OnePlus is reportedly ditching plans of launching an upgraded model of OnePlus 5 this year. Instead, the Chinese company is looking to go straight with producing OnePlus 6 for an early 2018 release.

Citing a "reliable" report, Android Marvel claimed that OnePlus is cancelling the OnePlus 5T, which was supposed to be launched later this fall. It is unclear what pushed the tech giant to make such decision, but the publication predicted it could be due to the late release of Qualcomm's new chipset.

OnePlus 5 already offers flagship features and runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor which has no successor in sight for now. Without a new chipset, the handset has nothing new to offer. Not to mention, the iPhone X and Google Pixel 2 are coming up, and will likely be dominating smartphone sales again. These leave the phone maker with no reason to launch an incremental version of the OnePlus 5 this year.

With 5T scrapped, OnePlus is ramping up development of its 2018 flagship, dubbed as OnePlus 6. The upcoming handset is expected to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor paired with 6 gigabytes (GB) or 8 GB of random access memory (RAM). In terms of storage size, Digital Trends says it will offer 64 and 128 GB storage options with microSD slots for memory expansion.

OnePlus 6 will likely sport an all-screen design, a 6-inch QuadHD display, and an extra-tall 18:9 aspect ratio. Other rumoured features include a fingerprint sensor, Android Oreo, and water and dust resistance, which 5T was supposed to feature.

As with the aforementioned features, the OnePlus 6 release date has not been announced yet. But if the company follows its usual timeline of releasing new phones, its 2018 flagship will probably launch sometime in summer next year.

Price-wise, it may cost more than OnePlus 5 ($580) but less than the Samsung Galaxy S8 and iPhone X, which both costs $900-plus.