OnePlus may have quit North America and Europe, but that doesn’t mean the company is done launching new devices elsewhere. After a recent leak pointed to an October launch for the OnePlus 16 and revealed several key details, the company has now shared its first official teaser. While the teaser focuses on performance upgrades, a separate unofficial leak offers a glimpse at the phone’s design.
What OnePlus’ teaser confirms
According to Gizmochina, OnePlus China’s brand general manager, Liu Baoyou, used a recent appearance at the Snapdragon Gaming Technology Showcase to lay out what’s coming. He confirmed that the OnePlus 16 will bring upgraded versions of three existing gaming features, including the Fengchi Gaming Kernel, Extreme High Refresh Rate, and Esports Triple Chip. However, he did not spell out the improvements.
Liu also touted the brand’s momentum, pointing to a 13% year-over-year sales growth in the first half of 2026 that he said made OnePlus the fastest-growing phone brand over that stretch. While he didn’t reveal any further details about the OnePlus 16, an unofficial poster circulating on Chinese social media offers a rough idea of what the phone could look like, and it doesn’t match what the earlier leak described.
OnePlus 16 may bring back the circular camera island
The poster depicts a shrouded OnePlus phone, so it doesn’t give away too much at first glance. But on closer inspection, the top half appears to feature a circular camera island housing three camera modules and an LED flash, similar to what OnePlus used on the OnePlus 13.
This contradicts information shared by tipster Digital Chat Station, who claimed that the device would closely resemble the OnePlus 15 but with a smaller square camera housing. Gizmochina notes that the poster’s authenticity hasn’t been verified, so it’s best to take the design shown here with a grain of salt.
Previous leaks suggest that the OnePlus 16 could feature a 6.78-inch display with a 185Hz refresh rate, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro chip, a 9,000mAh battery, and a triple-camera setup consisting of a 200MP main, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 50MP periscope zoom sensor. Whatever the final camera design turns out to be, the rest of the spec sheet points to another flagship-tier phone that unfortunately won’t reach buyers in North America and Europe.
