[OnePlus 3T] - price and release date 2016

OnePlus 3T

It's been just 5 months since OnePlus dropped its surprising OnePlus 3: a well-polished phone with flagship-grade Snapdragon 820 system chip, a whopping 6GB of RAM and a refined design

But - true to its slogan - it did not settle, and has now introduced the OnePlus 3T. Why? Simple: the Snapdragon 821, the next most powerful system chip went out and OnePlus did not want to keep its consumers stuck with an older chip. It has made some other small, but welcome improvements along the way, but also hiked the prices a bit.

Don't worry, the OnePlus 3T is still our top pick in the value-for-money category. Take a look at the OnePlus 3T prices and see how they compare against two other phones with comparable specs.

• $439 / €439 / £399 - OnePlus 3T 64GB model
• $479 / €479 / £439 - OnePlus 3T 128GB model
• $869 - Google Pixel XL 128GB model
• $869 - Apple iPhone 7 Plus 128GB model

Good news is that the OnePlus 3T is officially available in the United States, the UK and Europe (it's also coming to India at an undisclosed date later), and it comes with an officially warranty and support. So when can you get it?

Here is the official OnePlus 3T release date across various markets:

November 22nd in the United States and Canada

November 28th in the United Kingdom and Europe

Coming later on (no release date announced) to India

 Qualcomm officially claims that the Snapdragon 821 delivers 10% faster boot speed, 10% faster app loads, and smoother scrolling, as well as improved web browsing performance. There is also a slight bump in GPU clock speeds, and Qualcomm also says the 821 is 5% more power efficient.

 3T: it now uses a 16MP front camera, while the 3 had an 8MP snapper. This has the theoretical advantage of much higher detail in good light. Individual pixels, however, are smaller, which is not that great for low-light photography. Luckily, OnePlus addresses this as well with a clever pixel binning technology that unites multiple pixels when light is scarce to make the most of it.

The OnePlus 3T does NOT ship with Android 7.0 Nougat yet, but OnePlus has said that it will simultaneously upgrade OnePlus 3 and 3T users to Nougat by the end of the year via a simple OTA update.

 Have a 3,400 mAh battery on the 3T, 13% larger than the 3,000 mAh cell on the 3. Yet the thickness of the phone remains at the same 7.3mm, and we're glad that OnePlus retained that slim profile. While many cry out for maxing out battery, we feel that a large phone that the OnePlus 3T is will feel inconveniently bulky with a thicker body, and we're glad it has remained slim.

The main camera in the 3T has optical stabilization as in the 3, but it also features an improved electronic stabilization, EIS 2.0. It's also great that the OnePlus upgrades the regular glass cover for the rear camera of the OnePlus 3 to a sapphire lens cover on the 3T. Sapphire is much more resistant to scratches and that's key to preserving your camera.