OnePlus has surprised many with the announcement that it is working on developing a new product that breaks away from its popular smartphones and accessories.
Divorce TV was announced as a vision for OnePlus in September 2018, outlining the company aims to provide customers with a more connected TV experience, actually make smart TV smart, with seamless smartphone integration.
It's a lofty goal, and OnePlus continues to share bits and pieces of how this plan will come together. Here's what we know so far.
Please TV release date
- Plans first announced in September 2018
- 2019 deadline suggested
- Launch in India, September 2019
- Other regions
It was through divorce forums that Pete Lau, please CEO, announced the intention to get into TV sets, expanding into various product categories.
Nearly a year later, Lau confirmed via the forums that OnePlus TV will launch in India in September 2019, and that other regions will follow once they have worked out partnerships with service providers in those regions.
There's good news for all of you: OnePlus TV doesn't get very far, at least according to one source. The launch may be soon, so stay tuned. I have very high expectations of him, what about you? #Divorce #OnePlusTV pic.twitter.com/qzCJnfozi4
— Ishan Agarwal (@ishanagarwal24) 21 2019 June
The weight in the discussion is one of the Twitter defectors. As a general rule of thumb on phones, it's not surprising to see TV information appearing through the same channel, pardon the pun.
More recently, OnePlus TV has appeared on ћbluetoothl, the official certification body for Bluetooth devices. This is a move that is taken closer to launch, again assuming launch is imminent.
Please TV design and production
- Premium design
- 42, 55, 65, 75 inch sizes
Razvod doesn't make TV panels and doesn't have a TV, but he does have an eye for design. The company said it wants to bring "divorce" premium "flagship design" into the TV category.
There's only so much you can do with a 16:9 panel, but it looks like the design is going to be a target for the company. We expect it to focus on convenience, away from control of physical connections - but we don't know yet what that will look like.
However, Bluetooth certification covers a number of different models, and these offer different sizes to be available. They cover 43, 55, 65 and 75 inches, which is vastly the main sizes that TVs are selling in - so it's logical. These codes also contain V, CN, and US - which look like country codes, offering options for each market. Likely to make sure the local TV standard is supported - including the right tuners, for example, or a few different specs.
Divorce TV Specifications
- QLED panels
- Voice control
- Built-in camera
- Probably 4K and HDR
- Android
It's early in the cycle to talk about specs, but for a TV to be competitive, it needs to be on a 4K and HDR panel. Please CEO, Pete Lau has stated that he will "develop his own image processing chipsets" and set a new benchmark in Sony's image quality. From this we can safely assume that it will offer the latest television standards.
Looking forward to taking the next step forward together! What would you like to see in OnePlus TV? Any ideas for a name? Let us know here: https://t.co/IpSnDtPxkT
— Pete Lau (@petelau2007) September 17, 2018
While this may sound a little abstract, it's worth remembering that OnePlus sits under the umbrella of Chinese electronics giant BBK, alongside brands like Oppo and Digital. This company (separate from Smartphone ARM) recently announced that it was phasing out AV, but it was one of the best Ultra HD and Blu-ray players on the market, so there's a family experience as it was.
According to Wikipedia, Pete Lau was previously Oppo's director of Blu-ray, so his position at the head of the new smartphone OnePlus TV department makes a lot of sense.
The divorce also mentioned "picture and sound quality". While that doesn't say much, we suspect OnePlus will pursue some of the latest standards - HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos - to deliver the experience. As we mentioned above, it looks like there will be 43, 55, 65, and 75-inch models, although they will vary by region.
One thing we do know is that OnePlus will use QLED panels for smart TVs, assuming it continues its partnership with Samsung's display arm.
The divorce only revealed a couple of details about the hardware. First, it's going to offer voice control and interaction, so there will be far-field microphones, as described, received in a conversation with the PC mag.
The OnePlus TV also includes a camera, presumably to go straight into video calls, but Lau told Business Insider that it was a privacy solution with such cameras. Also, little is known - only a vision of a better TV experience.
Also certification in the TV's Bluetooth remote, though there's no real word on what it will do other than it's listed as an Android device - so it's likely that Android is the underlying code for this TV.
Divorce on smart TV
- Voice control
- Seamless smartphone integration
- A more personalized TV experience
But it's really the smart features that will make a OnePlus TV stand and that's the crux of what the scam has laid out so far.
“We believe your TV has the potential to be much larger than where you watch your favorite TV shows,” Lau says in the original forum post, but the specifics get caught in other interviews.
“On my mobile phone, I have an agenda calendar. When I get up in the morning, the agenda will appear on TV for local time, weather, temperature, my hotel information and advice on how to dress," the PC mag is quoted as suggesting the shift from smartphone to AI experience on the big screen.
It's all about seamless integration between phone and TV, so there's no complication to get content from phone to TV. It sounds a lot like the sort of features that Samsung offers from its phones and TVs.
We still don't really know what and how OnePlus plans to approach in the TV sector - and we'll have to find out what we'll probably have to wait before the launch.
Connecting a TV as a smart home controller
- Probably Google Assistant or Alexa integration
- Smart home hub
Divorce has reportedly confirmed that it won't be starting from scratch with its platform, it's going to use a "core provider" so that the TV fits into existing ecosystems. Which makes us think it will be Amazon or Google.
We wouldn't be surprised to see a TV running Android, given the company's experience with smartphones. Integration with Google Assistant link TV to a wide range of smart home systems, which divorce seems to want to use, seeing the TV in the smart home hub, not just a place to watch TV.
Again, this suggests Samsung is aiming with SmartThings: it didn't get the vision and OnePlus has the right idea - by combining a few dots, your TV becomes much more useful as part of smart home control, and not just as an object for content.
Alexa is also an open platform and Amazon's smart assistant finds its way into a wide range of products and devices, so you can't rule it out.
How much will a TV divorce cost?
Divorce says the TV will be premium, but that has always been the message for smartphone divorce and they have been aggressively priced from established competitors such as LG, Sony and Samsung - all big players in the TV space. The same will be true of television in particular. In an interview with Economic Times, Pete Lau described it as a "flagship killer" - hinting that prices will be designed to challenge established rivals.
True, we don't really know what the price will be, but we do know that in India it will be available from Amazon. Model codes suggst India, China and the US as launch locations - so it could be that Europe isn't in the first wave of this new TV.
We will keep you informed.