 So normally when I start writing these videos, I put my sim in the latest shiny gadget, fire it up, and I start taking notes on all the little things that jump out of the screen and make me sit up and take notice. A strategy that really doesn't work as well when you're basically reviewing the same phone for the second time. But is the OnePlus 3T the same phone, but at a higher price? Or like an Apple S refresh, have they added enough to make it worth sitting through my video again? Well, there's only one way to find out. By sitting through my video again. 🎵 Are you looking for a new gaming desktop or laptop? Check out iBuyPower's Black Friday deals which include dozens of free upgrades at the link in the video description. Physical tour time. If you've never seen a OnePlus 3, the T, other than replacing the graphite color with gunmetal, looks identical from the outside. At the back is the OnePlus logo, a flash, a camera bump, a noise-canceling mic, and a couple of racing stripe, I mean, antenna lines. On the right is the dual SIM tray and one of my biggest complaints about the 3T, the easy to accidentally press lock button directly opposing the, on the right, volume rocker and notification mode switch that I didn't use much my first time around with the 3, but actually started to really like this time. I don't know if it's a new feature of Android Wear, but my watch actually tells me what mode it's in in real time on the top of the screen, so I never forget that I'm in silent mode anymore, one of the reasons I never use silent mode. Then on the bottom is the USB 2-speed, dash charging type-C connector, a grill for the single speaker, though now that Apple has implemented dual speakers through the earpiece, hopefully that'll show up in the 4 in every other phone from now on, and a headphone jack, which I hope doesn't go away for that same industry follows Apple reason. Then around front are a couple of my favorite things about the 3T, but also the 3, no changes here. The Gorilla Glass 4 covered 1080p AMOLED display, it's bright, performs admirably in direct sunlight, doesn't waste GPU power on pixels that no one will be able to see from further than four inches away, and comes calibrated for a neutral, natural look rather than an over-saturated one, and the lightning-fast fingerprint reading touch home button flanked by built-in capacitive buttons, which can easily be swapped in software if you prefer back on the right side or on the left, or disabled outright if you prefer on-screen buttons, which I am pretty much over at this point, but your mileage may vary. Internally, more, though it's still not much, has changed. The Snapdragon 820 CPU has been replaced by an 821, also with an Adreno 530 GPU. This is not an architectural or manufacturing process update, just a clock speed bump. Then for the heavy users, OnePlus has stuffed a 3400 mAh battery into the same size chassis without adding any weight. Very nice. The camera is the same, which is actually a good thing. Its low-light performance is excellent, so is its highlight performance, shutter speed, launch time. By the way, everyone should have double-click to launch because it is freaking awesome, and its under-the-hood options are great, with RAW capture available for the shutter bugs and tweakers. Then you've got 6 gigs of LPDDR4 memory, a 128-gig non-expandable option instead of just 64, and it's all running on a slightly updated Android Marshmallow, though it should be noted that most, if not all, of the enhancements here are also coming to the 3. This includes the updated Quick Access icons in the status bar, a way to fingerprint protect apps, though it didn't really come up for me, a call-blocker blacklist, it is bewildering to me that this isn't a base Android feature with cloud synchronization at this point, and a new Clear All mode that wipes out background processes too, though use it with caution because, sure, your CPU usage will go down, but you might stop getting notifications and stuff. So what isn't coming to the 3? Good question! A higher price for one. The 3T is being sold alongside the 3 as a more premium model for $440 for a 64-gig, or $480 if you want the 128. This is basically OnePlus bowing to the realities of competing in the flagship smartphone market by hiking prices, again, just like they've done every generation to cover, presumably, the costs of extra marketing, customer support, supporting more colors and capacities, and the like. Also, you get the better 16-megapixel selfie camera. I mean, I don't personally take a lot of selfies, but its performance is noticeably better, very good, and the Smile to Capture mode would probably work really well if you were trying to take selfies not with your children, for whom waiting three seconds for a countdown timer would be some kind of Christmas miracle. Which leads us pretty well into customization. Some stuff OnePlus does really well here. Being able to make my Google bar clear or white, being able to nickname apps on the home screen, three finger swipe screenshots, so cool, and having better control over power saver features all resulted in real experiential improvements. Battery life on the 3T is excellent. Even with all my crap loaded on it, I couldn't burn it in a single day. But they still miss some basic stuff. Digging deep enough, I found some poorly translated English in the settings menu, and some more customization options are still needed. Why can I turn on the flashlight or pause media by drawing on the blank screen, but I can't bind those functions to a double press of a button like I can with other functions? And why can't I launch an app via either of these means? And finally, why, oh why can't I set up a five wide grid of home screen icons with the default launcher, which I like and want to use? I don't know, but these are minor complaints, and the OnePlus 3T, thanks to Google's decision to abandon their low price strategy way back with the Nexus 5, and price the Pixel like an iPhone, means that even at a slightly higher price, it is still very competitive. It's a shockingly easy to hold five and a half inch phone that performs well. Here's a real world look at their supposed faster app launch speed compared to the S7 by the way, and just feels quality in the hand. Highly recommended, just like last time. And it's time for another Massdrop spot. Massdrop, they take lots of buyers and they take lots of sellers and they put them together, they sell more, you buy for cheaper, everybody gets a good deal, and today's feature drop is the Monk Plus Blue from Venture Electronics, really? They actually sound surprisingly good, like shockingly good for the price. Just the thing that's confusing to me is that they're only five bucks, so I'm really not sure how Massdrop is going to recoup the money they're spending on this advertising spot that they're buying right now, but I guess that's not my problem, and it's not yours either, so check them out at the link in the video description to get your hands on a pair of earbuds that sound far better than what you get at the dollar store, but are cheap enough that you can basically treat them like they're disposable if you're one of those scatterbrained people who often loses your earbuds. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do, but if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured at Amazon... Do they have this at Amazon? Well, whatever. We'll have a link to where to buy in the video description. Also linked down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one in our community forum, which you should totally join. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering, gee, what should I watch next? Oh, maybe that video right up there. Yeah.