The next OnePlus Nord could have the new 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 processor (2024)

OnePlus is finally making more affordable smartphones once again under their new "Nord" brand, and they just launched the first OnePlus Nord device in Europe and India last week and could make our list of the best Android phones. The new OnePlus Nord has a 6.44" FHD+ OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G for a starting price of ₹27,999 or €399 in India and Europe respectively. If that price still seems too expensive for you, then you'll be happy to know that OnePlus is already working on even more affordable smartphones. We now have evidence that at least one such device will be powered by Qualcomm's new 5G Snapdragon 690 chipset.

XDA Review:OnePlus Nord Review: Great Performance at a Great Price

Last month, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 690, a new mid-range chip designed to democratize 5G access. It's the successor to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 and features newer CPU and GPU designs than even the higher-tier Snapdragon 720G and Snapdragon 730G SoCs. The SoC is fabricated by Samsung on the company's 8nm LPP process and features an octa-core CPU in a 2+6 core configuration; 2 ARM Cortex-A77 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz are joined by 6 ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores clocked at up to 1.7GHz. The GPU is the Adreno 619L, which Qualcomm boasts is 60% faster than the Adreno 612 GPU in the Snapdragon 675. Most importantly, the Snapdragon 690 features an integrated Snapdragon X51 5G modem with global band support for sub-6GHz 5G networks. Thus far, HMD Global, Sharp, Wingtech, Motorola, TCL, and LG have confirmed their plans to use the new Snapdragon 690 in future smartphones, but no BBK Electronics smartphone brand, including OnePlus, announced any such plan.

Digging into the latest version of OxygenOS 10.5 for the OnePlus Nord, we discovered several references to an upcoming OnePlus smartphone code-named "Billie." In the OxygenOS Settings APK, we discovered multiple calls to a method called "isSM6350Products." This method checks the model of the device and returns true if the model name matches "BE2025", "BE2026", "BE2028", or "BE2029."

These are likely the model names for the new OnePlus device, though it's unlikely that these 4 model names refer to 4 separate devices. Meanwhile, "SM6350" is the part number for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690, as confirmed by Qualcomm's own website. For reference, here's a chart that shows all the model names for the OnePlus 7, OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus 7T, OnePlus 7T Pro, OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, and OnePlus Nord.

The "AC" in the "AC2001" and "AC2003" model names for the current OnePlus Nord refers to the device's internal code-name, "Avicii", who was a famous Swedish DJ. Similarly, the "BE" in "BE2025", "BE2026", "BE2028", and "BE2029" likely refers to "Billie Eilish", a famous American singer-songwriter. Code within the latest OnePlus Launcher APK reveals that there could be 2 different devices in development: Billie2T and Billie8T.

While we can't confirm the name of the new OnePlus device(s), we suspect they'll be part of the OnePlus Nord brand. OnePlus has already confirmed that a future Nord-branded device is coming to the U.S. later this year, and it's likely that future Nord devices will launch in Europe and India, too. If the upcoming device(s) are indeed powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 mobile platform, then they'll cost even less than the current OnePlus Nord, which currently starts at £379/€399/₹27,999 in the UK/Europe/India.

When I asked OnePlus for comment on these findings, a spokesperson told us the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. Given how much OnePlus has hyped up the current Nord, though, there's a very good chance we'll hear a lot about this device before it launches.

Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler , a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.