OnePlus 3T Reviews: 4 ways 3T is better than iPhones and other Androids

Impact

The OnePlus 3 phone has a successor: the OnePlus 3T.

The new smartphone is similar to its predecessor but comes with a handful of upgrades, reports the Verge. It's similar to the OnePlus 3 in that they both employ similar design, materials, size, soft gold color, 1080p AMOLED display, 6GB of RAM and the 16-megapixel rear camera. Neither of them is water resistant and the OnePlus 3T is not supported on CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint.

The Verge reports the handset differs from the original device in its price — it costs $439 for a 64GB model as opposed to the $400 OnePlus 3 — and color options, as it also comes in a darker gray color instead of the silver-gray color. Improvements include: a bigger battery, a higher-quality 16-megapixel front camera, a faster Snapdragon 821 processor and the option for more internal storage.

While the OnePlus 3T is obviously an improvement on the previous model, here's how it competes with other smartphones on the market: 

OnePlus 3T processor

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor makes the OnePlus 3T pretty unique in the world of Android — the only other phones that offer it are the Google Pixel, a special edition of the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe, revised versions of Xiaomi Mi 5S and 5S Plus, and the LeEco Le Pro3. Qualcomm released the processor in July, promising to "deliver faster speed, improved power savings, and greater application performance." The Snapdragon 821 is 10% faster than its predecessor: the Snapdragon 820.

OnePlus 3T camera

Compared to Apple's iPhone 7, the OnePlus 3T camera boasts more megapixels. The most recently released iPhones feature a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 7-megapixel front camera. In comparison, the OnePlus 3T has a 16-megapixel front and rear camera.

Apple's rear camera aperture — the amount of light entering in the lens — is f/1.8 (wide-angle) and f/2.8 (telephoto) while its front camera is f/2.2 for the iPhone 7 Plus and ƒ/1.8 aperture for the iPhone 7. The OnePlus 3T's features a f/2.0 aperture. The general rule of thumb is the lower the "f" value, the bigger the aperture and the better the picture.

OnePlus

OnePlus 3T battery

The OnePlus 3T has a 3,400 mAh battery as opposed to the 3,000 mAh battery in the OnePlus 3. This gives the device a far superior battery compared to the iPhone 7 (1,960 mAh battery), iPhone 7 Plus (2,900 mAH battery), HTC 10 (3,000 mAh battery), and Samsung Galaxy J7 (3,300 mAH battery).

OnePlus 3T price

The OnePlus 3T has the same processor as the Google Pixel and LeEco Le Pro3 — Engadget calls the latter the OnePlus 3T's "direct competition." While it is in the same price range as the LeEco Le Pro3, at $439 the OnePlus 3T is notably cheaper than the Google Pixel, which starts at $650 for a 32 GB 5-inch device, and the iPhone 7 series, which starts at $650 as well.