OnePlus is breaking expectations, again. After three years of rolling out one flagship phone per year, OnePlus decided to make this year a twofer. The new OnePlus 3T will replace the OnePlus 3 in the market when it goes on sale on Nov. 22, marketing head Kyle Kiang said.
"If we can bring better technology to consumers, and we can, then we'll do it. We're going to go end of life with the 3, and the 3T will be the product we take into markets going forward," he said.
The OnePlus 3T isn't a radically redesigned phone. It's basically a OnePlus 3 with a bunch of internal improvements bringing it further up to date. Like the OnePlus 3, it's a metal unibody phone, 7.35mm thick, with a 5.5-inch, 1080p screen, this time coming in "gunmetal gray" or "soft gold." (below)
Inside, there's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor running at 2.35GHz; 6GB of RAM; a larger 3400mAh battery; a 16-megapixel front camera, which combines pixels into 4-megapixel images in low light; and a 128GB storage option for the gray-colored unit. There's "more durable sapphire glass" on the rear camera.
"With each device we try to get more premium components and build quality," OnePlus spokesman Eric Zarshenas said.
The 3T has an updated version of OnePlus's OxygenOS skin with some new tricks such as a manual camera mode with RAW image support, but the most important trick may be faster Android updates, something for which OnePlus owners have criticized the company.
"We will bring software updates to consumers much sooner," Kiang said. The company will bring both the OnePlus 3 and 3T to Android 7 Nougat by the end of the year, he pledged.
The phone also has USB-C, with OnePlus' speedy Dash Charge function, and a standard headphone jack. (Shown below.) Just like the OnePlus 3, though, the 3T's USB-C port is nonstandard and only runs at USB 2.0 speeds.
Don't worry that OnePlus will replace this phone in six months. Well, maybe it will. Kiang said the company isn't moving to a new cadence, but if it finds technology it wants to use, it'll jump on it. The company will stick with one phone at a time, though—no more midrange OnePlus X devices are coming.
The OnePlus 3T costs $439 for 64GB and $479 for 128GB, and it will be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as virtual carriers that use those networks. No invites necessary.