OnePlus hopes to ride the first 5G wave next year, confirms Carl Pei

If everything goes smoothly and no asteroid — or another similar apocalyptic event — hits our planet until mid-2019, the first 5G handsets should arrive by then. Obviously, some brands might not be fast enough to ride the first wave. However, OnePlus will — or at least will try to — join the crowd of early 5G adopters.

Qualcomm's president, Cristiano Amon, has recently confirmed to Engadget that at least two 5G flagships will come out in 2019. The good part is that the co-founder of OnePlus, Carl Pei, confirmed that OnePlus will release a 5G handset by the end of next year. Even better, he also said that the Chinese brand will be "one of the first, if not the first" to unleash such a device.

Although there are no technical specs to talk about at this stage, it is enough to say that OnePlus has conducted a 5G test at Qualcomm's HQ in San Diego back in August, so they should be well beyond the early prototype stage by now.

If OnePlus gets lucky and manages to launch the first 5G flagship next year, would you buy it? Speaking for myself, I think that it will be way too early to buy 5G handsets until mid-2020 or even later in most markets.