFC Customization Wallpaper”. Apparently, the feature may let users scan NFC tags to set wallpapers. The description of the feature reportedly shows “Hey, you’ve found a brand new wallpaper!” when you scan an NFC tag and “Set Wallpaper”, which could be the text in the button that lets you confirm your wallpaper selection.
The report further points out that this new NFC wallpaper customization feature could be limited to the OnePlus 8 series. According to Mishaal Rahman, this could be part of new OnePlus cases that presumably might have built-in NFC tags. Coincidentally, Pete Lau, founder, and CEO of OnePlus had tweeted about the “future of smartphone cases” just a few days back.
What would you like to see in the future of smartphone cases? pic.twitter.com/VIagpDqGuH
— Pete Lau (@PeteLau) March 4, 2020
Leaks and rumors suggest that OnePlus will be launching three devices this time around namely OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, and OnePlus 8 Lite. OnePlus 8 Pro is expected to come with Snapdragon 865 chipset, a 120Hz punch-hole display, and 30W wireless charging.