Smartphone maker OnePlus, which forayed into televisions a couple of years ago, has been slowly building its portfolio in the TV segment. The company unveiled its budget television last year and as reported by us earlier, OnePlus was working on a webcam for its televisions. Today, we have learned that the update for the webcam is ready. According to Twitter leakster Yogesh, who had provided the original tip for the webcam, the update has started rolling out and the company is planning a mid-May launch for the device. Yogesh also provided us with some photos of the update, as seen below.
OnePlus webcam coming soon
As reported earlier, the OnePlus Plug-n-Play webcam will have a USB Type-C port and a physical camera shutter. This, of course, is meant to protect user privacy, meaning you can cover the camera’s lens when it’s not in use. The company is planning to bundle the accessory with its upcoming TVs and given that the update is part of OnePlus’ OS update, it’s likely that older TVs will support it too.
The BBK owned company may also be taking a page out of its sister brand’s playbook here. A very similar implementation of a webcam has been seen on OPPO’s televisions before, and as you probably know already, that company is also owned by Chinese giant BBK Electronics. It’s also quite typical of OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo and Realme to share various products and designs amongst themselves. Original OnePlus devices were famously known to be rebranded versions of Oppo’s Find series phones.
What we don’t know at the moment is whether OnePlus plans to launch other products alongside the webcam. Given the current situation with rising covid cases though, that may be unlikely. Electronics companies are expected to face delays in new launches due to the renewed lockdowns, especially now that cases have been rising dramatically in Delhi and Mumbai.
While Yogesh told us that the company is planning a mid-May launch date, we wouldn’t be surprised if OnePlus chooses to start selling the device a little later in the year owing to the raging second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India. The company’s TVs do have quite a bit of competition from Xiaomi, Realme and more though, so it’s possible OnePlus will want to enhance its accessory ecosystem as soon as possible as well.
