Star Wars has had a strange smartphone history. The franchise was a no brainer for the Motorola Droid — Verizon actually had to license the name from Lucasfilm, so it follows that a few R2-D2 handsets followed over the years. More recently, Sharp, of all companies, scored the rights in time for Rogue One.
With The Last Jedi a mere weeks away, it’s OnePlus’s time to shine, with a Star Wars-branded edition of the 5T, first spotted by The Verge. The Shenzhen-based company is another odd choice — it’s hardly a household name, after all. And the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition name isn’t just marketing — at the moment, at least, it appears the phone is only going to be available in India, starting a day before The Last Jedi hits theaters there on December 15.
The 5T is a great budget phone, as we mentioned in our recent review, and it looks like the company hasn’t altered the design language too much to Star Wars it up. There’s a small logo on the rear of the device, and a matching red side button.
The accompanying video, which debuted at Bengaluru Comic Con, highlights the color theme, which obviously takes a cue from Kylo Ren’s lightsaber — part a likely overall Dark Side focus for the new film. There appears to be limited edition wallpaper on the device — and if past Star Wars phones are any indication, there will be other exclusive content on the phone to further the theme. But even if it doesn’t, again, the 5T is a solid phone, Star Wars or no.
TheOnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition will be launched at a OnePlus event in Mumbai on December 14 at an event that features all sorts of other Star Wars swag. We’ve reached out to OnePlus to see if the company has plans to launch the phone elsewhere — though the nature of the license on this one might mean no availability for users far, far away.