Qualcomm revealed that OnePlus is set to launch “something new” powered by its Snapdragon 821 processor, with speculation that it will be an upgraded version of OnePlus 3.

The US chipmaker made its comments in a tweet, accompanied by a Snapdragon image featuring the OnePlus logo.

OnePlus debuted OnePlus 3 in June, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. OnePlus 2 was unveiled in July 2015, indicating the company is on a once-per-year flagship release cycle.

The vendor also said it was not planning a follow-up for its mid-tier OnePlus X smartphone, announced in October 2015.

It is unclear if OnePlus intends to offer additional upgrades to OnePlus 3 beyond the chip – at around six months old, its specification is still competitive if not stunning. A shift to Android 7.0 is likely.

Speculation suggests the name will be OnePlus 3T, and it will be announced later this month for availability in December. Other mooted upgrades include a doubling of storage to 128GB, and battery capacity boost.

And a price hike will take it to around $480 (from $399).

OnePlus has come in for criticism about some of the performance characteristics of the device. While it has a bumper 6GB of RAM, some users noted it takes a parsimonious approach to multitasking, with a limited number of apps able to be held in memory.

This was attributed to a “different strategy for RAM management that benefits the battery”.