When OnePlus launched its "flagship killer" phone last year, it operated an invite-only system for sales. Whether you consider it a smart stock management move or a marketing ploy, it worked: the OnePlus One was one of the most talked about and sought after Android handsets in 2014.

With the follow-up, the OnePlus 2, set to be unveiled officially in a matter of hours, the company has said it plans sticking to the same system, in a bid to manage the distribution of the phone to a wider customer base.

Here’s how it will work. For each phone that OnePlus makes,it assigns an invite to the handset. Invites are a guarantee that you can buy a OnePlus 2 phone. Some will be issued to those who have already bought a OnePlus 2, allowing customers to share them with friends, family and random internet strangers on the hunt for one. Others will be allocated through competitions and promotions OnePlus plans to hold. You can also sign up for the reservation list on OnePlus’s website. At the last count, there were almost 284,000 people on the waiting list. Sharing a unique link to Facebook and Twitter for friends to sign up will also get you bumped up the reservation list.

Considering there has been no official indication of what the specs on the OnePlus 2 will be, that’s an impressive number. Leaked specs signal the phone will come with a Snapdragon 810 chip, 64GB of storage and a 13 megapixel camera.

The OnePlus 2 will be unveiled officially in a virtual reality-compatible presentation at 3am Irish time.