The OnePlus 8 is the first handset OnePlus will sell through Verizon This is a major milestone for this handset manufacturer and will put its newest model into the hands of more customers However, if you plan to purchase the OnePlus 8 through the largest wireless carrier in the US, there are a few things you should know about this particular model

Verizon's model of the OnePlus 8 (technically called the OnePlus 8 5G UW) has some design differences when compared to the unlocked version of this device and the OnePlus 8 sold in T-Mobile stores Verizon's version supports the carrier's ultra-wideband 5G millimeter wave network, but to make that possible, PhoneArena reports that one of the phone's antennas had to be placed squarely in the same spot where the volume rocker usually is on other models

As a result, the majority of OnePlus 8 cases are not designed for the Verizon version, where the volume buttons are lower along the sides of the phone Therefore, you cannot buy a cheap case from Amazon and put it on a OnePlus 8 purchased from Verizon, as you can with other OnePlus devices

Oddly enough, even the OnePlus online store does not sell accessories for the OnePlus 8 5G UW This means that Verizon customers will have to purchase a case made specifically for that variant from the carrier at retail And if there's one thing we know about accessories sold in carrier stores, it's that they are not the cheapest (The $799 OnePlus 8 5G UW is already $100 more than OnePlus 8 models sold elsewhere, again taking into account the hardware required to work on Big Red's 5G network)

Indeed, this is the OnePlus 8 story is an annoying but not entirely unexpected development for the OnePlus 8 story Unfortunately, 5G is new, complex, a mix of different protocols, and in some cases requires proprietary hardware

Millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G in particular, such as that used by Verizon, needs to be introduced to devices in a highly specialized way, device by device and network by network at this stage Sub-6GHz style 5G, while slower, has no such problem because it can communicate over greater distances [The same reason the $999 Samsung Galaxy S20 is not yet available on Verizon This device does not have mmWave technology, but the larger and more expensive S20 Plus and S20 Ultra do Since Verizon's 5G network at this stage is entirely mmWave-based, Verizon plans to launch its own version of that device this summer, just as OnePlus was forced to do with its new models

With big advances come big headaches, and 5G is no different: as PhoneArena adds, there is no dual-SIM support, nor is there on all models of the OnePlus 8, even though the phone has a SIM card tray with two slots There were also growing pains when 4G LTE took shape, and one hopes that OnePlus' next-generation device will be a little easier to buy a case for