Best phone under Rs 25,000: OnePlus 3T is old but still pure gold

If you are going to spend Rs 25,000, OnePlus 3T is what you should get. Or you should stick to something under Rs 15,000 because in between there is nothing other than the OnePlus 3T that justifies the price.

When does an old phone get too old? Depending on phones, and their prices, there can be different answers to this question. The iPhone 6S, for example, was launched in 2015. But if it sells for less than Rs 25,000, we will still recommend it. Among the phones that have aged gracefully the top on the list is the OnePlus 3T. Nearly a year after it was launched, it remains such a phenomenal phone that even now, over here at the India Today Tech, we have no qualms about recommending it. If this festive season, you are hoping to get a new phone for less than Rs 25,000, the OnePlus 3T is the one you should strongly consider.

The reasons why the OnePlus 3T remains such a great phone are several. And we will go into the details in a while. But primarily there are three factors here. One, the OnePlus 3T was launched at a very aggressive price. The starting price was Rs 29,999, which was phenomenal for this phone. It made the OnePlus 3T the best value for money in  the history of smartphones. The second reason was that despite its relatively low price, the phone came with the top-end hardware that was available when it launched. And last but not the least is the Dash charge technology which is still the fastest charging technology till date and a quick 30-minute charge refills the battery of your OnePlus 3T to give you enough power for the day.

Since then, the OnePlus 3T has seen its price coming down due to seasonal discounts. The OnePlus 3T nowadays sells for a price of Rs 24,999, which is a discount of Rs 5,000, at the Amazon storesand Amazon India. This is for the soft gold variant with the gun metal costing another Rs 1000 more at Rs 25,999. At this price, and a year after its launch, there is still no phone that can compete with it.

Now, the reasons. Why we feel that OnePlus 3T continues to be a great device:

1. This is still among the fastest phones you can buy in the market. The OnePlus 3T comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, which is a proper high-end processor. In fact, this year phones like the LG G6, which was launched at a price of above Rs 40,000, use Snapdragon 821. In this price range, otherwise you get processors like the Snapdragon 650 and Snapdragon 625, which are good but not as good as the Snapdragon 821.
2. But majorly it is not the processor that gives the OnePlus 3T its speed. It is the RAM and storage. The phone comes with 6GB RAM, which is a lot, and 64GB internal storage, which is also fairly generous.
3. The Full HD 5.5-inch screen is still among the best that you can get in a phone, irrespective of the price. The OnePlus 3T screen uses an OLED panel and hence shows very punchy colours.
4. The metal body design is attractive and has an edgy industrial looks. The build quality too is fantastic. In fact, some people still prefer the design of the OnePlus 3T compared to the OnePlus 5.
5. The OnePlus 3T comes with a 16-megapixel camera on the back and another 16-megapixel camera on the front. Although nowadays the dual-cameras are in fashion, they work well enough only in more expensive phones. The budget phones with dual-camera setup aren't really that good. And this is where the OnePlus 3T, yet again, delivers. Its primary camera is capable of clicking very detailed and high quality photos. Here is what we said when we reviewed the camera of the OnePlus 3 (it's same camera) earlier, "Again and again we see how well the OnePlus 3 camera does. Irrespective of the conditions it is a very consistent performer, capable of clicking pleasant images. It is not in the league of the iPhone 7 Plus or the recently launched Google Pixel. But it is quite close for all practical purposes." Keep in mind that Pixel and the iPhone 7 still cost above Rs 40,000.
6. The OnePlus 3T has great software. It is based on Android Nougat, with the update to Oreo is already in the works. That update should come in another month or so. But even in its current Nougat avatar, the OnePlus 3T has software that is functional, clean, a delight to use and without bugs. The phone uses an interface that almost exactly stocks Android and there is no bloat ware in it.
7. Finally, there are the features. The OnePlus 3T has all the features you need and then some more. It's been a while since we first saw the Dash Charging. But this feature remains something that is going to delight you every time you use it. Fingerprint sensor? Yes, it's there. Headphone jack? Yes, it's there. Support for dual-SIM cards? Yes, it's there. VoLTE calls? Yes, you can make them using the OnePlus 3T.

To sum it up, if you are going to spend Rs 25,000, OnePlus 3T is what you should get. Or you should stick to something under Rs 15,000 because in between there is nothing other than the OnePlus 3T that justifies the price. It's not for nothing that OnePlus 3T continues to be one of the top rated phones on websites like Amazon India and in forums.  

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