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In accordance with teasers that went live over the last several days, the OnePlus 7 Pro has just been made available to T-Mobile customers, immediately after its launch event in New York City wrapped up.
Naturally, there’s a catch, or better said – a long series of them.
The speed you need (but not the variety)
As was the case with last year’s OnePlus 6T, the first handset from the Chinese brand picked up by T-Mobile (or any other American carrier), the OnePlus 7 line lacks diversity if you’re only looking at what’s available for purchase from the self-proclaimed Un-carrier. The middle of the three configurations is the only one being sold by the wireless juggernaut, which is unsurprising seeing how the $699 configuration using 8GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage space is already expected to be the most popular choice from the series.
At least that’s UFS 3.0 memory we’re talking about seeing how the industry took its sweet time transitioning to the newer and faster (and more expensive) storage specification. Another positive thing of note is that T-Mobile will be offering the “mid-range” OnePlus 7 Pro variant in both Nebula Blue and Mirror Grey, with the latter also being the official spelling of the model’s name in the U.S. The Android phablet is set to be offered for as little as $29.17 per month, with no upfront payment being required.
Unsurprisingly, T-Mobile is limiting that offer to “well-qualified” customers, i.e. those who aren’t in any outstanding debt with the carrier or any one of its subsidiaries. The quoted price also assumes you agree to a two-year contract, a standard practice when it comes to mainstream devices in the country.
Whether OnePlus is now a mainstream brand is a different debate altogether, though the company certainly seems to think so; after all, it made a pretty significant gamble by dropping its annual $30 price hikes in favor of a device that’s nearly $100 more expensive than its direct predecessor. Sure, the regular OnePlus 7 was also announced but it’s not happening in North America. It’s also priced identically to the OnePlus 6T – €550. As for American consumers who still value the value factor, the OnePlus 6T won’t be discontinued just yet, whereas that’s precisely what’s happening with the device in European and Asian markets set to receive the OnePlus 7 in the coming days.
Never settle (for online orders)
Another unsurprising twist limiting the availability of the OnePlus 7 Pro to T-Mobile customers has to do with the fact that the said demographic can currently only get their hands on that single configuration at the T-Mobile Times Square Signature Store, as well as launch event locations in San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Sancta Monica. Everyone else will have to wait until 6 AM ET on Friday, May 17.
Finally, T-Mobile confirmed the new Android phablet has been optimized to fully leverage the current capabilities of its 600MHz network but don’t expect the telecom giant to eventually pick up the 5G version of the device; that particular model is extremely unlikely to be released in the U.S.
In case you’re looking for more choice than what T-Mobile is offering from what appears to be one of the most complete high-end smartphone ranges ever, your only remaining option is the OnePlus webshop.