OnePlus Two will cost $400 according to co-founders

The price of the flagship smartphone from up-and-coming Chinese smartphone company OnePlus is set to cost $400 (£264) when it is launched in the coming months.

OnePlus is one of the most interesting and innovative smartphone companies around at the moment, and rose to prominence in 2014 when it sold its first smartphone, the OnePlus One, which features cutting-edge specs, a budget price ($299) and a unique invite-only system of selling the device.

The company is hoping to repeat the success of the original in 2015 with the OnePlus Two and now the company's co-founders have given a strong indication that the new phone will cost $400 when it launches in the third quarter (July-September) of 2015.

On Chinese social media site Weibo, co-founder and CEO Pete Lau used the platform to poll OnePlus fans on how much they thought the OnePlus Two should cost if it were equipped with a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and when a fan replied CN¥ 2500 ($402, £264) he said that sounded reasonable.

'Reasonable'

His fellow co-founder Carl Pei, who is now head of global at the company, also decided to test the waters with fans of the smartphones, this time on Twitter, asking:

When Twitter user @Info4Geek responded saying that $400 would be about right, Pei said "sounds reasonable".

While of course this cannot be taken as a concrete indication of the price of the OnePlus, the fact both co-founders called the $400 price tag "reasonable" is a strong indication that this is how much customers will have to pay for the new smartphone.

OnePlus was launched less than 18 months ago yet managed to sell over one million smartphones in 2014, and while this is insignificant compared with industry giants Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi, the company has built up a big cadre of loyal fans who are eager to see what the company produces next.

Pei recently revealed it is already in talks with venture capital funds in Silicon Valley about an investment which will see the company boost its workforce to 1,500 by the end of 2015 as it looks to continue its rapid growth.

The company is planning on launching a more budget-focused smartphone alongside the OnePlus Two later this year but little is known about that device.

What we know about the OnePlus Two is that it will be launched sometime in the second half of 2015, will feature a SnapDragon 810 chip and will run the company's own Oxygen OS, after the firm announced plans to develop its own software in place of Cyanogen OS which ran on the OnePlus One.