OnePlus has officially announced the global variant of the Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T. The company has announced that the phone will be available for purchase in both North America and Europe starting on November 15, while it will be available in India on November 16. This is the same handset like the one introduced in China quite recently, and it comes in only one variant, a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. OnePlus has also announced that the device is priced at $579, while its price tag in Europe will be €579, same as the Mirror Black and Midnight Black variants with the same amount of RAM and storage. OnePlus has also released a promo video for the Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T, that promo video has a duration of 38 seconds, and it is embedded down below for your convenience. The Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T is identical to all the other variants of the device, except for its color scheme, of course. On the front, it’s black, like all the other models, but its back and sides are different. The phone’s back cover is not pure purple, it fades from black at the top, to purple down below, even though purple is the predominant color here. Same occurs on the phone’s sides, as well, as the color from the back is transfers to its sides. This phone actually sports a matte finish, much like the Midnight Black OnePlus 6T, and the letter “S” appears on the back, as light reflects it. Same goes for the Midnight Black OnePlus 6, and 6T, actually.
As far as specs are concerned, this phone is the same to the regular OnePlus 6T. The phone features a 6.41-inch fullHD+ (2340 x 1080) Optic AMOLED display, while it is fueled by the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core processor. We’ve already mentioned it comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, only, and it ships with Android 9 Pie out of the box, with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 9.0.5 skin on top of it. The device includes a 3,700mAh battery, which is not removable, and that battery can be recharged quickly using OnePlus’ proprietary fast charging, though it’s no longer called ‘Dash Charge’ due to legal issues. 16 and 20-megapixel cameras are included on the back of the phone, while a single 16-megapixel camera can be found on its front side. The device is made out of metal and glass, and it sports an in-display fingerprint scanner, unlike the OnePlus 6, which comes with a rear-facing, capacitive fingerprint scanner. The OnePlus 6T does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, it does not sport an LED notification light, while it comes with Bluetooth 5.0.
Background: OnePlus had introduced the OnePlus 6T Thunder Purple model in China quite recently, and soon after the device got launched, the company confirmed that it will not be coming to international markets, that it will remain exclusive to China. Well, it seems like OnePlus changed its mind really fast, and that’s probably caused by the users, as quite a few of them expressed the desire to own the Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T, so the company opted to release it in a number of markets outside of China. The company actually started teasing the arrival of this phone via its US and European social media channels, and the phone arrived soon after that. The OnePlus 6T is the very first smartphone that is available via T-Mobile in the US, and it’s the first time OnePlus partnered up with one of the OEMs in the US. Based on the initial info, the device has been selling really well via T-Mobile, as the carrier actually allowed users to trade-in their old phone in order to get a discount on the OnePlus 6T, that was a part of the initial promotion for the OnePlus 6T. It remains to be seen if the Thunder Purple variant will become available via T-Mobile, though, OnePlus and T-Mobile will confirm it soon if it ends up being the case.
It is also worth noting that the OnePlus 6T may not be the company’s newest smartphone for long, as the company is planning to release a 5G-ready smartphone in early 2019, and that phone will not be a part of the company’s usual release cycle. The upcoming 5G-ready phone will be a completely separate entity, and we do not really have any info regarding that phone just yet. The device’s arrival was confirmed, but no specific info was shared, so it remains to be seen if it will be a flagship phone, and how similar will it be to the OnePlus 6 and 6T. It is quite possible that this phone may arrive during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next year, in February, but we’re only guessing, the company may opt to host a separate launch event for that phone as well, as it usually does for its main smartphone lineup.
Impact: The Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T brings some more color options to consumers who are interested in getting the company’s flagship, and quite a few of them will probably welcome this, as the OnePlus 6T was available in black color only thus far, even though two black colors were available. The OnePlus 6 was introduced in both Silk White and Red color options earlier this year, so it’s possible that OnePlus will introduce a red and / or white-colored OnePlus 6T as well down the road, though it remains to be seen what will happen. You can also expect to see some special edition OnePlus 6T units to roll out at some point, as the company has a habit of partnering up with companies in order to release such devices. OnePlus partnered up with quite a few companies thus far, like Marvel and Disney, to name a few, in order to release special addition ‘Avengers’ and ‘Star Wars’ OnePlus devices. Nothing is guaranteed at this point, but chances are we will see at least one special edition iteration of the OnePlus 6T in the coming months, despite the fact the company’s 5G-ready smartphone is right around the corner, according to what the company has said thus far.
