OnePlus 3T teased ahead of launch, Snapdragon 821 and Android Nougat 7.0 'confirmed' in new leak

Ahead of an expected grand reveal tomorrow (15 November), OnePlus has taken to social media to tease its next flagship smartphone. A promotional image of the upcoming device has popped up on the Chinese smartphone maker's Weibo page, with a sly 'T' alluding to its rumoured name – the OnePlus 3T.

The sketch-style monochrome picture shows what appears to be a standard OnePlus 3 smartphone posing in front of a mirror. The reflection seems to be a render of the new device, while the T inside a hexagon alludes to the reported OnePlus 3T moniker. A tagline below the image (below) reads "To be a better me" and "#NeverSettle# & Never Stop".

Tipped to be an incremental upgrade to the OnePlus 3 released earlier in 2016, the OnePlus 3T is expected to improve on the original device with a number of hardware upgrades. One confirmed improvement is the inclusion of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 chipset clocked at 2.35GHz, a boost from the Snapdragon 820 in the OnePlus 3.

A freshly leaked specification sheet (also on Weibo via The Android Soul) has also reaffirmed that the 3T will include a larger 3,300mAh battery capacity, while a second variant with 128GB on-board storage will arrive alongside a 64GB standard version. The camera sees improvements too, with a 16 megapixel Sony IMX398 sensor mooted for the 3T – the same sensor used in Oppo's flagship R9 range.

It is also widely expected that the OnePlus 3T will join the small list of handsets to arrive with the latest version of Android out of the box with OxyGenOS applied to the Nougat 7.0 update.

The only sticking point leading up to the phone's announcement has been its display, with some reporting that OnePlus is ditching the Optic AMOLED panel found on the OnePlus 3 in favour of an LCD screen. Most reports claim that a shortage of AMOLED panel stock could lead to the change, although OnePlus CEO Carl Pei recently moved to deny the rumours.