An iPhone is an iconic product, a status symbol and a brand-name phone that won't catch on fire. But is it worth almost twice as much as a rival from a Chinese upstart looking to rattle the mobile landscape? Let's compare Apple's latest phablet, the iPhone 7 Plus, to the budget/beast OnePlus 3.
Size
The iPhone 7 Plus doesn't exactly tower over the OnePlus 3, but it does come out 3 percent taller and 4 percent wider. Keep this in mind in a minute when we get to screen size.
Weight
The iPhone is bigger, but 19 percent extra weight makes it the denser of the two phones.
Build
Saying a flagship phone has an aluminum unibody design is kinda like saying a hipster has a handlebar moustache. Both of these phones follow that trend (well, the first one at least).
Water resistance
Apple followed in Samsung's footsteps by adding water resistance to the new iPhones. OnePlus prefers its phones stay on dry land.
Colors
Apple is loading up on colors, offering a total of five this year. OnePlus settled on a pair.
Display size
Though the iPhone is bigger and heavier, it doesn't give you a lick of extra screen space over the OnePlus 3.
Display resolution
Resolution is also locked up.
Display type
It's the familiar IPS vs. AMOLED story on the display panel front.
Pressure-sensitive display
We've yet to see any major Android phone-makers add something like Apple's 3D Touch, the mobile equivalent of a right click, to their phones.
Camera megapixels
Both phones have high-res front-facing cams, for the selfie-obsessed.
Dual rear camera
The iPhone has a second rear camera that's a devoted telephoto lens, for 2x optical zoom. Apple also uses the second camera in conjunction with the first to create some bokeh portraits with blurred backgrounds.
Camera aperture (rear)
The iPhone also has the wider aperture, which can help in low-lit settings.
OIS
Both handsets have Optical Image Stabilization onboard.
Battery
We'll have to wait for teardowns to know exactly what capacity the iPhone's battery is working with.
Fast charging
One thing we know the iPhone's battery doesn't have is fast charging tech.
Processor
Early benchmarks show some mind-melting results for the iPhone's A10 Fusion chip, but the OnePlus' Snapdragon 820 is no slouch either.
RAM
The OnePlus 3 doubles the 7 Plus' RAM, but Apple's hardware/software integration always has iPhones often doing more with less RAM than Android rivals.
Storage
Instead of laying out a pricing/storage scheme designed to tempt customers to pay more, OnePlus just plopped down a generous 64 GB as standard across the board.
MicroSD
Unlike Android rivals like Samsung, HTC and Motorola, though, OnePlus skipped the microSD slot.
Headphone jack
Apple sent the headphone port to sleep with the fishes this year.
Fingerprint sensor
Both devices have fingerprint sensor home buttons.
Software
The iPhone launches with iOS 10, while OnePlus sticks with mostly-stock ("Oxygen OS") Android Marshmallow.
Release
The iPhone 7 Plus is launching just as this article is being published, while the OnePlus 3 is about three months old.
Starting price (full retail)
And it all comes down to this. The iPhone has brand clout, an iconic style and the company's heritage of prioritizing user experience over spec one-upmanship and feature lists. You can also throw in goodies like water resistance, that neat new dual camera and 3D Touch. But does all that add up to nearly twice the price?
The only pricing advantages in the iPhone's column are that you can buy it on an installment plan, and that you can walk into a store and march right out with one (or at least you'll be able to after supplies catch up with demand). You'll need to order the OnePlus 3 online and pay the full US$399 upfront.
For more, you can check out our reviews of the iPhone 7 Plus and OnePlus 3.
