The OnePlus 3T is a souped-up version of the OnePlus 3

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OnePlus is killing the OnePlus 3, the most popular phone it’s ever made, not even six months after it came out. But it’s not the end of the line for the company. On the contrary, today it is announcing the OnePlus 3T, a replacement for the OnePlus 3. The 3T is very similar to the prior model — it has the same design and dimensions, for example — but it comes with a faster processor, bigger battery, and better front-facing camera.

The new model comes in two colors — the attractive “soft gold” of the 3 and a new “gunmetal” dark gray — and has an option for 128GB of storage in addition to 64GB (128GB is exclusive to the gunmetal color). It will be available for purchase in the US starting on November 22nd and in Europe starting on November 28th. The other difference is the 3T’s price: it starts at $439 for the 64GB version and goes to $479 for the 128GB model, an increase of $40 to $80 over the outgoing OnePlus 3.


OnePlus

Replacing a phone just six months after its release is an unorthodox thing to do in the mobile industry, which usually sees 12 months between phone generations, but it’s fair to say that OnePlus isn’t exactly an orthodox company. Head of marketing Kyle Kiang tells me that the reason OnePlus is making this move is simply because it felt it could provide a better experience to its customers with the updated model and it didn’t want to wait a full year to do so. Kiang insists that the company isn’t killing the OnePlus 3 because of any particular supply shortages or component issues (though the company has had trouble keeping the popular phone in stock and had to suspend sales in Europe and Hong Kong for a month earlier this year), but it merely saw an opportunity to make a better phone and took it.

Existing owners of the OnePlus 3 have reviewed the device very highly, but they will likely still have a little bit of jealousy over the 3T arriving so soon after launch. (As for what the “T” stands for, OnePlus says “We went with ‘T’ because a lot of other companies go with ‘S,’ and since we are OnePlus we decided to go with the next letter, read one more.”) The new model has the same shape, design, 6GB of RAM, and 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display as the 3, but it comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor (a faster, 2.35GHz version than found in Google’s Pixel or the LeEco LePro3) instead of the 820 and a 3,400mAh battery in place of the 3’s 3,000mAh unit. OnePlus says the larger battery is a direct response to customer feedback and provides 13 percent more stamina, yet doesn’t make the phone any heavier or thicker than before. It still supports the company’s proprietary Dash Charge fast charging system that is designed to stay cooler than other fast charging technologies.