“OnePlus 7 has the same form factor as the OnePlus 6T, including the waterdrop style notch and dual rear cameras”

The next-gen OnePlus 7 smartphone is official. The company took the wraps off the handset at its event in Bangalore alongside the OnePlus 7 Pro smartphone. While the ‘Pro’ model is more of a premium smartphone, the standard OnePlus 7 is slightly cheaper and targets customers looking for a flagship at an upper mid-range segment. The handset is the first in the country to come with Qualcomm’s latest high-end Snapdragon 855 SoC ticking at its core. It also has a whopping 48-megapixel primary camera, in-display fingerprint sensor, and other interesting features. However, amidst all the excitement, the question looms whether or not one should upgrade or ditch the OnePlus 6T (review) for its successor. Let’s dive in and find out:

OnePlus 7 vs OnePlus 6T: price in India

While the brand is known for increasing the price of its smartphone with each generation, it has taken a different route with the new series. The OnePlus 7 price in India starts at Rs 32,999, for the variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. Its 8GB + 256GB variant costs Rs 37,999. However, the smartphone won’t be up for grabs until June, the company has said. The OnePlus 6T price in India begins at Rs 32,999 too, with buyers getting the variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage at the price. Its 8GB + 256GB and 6GB + 128GB variants, on the other hand, costs Rs 36,999 and Rs 37,999, respectively. Lastly, there’s the McLaren Edition variant of the handset with 10GB RAM and 256GB storage, which costs Rs 46,999.

OnePlus 7 vs OnePlus 6T specifications

In terms of aesthetics, both OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T are pretty much the same, so much so, you will hardly be able to tell the difference in terms of the overall design of both smartphones. The former has the same glass sandwich unibody as its predecessor, with a waterdrop-style notch-toting display on the front and vertically-aligned dual camera setup at the back. The only notable change is the LED flash, which is nestled within the camera module instead of sitting outside on the OnePlus 6T. Apart from this, both the phones have an alert slider and power button on the right spine, volume rocker at the left, and speaker grills and USB Type C charger at the bottom. If you’re big on the 3.5mm headphone jack, unfortunately both OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7 lack one.

It’s the innards that make all the difference between the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T smartphones. The former comes with a mighty Snapdragon 855 SoC ticking at its core, while the latter has last year’s Snapdragon 845 mobile platform. The OnePlus 7 will be more powerful in terms of performance of speed, thanks to the new tri-cluster CPU design, 7nm fabrication process and Adreno 640 GPU. The phonemaker ships the handset with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB onboard storage, while the 2018 flagship has up to 10GB of RAM and 256GB storage. Both the smartphones lack a microSD card slot, so you can’t further expand the storage.

The OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T both boast of a 6.41-inch Optic AMOLED display with full-HD+ resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The panel also has an in-display fingerprint sensor for security, a small cut-out up top, and a barely visible chin. In the camera department, the OnePlus 7 rocks a combination of 48-megapixel (f/1.7) + 16-megapixel sensors on the back with LED flash. The front camera gets a 16-megapixel shooter for selfies and video calling. The OnePlus 6T, on the other hand, features a setup of 16-megapixel + 20-megapixel sensors at the back and 16-megapixel shooter on the front.

Lastly, both OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T come running Android 9 Pie-based out of the box, which means you’re bound to get an almost similar user experience and house the same 3,700mAh battery.

OnePlus 7 vs OnePlus 6T: which one should you buy?

Clearly, the OnePlus 7 is an iterative upgrade of last year’s OnePlus 6T smartphone. The only differences are the chipset, cameras, and additional RAM and storage configuration. Considering the price, the OnePlus 7 is a no brainer. Of course, you will have to wait till next month to get your hands on a unit.