OnePlus typically releases a phone every six months, with the flagship of each new number arriving sometime in the spring. Usually May, but sometimes as early as April, and the T series is announced around October.

The OnePlus 9 launch, however, may be a little different. According to the latest rumors, OnePlus is aiming for a mid-March 2021 launch.

This news was told to Android Central by inside sources. They claim that OnePlus has not set a launch date for the OnePlus 9, but plans to hold a launch event in mid-March. This could put it in more direct competition with companies such as Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei, which are said to be launching new phones around the same time. [Android Central speculates that this may be to give OnePlus more time to sell the OnePlus 9 before the OnePlus 9T's launch. However, this would mean sacrificing the OnePlus 8T, which would have to deal with being replaced a month earlier than usual.

It is also possible that OnePlus is planning to spread out the phone launches a bit more, given the growing number of devices it is producing. The OnePlus Nord was already announced this summer, and rumor has it that OnePlus plans to launch at least two more low-cost Nord devices in the form of the Nord N10 5G and the N100.

If OnePlus wants to give future Nord series devices as much fanfare as the original, it's a good idea not to launch all of them so close together. by getting the OnePlus 9 out early, everyone is talking about the 9T and what it expects over the 8T OnePlus can focus on the Nord series for a few more weeks before people start asking if it won't be a disappointment.

Some things we can expect are probably an upgrade to the Snapdragon 875 chipset, 65W Warp Charge like the 8T, and further improvements to the camera. It is hard to predict more, especially since the 8T still lacked a number of key features that OnePlus 8 Pro owners enjoyed. At the very least, bringing back wireless charging would be a good thing.