T-Mobile OnePlus 7T VS 6T and a lack of Pro
The OnePlus 7 Pro was removed from T-Mobile USA's online store to make way for the OnePlus 7T. But why would a company remove a device that is not the direct predecessor to the device which will replace it? Let's take a look at what's happened at T-Mobile over the past year.
Today we're going to make the situation with OnePlus and its various smartphones simple. The differences between the OnePlus 6T, the OnePlus 7 Pro, and the OnePlus 7T are in some cases simply large, and in some cases confusingly small. The most confusing bit about this whole thing is T-Mobile USA's angle on everything.
OnePlus T-Mobile phone release timeline
In November of 2018, T-Mobile released the T-Mobile exclusive OnePlus 6T. This device was considered exclusive in that it was not on store shelves at any other major mobile carrier in the United States.
SEE THIS: Our big OnePlus 7T Review
In May of 2019, T-Mobile released their OnePlus 7 Pro a day early with one SINGLE store in NYC. They also continued to sell the OnePlus 6T.
In October of 2019, T-Mobile will release the OnePlus 7T. Here at the tail end of September, they've removed the OnePlus 7 Pro from their stores. This is a little strange considering they had both the Nebula Blue and the Mirror Grey versions available for a full retail price of $699.99 USD (or $29.17 per month for 24 months) as recent as September 11, 2019.*
*That's the last date the phone appeared captured by The Internet Archive's WayBack Machine – it very well could have been available for sale as recent as last week. What's interesting about this listing – back halfway through this September – was the relatively low number of reviews.
Look to the reviews and the prices
As of September 11, 2019, the OnePlus 7 Pro had 90 reviews on T-Mobile.com. Meanwhile the OnePlus 6T – as of today, September 30, 2019 – had 285 reviews. The number of reviews a device has is not a perfect tool for figuring the number of people that've purchased the device, and it's reasonable to assume that the latter half of the year has more smartphone sales than the first.
But if we're assuming the OnePlus 6T's number of reviews is at all indicative of the number of sales, it would seem that T-Mobile's sold 3x the number of 6T units as 7 Pro (in approximately twice the time, but still). Now what'll be interesting to see is if T-Mobile keeps the 6T on store shelves for another year while they ALSO carry a OnePlus 7T to boot.
The current price of the OnePlus 6T is $500 or $20.84 a month for 24 months with T-Mobile USA. The OnePlus 7T will be sold with T-Mobile USA for $599 USD. We'll see how it goes and we'll let you know.