OnePlus, which makes some of the best Android phones, can trace some of the features of its handsets, such as the OnePlus 9 Pro, back to similar features in Oppo's handsets; the same can be said of Oppo, which has been a leader in the Android phone market for years. And in the future, the two handset makers appear to be more closely aligned.

CEO Pete Lau, in a post on the OnePlus Forum, broke the news. Specifically, Lau, who is already Oppo's head of product experience, wrote that OnePlus will "further integrate Oppo and our organization," leaving little to the imagination as to how this move will affect the future phones of both companies.

Oppo is not yet selling devices in the U.S., so you may not be familiar with them. However, it is a stablemate of OnePlus' BBK Electronics, which makes great phones like the Oppo Find X3 Pro. Oppo's SuperVOOC charging technology is also the basis for OnePlus' own Warp Charge system, a recent phone One of the best parts of the X3 Pro is its ability to charge the phone's battery.

While it may sound extreme to hear that the two companies are joining forces, OnePlus will "continue to operate independently," Lau writes, making it sound more like a back-end change than anything we might notice in future OnePlus or Oppo phones.

However, this probably means more sharing of parts and research to improve both companies' phones; Oppo makes several inexpensive handsets such as the Reno series and the A series, so for OnePlus, budget handsets such as the Nord N200 and Nord CE could be even more. While the political climate is still not that welcoming for Chinese handset makers, we may see Oppo finally land in the US.

The OnePlus 9 Pro is the best smartphone overall, so there is not much to improve for the OnePlus 9T, which is expected to arrive later this year. However, it will be interesting to see what has changed as a result of this new relationship between OnePlus and Oppo when the next OnePlus flagship arrives, and likewise when the next Oppo phone arrives.