OnePlus 7 vs OnePlus 6T: Which is right for you?

Only seven months separate the releases of the OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7. The 6T landed in November 2018 as an upgrade to the OnePlus 6 from earlier that year. The OnePlus 7, which launched alongside the OnePlus 7 Pro, arrived last June as the company’s first new phone of 2019.

While the OnePlus 7 Pro model sports plenty of eye-catching upgrades — like liquid cooling and three rear cameras — the differences between the regular model and OnePlus 6T are more subtle.

Yet these nuances make for an interesting investigation: where exactly does the OnePlus 7 improve upon the OnePlus 6T and are those improvements worth the money? Read on to find out in our OnePlus 7 vs OnePlus 6T comparison.

Design and display

The OnePlus 6T and 7 similarities are clear at a glance — the phones are almost identical. They’re the same size and weight, feature the same button configuration, screen size, and bezels — including a waterdrop-style notch for the selfie camera. They’re also made from the same materials, both featuring a curved glass rear and metal buttons.  

The rear camera housing is where their differences are most visible. The OnePlus 7 builds its dual-rear cameras and circular flash into the same housing, while the OnePlus 6T separates its pill-shaped flash from the camera sensors. The OnePlus logo is also placed further away from the camera housing on the OnePlus 7, so it’s slightly more distinguishable. 

Color options differ between the handsets too: the 6T is the only model where you’ll find that fine Thunder Purple colorway (seen at the top of the page), while the OnePlus 7 is limited to Mirror Grey (unless you live in China or India, where you can get the Red model). 

Everything else about the phones’ designs, down to USB-C port and lack of headphone jack, is the same, and the phones’ displays are also identical. Both feature a 6.41-inch AMOLED screen with 2,340 x 1,080 resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio, all of which is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass 6 — still the most current version of Corning’s best-in-class display coating.

In the end, if you’re looking to buy one of these phones, the decision won’t come down to their display or design — unless you’re really keen on nabbing one of those exclusive colors. 

Hardware and performance

Where the OnePlus 7 clearly pulls ahead of the OnePlus 6T is in its chipset. The OnePlus 7 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 — which appears in many of 2019’s best Android phones — while the OnePlus 6T comes with the last-gen Snapdragon 845.

Benchmarks suggest the Snapdragon 855 offers around a 46 percent performance improvement over the 845 in single-threaded workloads, and about a 29 percent performance upgrade in multi-threaded workloads. That’s as well as superior graphical capabilities, image processing, Bluetooth audio (via aptX Adaptive), and UFS 3.0 storage compliance.

That last feature is a biggy because the OnePlus 7 makes use of UFS 3.0 memory, whereas the OnePlus 6T only offers UFS 2.1. This leads to further speed and efficiency gains for the OnePlus 7.

You can take a deeper look at the other benefits in our Snapdragon 855 vs Snapdragon 845 comparison but the main takeaway is that the 855 enables the OnePlus 7 to be faster and more power efficient than the OnePlus 6T. 

As for the memory components themselves, the OnePlus 6T comes with either 6GB, 8GB, or 10GB of RAM (McLaren Edition) depending on the model, while the OnePlus 7 has 6GB or 8GB options. The extra 2GB of RAM the McLaren Edition packs may sound appealing, but it won’t make much of a difference in day-to-day use compared to the 8GB model. 

Finally, you’re looking at 128GB or 256GB of internal storage for both phones, while the OnePlus 7 benefits from stereo speakers, as opposed to the mono speaker on the OnePlus 6T. 

Camera

Though both phones feature a 16MP front camera and dual rear cameras, the OnePlus 7 has a slight advantage. 

The OnePlus 7 features a 48MP (main) + 5MP (secondary) rear camera setup whereas the OnePlus 6T goes for a 16MP (main) + 20MP (secondary) setup. This high megapixel count found on the OnePlus 7’s main camera, coupled with its larger aperture, mean it can deliver more detailed photos and brighter shots in low-light. 

That said, there isn’t a vast difference in photography capabilities between the phones — and neither phone can hit the photography heights of the best Android camera phones. 

Still, the OnePlus 7 has the edge; take a look at the galleries below to see what I’m talking about — the distinction is particularly noticeable in the landscape shots. 

OnePlus 7 photo gallery

OnePlus 6T photo gallery 

Battery

Both OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T include a 3,700mAh battery and thanks to their equal display properties and operating systems, these offer similar results in overall battery life.

We observed more than six hours of screen-on time in our OnePlus 7 review and upwards of eight hours in our OnePlus 6T review with a day’s standby time overall.

Numerous factors affect battery life, like carriers and usage, so you should take these numbers with a grain of salt. That said, both phones offer solid standby times overall, and the OnePlus 7 should generally have the advantage thanks to its Snapdragon 855 chip.

The OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T also charge quickly thanks to the included 20W (5V/4A) fast charger. However, if you do pick up that McLaren Edition OnePlus 6T and you’ll also find a faster, 30-Watt Warp Charger in the box. OnePlus says this should give you a day’s worth of battery life in a 20-minute charge cycle. 

Software

The OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T run on OnePlus’ OxygenOS with Android 9 Pie out of the box, meaning they offer much the same software experience. The OnePlus 7 arrived with a later version of OxygenOS (version 9.5), though, and holds a few minor features over the 6T. 

Notably, the OnePlus 7 includes a Zen Mode which you can use to limit your phone to nothing but emergency calls for 20 minutes. It’s intended to reduce a person’s desire to constantly check their phone, but it’s not an essential feature.

The OnePlus 7 also arrived with a built-in screen recorder feature which has since made its way to the 6T; Zen Mode may yet trickle down to the OnePlus 6T which would bring it closer to polarity with the OnePlus 7. 

Both OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 6T should receive the same number of major Android updates, as they both launched with Android Pie. However, your safest bet if you want to secure future updates would be to buy the OnePlus 7 — manufacturers tend to favor more recent phones when it comes to updates.

Specs

Price

Comparing prices is tricky because the phones aren’t always sold in the same locations. OnePlus only sells the OnePlus 7 Pro version in the U.S., while the OnePlus 6T can now be hard to come by in regions outside of the U.S.

We can get an impression of how the OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7 prices compare if we look at the OnePlus U.K. website, though, where the phones comes in at the following: 

OnePlus 7 

• 8GB RAM + 256 GB ROM: £549.00 (~$663) 
• 6GB RAM + 128 GB ROM: £499.00 (~$602) 

OnePlus 6T

• 8 GB RAM + 256 GB ROM: £579.00 (~$699)
• 8 GB RAM + 128 GB ROM: £529.00 (~$639)

To compare this to the U.S., the OnePlus 6T costs $499 for 8 GB RAM + 128 GB ROM or $549 for the 8 GB RAM + 256 GB ROM model. The OnePlus 7 Pro starts at $669 and packs 6GB RAM + 128GB ROM. 

Should I buy the OnePlus 6T or the OnePlus 7?

If the OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7 are both available in your region, with comparable prices to the U.K., the answer is simple: buy the OnePlus 7. The phones look the same, but the OnePlus 7 offers better performance, cameras, and long-term update prospects, while also being cheaper. 

The only scenario in which the OnePlus 6T would be the better choice is if you want the McLaren Edition for faster charging and that extra 2GB of RAM. Realistically, those benefits won’t be as valuable as the overall performance and photography prospects the latest model offers, though — I’d stick with the OnePlus 7 if I were you. 

What are your thoughts on the OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7? Is the new device a worthwhile upgrade? Let me know in the comments.