OnePlus 3T vs OnePlus 3: What's the difference and should you upgrade?

The rumours regarding an upgraded OnePlus 3 model have been finally put to rest as the company unveiled the OnePlus 3T. The Chinese smartphone maker made the announcement on its website and Twitter, giving OnePlus fans a more powerful model to replace the OnePlus 3 as its flagship.

"We developed the OnePlus 3T hand in hand with our fans, packing it with key improvements that couldn't be pushed out through software update releases," said Carl Pei, co-founder and Global Business head of OnePlus.

The all new model comes with a faster chipset, the Snapdragon 821, a larger battery as well as an improved front facing camera. The rest of the phone, including its software is the same as the OnePlus 3 including its dimensions and weight.

Not disappointing the OnePlus 3 users who bought the flagship post its July release, the company said the new model is just an enhanced version of the same phone and software-wise everything would remain the same for both models.

"OnePlus 3 users, rest assured: we consider the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T to be two versions of the same phone, so software updates will follow the same schedule. Android Nougat will come to both phones later this year," said Pei.

Check out the specifications of the new phone and the OnePlus 3 side by side below:

As the table shows, all the changes are related to hardware, with the chief one being the processor upgrade. The new phone has Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, which is Quad-core, compared to the OnePlus 3's dual-core Snapdragon 820 chipset. Users looking for much faster processor can opt for this model.

RAM capacity remains the same at 6GB for the OnePlus 3T. Some rumours had predicted that the OnePlus 3T may have 8GB of RAM, but that did not come true. The company might bring the 8GB RAM on its 2017 flagship, the OnePlus 4.

For those complaining about limited internal memory, the new model has a 128GB version with UFS 2.0 standard. The 3T retains features such as the fingerprint sensor on the front along with a 16-megapixel rear camera. Selfie lovers can, however, opt for the new model which has a 16-megapixel front facing camera compared to OnePlus 3's 8-megapixel camera.

Although there were some rumours of the upgraded model switching to LCD panels, OnePlus has stuck with an AMOLED display and is likely to do so in future. The OnePlus 3T, however, features a larger 3400mAh battery with Dash Charge.

The OnePlus 3T will go on sale from November 22 in the US for $439 (64GB model) and $479 (128GB model). In Europe, the phone will start selling from November 28 from £399 (€439).