OnePlus has officially confirmed the OnePlus 16’s design, colour options, and memory configurations, and opened pre-reservations for the phone in China. There’s still no confirmed launch date, but the reveal gives the clearest look yet at what OnePlus’s next flagship will actually look like.
Design and Colours
The OnePlus 16 keeps the same square metal camera island, large rounded corners, and customizable AI key on the left edge that debuted on the OnePlus 15. It comes in three colours: Dark Forest (black), Tomorrow Starlight (grey), and a light orange finish that OnePlus itself calls Martian Masterpiece in its Chinese materials, though GSMArena’s translation renders it as “Mars Masterpiece.”
The Tomorrow Starlight variant is the standout. It has an interactive breathing light built into the rear panel that illuminates the OnePlus branding and a set of celestial coordinates, similar in spirit to the light strip Google added to the Pixel 11 Pro.
Storage and Memory Options
Buyers in China will be able to choose from four configurations:
- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage
- 12GB RAM + 512GB storage
- 16GB RAM + 512GB storage
- 16GB RAM + 1TB storage
A rumored base 8GB RAM option did not make the cut, so 12GB is now the starting point. OnePlus has not confirmed the chipset, battery capacity, or display specs yet. Some of those details circulating online, including a Snapdragon 8 Elite-generation processor and a 165Hz panel, still trace back to unconfirmed reports, not OnePlus’s own materials.
What This Means Outside China
Pre-reservations are open only through OnePlus’s Chinese online store for now, with a full unveiling expected in October. That timing lines up with earlier reporting that the standard OnePlus 16 may skip India entirely. In that scenario, the OnePlus 16R would step in as the brand’s top phone there instead. Nothing about global or Indian availability has been confirmed either way, so treat the China-only rollout as the current reality, not a preview of what’s coming everywhere.
Sources: GSMArena, Gizmochina
