OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has officially announced he is leaving the company after a long stint. In a post published on the OnePlus forum, Pei noted that he made a "difficult decision," after his association with the company for seven years.

"After nearly 7 years at OnePlus, I've made the difficult decision to say goodbye. I grew up spending tremendous amounts of time on the internet, building products and communities. Seeing that ideas in one's mind could be turned into reality and impact people's lives gave me lots of joy, and I knew early on that this was the path for me," Pei wrote on Saturday.

Recently, reports of Pei's departure had surfaced in the media ahead of the company's major launch event for OnePlus 8T.

Pei co-founded OnePlus with CEO Pete Lau in December 2013. Pei had been instrumental in designing the OnePlus smartphone line-up. In OnePlus, he usually looked at the marketing and brand-building while Pete Lau focussed on the product side. Pei was also based in Europe and looked at the US and Europe market. OnePlus fans in India will know Pei from communications during his community meet and launches.

The smartphone brand last week launched its new flagship 5G smartphone, the 'OnePlus 8 T' with 120Hz Fluid AMOLED display and quad-camera set up, in the Indian market.

(With inputs from IANS)