Yesterday, smartphone maker OnePlus announced that it was going to launch its newest flagship offering, the OnePlus 3T, in India soon. While the company kept mum on the launch date, it has started a marketing campaign to get the word out to consumers. (Recall the campaigns during the invite system days?)
The company unveiled OnePlus 3T on 15 November worldwide and, until last week, OnePlus' India team was silent about the launch here.
OnePlus 3T comes with the upgraded Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor and the bumped up 16 MP front camera.
The 3,000 mAh battery with Dash Charging technology was one of OnePlus 3's most talked about features. OnePlus 3T sports a bigger 3,400 mAh battery, so one can expect it to easily last a whole day without charging. Although the quick Dash Charging can always provide the necessary juice within minutes.
The phone's pricing will cause ripples in a saturated market, which would be interesting to observe. The 64 GB version of OnePlus 3T is priced at $439 in the US and the 128 GB version costs $470. The pricing of the 64 GB model in India is expected to be in the ₹30,000-35,000 range.
OnePlus 3T can truly be placed in the flagship phone category as only select phones, such as Google Pixel, are using the Snapdragon 821 chip. For someone who is considering buying a Moto Z, Google Pixel, iPhone 7 or Samsung Galaxy S7, OnePlus 3T could be a great alternative.
So, while OnePlus 3T should offer a challenge to the flagships, mid-range phone sales will probably not be hurt by it at the ₹30,000 price-point. The biggest gainer could be the Moto Z Play. A great smartphone priced at ₹24,999, it often lost to OnePlus as some consumers didn't mind spending a couple of extra grand to acquire a better phone. Now, with the entry of OnePlus 3T and the probable exit of OnePlus 3, Moto Z Play could become a mid-range favourite.
Some other smartphones such as Asus Zenfone 3 and Lenovo Z2 Plus should also have greater room to get their sales numbers up. On the other hand, many OnePlus 3 users might be a little peeved as their phone is no longer top of the line. Although, there is no denying that OnePlus 3 is still a very good phone, even 5 months after its release.
OnePlus has assured users that this quick model upgrade is a one-off move in its phone release cycle and won't be repeated in the coming years.
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