After being announced in early April, the OnePlus 8 (review) went up for sale last week in the US. Verizon and T-Mobile are two of the places where you can purchase the phone, and we knew the models sold by these carriers were not the same. However, it turns out the two devices are even more different than we thought.
The Verizon OnePlus 8 is the only model in the series that supports mmWave 5G. This is what allows the device to support Verizon's Ultrawide Band network. OnePlus had to place the mmWave antennas on the sides of the Verizon model, which meant moving the volume buttons slightly. You probably wouldn't notice this if the different models were placed side by side, but it's enough to make cases not fit correctly.
This issue was first spotted by Reddit user bud-ho. After purchasing several cases, they realized the volume button placement is different on the two OnePlus 8 models. As you can see in the image above, the volume buttons on the cases clearly do not line up. The case on the left is for the T-Mobile/unlocked variant and the case on the right (flipped for comparison sake) is for the Verizon variant.
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It's unfortunate that users will have to be extra careful when buying a case for the OnePlus 8. If you own the T-Mobile/unlocked or Verizon models, make sure you take note of this when searching for a case. 5G has apparently brought back the days of carriers receiving different hardware for the same products.
Via: PhoneArena