Is OnePlus teasing an insane zoom for the OnePlus 9 Pro?

The race to capture the best photos of the Moon appears to be heating up. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau, who's no stranger to stirring up a frenzy on Twitter, tweeted out a teaser for what is likely the OnePlus 9 series coming on March 8.

His tweet, a photo from the POV of the Moon looking to Earth, simply declares "Something new is on the horizon." The tweet also says "Stay tuned for March 8" and includes a link to oneplus.com/moonshot.

As always, the tweet is cryptic. What's with this photo? What does OnePlus mean by "moonshot"? There will likely be more teases in the coming days, but if I were to wager, I'd put a bet on some kind of periscope zoom — some kind of telephoto zoom upgrade that maybe rivals the Galaxy S21 or S21 Ultra, which are capable of 30x and 100x max zoom, respectively.

Or, maybe I'm completely off base and the moonshot Lau is referring to is related to the electrochromic glass that the company showcased on its OnePlus Concept One phone at CES 2020. Last week, Lau cryptically tweeted: "When we released our first concept phone last year, people made a lot of wild guesses about what it would be. But I’ve never liked doing things just for a gimmick."

If that phone's tech and stuff in the Concept 8T aren't gimmicks, might we then see it on a future phone? Maybe the OnePlus 9 Series?

Hasselblad partnership? — Leaks on the OnePlus 9 series have been plentiful. Tech YouTuber Dave Lee recently shared images of what he believes were a prototype for the OnePlus 9 Pro, complete with a larger camera bump housing additional cameras and Hasselblad branding.

Hasselblad, as you may know, sold a majority stake to drone maker DJI in 2017. The buy-in from DJI has allowed it to incorporate the legendary Swedish camera maker's technologies into its drones.

If OnePlus is indeed partnering up with Hasselblad, it could make for some major camera improvements on the OnePlus 9 Pro. I'm personally praying this isn't a mere case of exchanging money for branding and the 9 Pro camera system really offers a substantial improvement over the very good OnePlus 8 Pro.

We've seen companies like Huawei partner up with Leica and slap the branding on its phones with questionable success. While the branding is Leica, the image quality on Huawei phones is far from what you get with a Leica camera.

Leaks so far — Like the OnePlus 8 series, we're expecting the OnePlus 9 to come in regular and Pro models.

The OnePlus 9 is rumored to have a flat screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, and three cameras on the back. The 9 Pro is likely to have a curved display (with reduced curvature like the Galaxy S21 Ultra), the same 888 chip, and four cameras on the rear.

Below are some additional specs going around:

• 8GB RAM + 128GB storage on OnePlus 9
• 12GB RAM + 128GB storage on OnePlus 9 Pro
• 120Hz on both phones
• 30W charging on OnePlus 9 / 65W on 9 Pro