Company insider claims that the OnePlus 9 will be released in March 2021

Smartphone release cycles are likely to go for a toss in 2021. Until now, it was common practice to release phones at events like MWC. With the prospects of MWC 2021 looking somewhat grim, companies are now free to unveil devices whenever they want. It appears that even OnePlus intends to launch its H1 2021 flagship -the OnePlus 9- early.

Sources from within the company told Android Central that the OnePlus 9 would likely be released in March, a month earlier than its antecedent. It will be the earliest OnePlus release cycle ever since the company's inception in 2014. If the OnePlus 8T is anything to go by, the possibility of OnePlus not launching the OnePlus 9 Pro is high. We could see some new low-cost devices like the OnePlus Nord N100 and Nord N105G be released instead.

With founder and CEO Carl Pei out of the company, it'll be interesting to see what direction OnePlus takes in 2021. One can only hope that it gravitates towards its initial goals of making affordable flagships, as the company has long deviated from that path.