OnePlus 7 vs OnePlus 6T: Are the changes good enough for you to upgrade?

OnePlus 7 is rumoured to come with new screen design, motorised selfie camera, and gradient back panels. But will it be a big enough upgrade over OnePlus 6T?

OnePlus 7 to embrace gradient design (Tiger Mobiles)

OnePlus is gearing up for its next big launch, OnePlus 7. The upcoming flagship has already made numerous unofficial appearances ahead of the official launch. OnePlus 7 is set to continue the design experiment OnePlus began with OnePlus 5T. And as expected, there will be incremental upgrades in the specifications department.

What's confirmed so far?

OnePlus 7 will not come with wireless charging feature. When OnePlus moved to glass back panel, it was rumoured that the company will finally introduce the long-awaited feature. CEO Pete Lau earlier this month said that the modern wireless chargers were "far inferior" to its wired fast charging, Warp Charging.

What are the big changes expected?

OnePlus faced big backlash when it introduced notch display in OnePlus 6. The company later improved the design to a smaller notch in OnePlus 6T. With OnePlus 7, the company is reportedly going to do away with notches altogether. According to recently leaked images, OnePlus 7 will sport a motorised pop-up selfie camera while keeping the screen fuller. The mechanism is expected to be very similar to Vivo Nex. Oppo F11 Pro and Vivo V15 Pro also have a similar camera system.

Another big change is 'gradient design' and newer colour option. While OnePlus 6 series had the glass back panel, but they quickly fell behind the trend after Xiaomi, Honor and others embraced gradient design. According to reports, OnePlus 7 will launch three gradient finishes including one with black and mustard yellow combination and purple and black combination similar to OnePlus 6T Thunder Purple.

The biggest rumour around OnePlus 7 is the 48-megapixel rear camera. The next flagship smartphone is said to come with Sony's IMX586 sensor that also powers phones such as HonorView 20 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro. This will be a big improvement over OnePlus 6T's 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel dual rear cameras.

Incremental upgrades

With each flagship phone, OnePlus rolls out incremental specifications upgrades. OnePlus 7 is going to be no exception. The smartphone will run on the latest Qualcomm chipset, Snapdragon 855. According to a recent listing, OnePlus 7 will feature 6.5-inch AMOLED screen, improved in-screen fingerprint sensor, and 8GB of RAM. The smartphone will be powered by a 4,000mAh battery with 44W fast charger.

OnePlus 6T comes with a 6.41-inch AMOLED display and runs on older Snapdragon 845 processor. It comes in multiple variants including up to 10GB RAM and up to 256GB. It's powered by a 3,700mAh battery with fast charging support. It also has in-screen fingerprint sensor.