Budget 30-40k Oneplus Community Sale in India

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paraman

Adept
There is a community sale going on in India for 8th anniversary of Oneplus. Discount coupons, credit card discounts and great buyback offers on older OP phones. I am having a OP 7T Pro for the last 1 year or so. No major complaints except decreasing battery life and the curved screen. Wasn't aware of how difficult it is to apply tempered glass on curved screens what with having to use glue and UV light. Not a risk that I am willing to take.

So I just had a look around the OP store app and found that I can get almost Rs 23k to 25k as buyback price for my 7t pro, depending on which phone I buy. Now this amount is more than anything I can get on Cashify or OLX etc. So I am thinking of buying a new phone.

I shortlisted 3. The 9, 9R and Nord 2. The 9 pro is too costly and again has curved screen which I dont want.

Nord 2 is straight downgrade from my current phone. So it is the last choice. Cant decide between 9 and 9R.

The OP 9 is premium phone but lack of OIS and the plastic frame are serious drawbacks. I mean seriously, what was OP thinking while omitting OIS from the phone? Also even after the Hasselblad collab the photos are nowhere near Pixel or Iphone quality.

The 9R has OIS and premium build quality but ordinary cameras (as per youtube reviews).

So I am in a dilemma which one should I go for. Or whether I better continue with 7t pro.

If I am being totally honest, I wouldnt have thought of upgrading if Oneplus wasnt offering such great prices for older phones. I mean after all discounts and buyback I could get the 9 for Rs 12k and the 9R for just Rs 11k. It is too tempting an offer.

So I would highly appreciate if users of both phones kindly share their thoughts on their phones.

Thanks.
 
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paraman said:
There is a community sale going on in India for 8th anniversary of Oneplus. Discount coupons, credit card discounts and great buyback offers on older OP phones. I am having a OP 7T Pro for the last 1 year or so. No major complaints except decreasing battery life and the curved screen. Wasn't aware of how difficult it is to apply tempered glass on curved screens what with having to use glue and UV light. Not a risk that I am willing to take.

So I just had a look around the OP store app and found that I can get almost Rs 23k to 25k as buyback price for my 7t pro, depending on which phone I buy. Now this amount is more than anything I can get on Cashify or OLX etc. So I am thinking of buying a new phone.

I shortlisted 3. The 9, 9R and Nord 2. The 9 pro is too costly and again has curved screen which I dont want.

Nord 2 is straight downgrade from my current phone. So it is the last choice. Cant decide between 9 and 9R.

The OP 9 is premium phone but lack of OIS and the plastic frame are serious drawbacks. I mean seriously, what was OP thinking while omitting OIS from the phone? Also even after the Hasselblad collab the photos are nowhere near Pixel or Iphone quality.

The 9R has OIS and premium build quality but ordinary cameras (as per youtube reviews).

So I am in a dilemma which one should I go for. Or whether I better continue with 7t pro.

If I am being totally honest, I wouldnt have thought of upgrading if Oneplus wasnt offering such great prices for older phones. I mean after all discounts and buyback I could get the 9 for Rs 12k and the 9R for just Rs 11k. It is too tempting an offer.

So I would highly appreciate if users of both phones kindly share their thoughts on their phones.

Thanks.
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I bought a op9 256gb. Needed the space. Dont mind the lack of ois etc. I just want good indoor shots in regular daytime scenarios. Decent videos and photos that are good for memories is enough for me. Got the 256gig op9 for 35k after exchanging a very old op3. Will arrive in a week since I ordered from the oneplus website. If the camera is simply not good enough, will keep hold of my iphone xs. Will update when it arrives.
 
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icysmoke said:
They rejected my exchange :(
The demerits of not using a case.
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That's too bad.
singenaadam said:
If you did not feel the need for a new phone - don't buy anything. Offers will always come & go. Wait till you actually need the new phone.
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True, but the offers were very tempting. Anyway the bonus on exchange has been withdrawn now. Maybe it will come again when OP10 launches in Jan 2022. Let's see.
 
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paraman said:
True, but the offers were very tempting. Anyway the bonus on exchange has been withdrawn now. Maybe it will come again when OP10 launches in Jan 2022. Let's see.
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Exactly. The offer was too tempting. But on the positive side, i would rather get an 8 gen 1 than the overheating mess that the 888 is.

The only thing is probably such offers on the op10 will not come around till late 2022
 
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icysmoke said:
Exactly. The offer was too tempting. But on the positive side, i would rather get an 8 gen 1 than the overheating mess that the 888 is.

The only thing is probably such offers on the op10 will not come around till late 2022
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Samsung s20 fe 5g with sd 865 is a good choice.
Also, dimensity 9000 seems to have decent benchmarks. So phones with dimensity 9000 may be a good choice too. I wish mediatek would make their code open so that devs can optimise for mediatek chips.
You can also look for same specs in realme / oppo too.
 
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DrkLord said:
Samsung s20 fe 5g with sd 865 is a good choice.
Also, dimensity 9000 seems to have decent benchmarks. So phones with dimensity 9000 may be a good choice too. I wish mediatek would make their code open so that devs can optimise for mediatek chips.
You can also look for same specs in realme / oppo too.
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I want a clean OS as is on OnePlus / Motorola. All other manufacturers heavily customise android which I dont like. Although even OnePlus has made a mess of OxygenOS after merging with Oppo. Their recent Android 12 update for the 9 series was actually halted to fix the bugs and then re-released. So options are severely limited for people like me who want a clean OS. Google doesnt sell Pixel flagships in India and Motorola never update their phones.
 
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paraman said:
I want a clean OS as is on OnePlus / Motorola. All other manufacturers heavily customise android which I dont like. Although even OnePlus has made a mess of OxygenOS after merging with Oppo. Their recent Android 12 update for the 9 series was actually halted to fix the bugs and then re-released. So options are severely limited for people like me who want a clean OS. Google doesnt sell Pixel flagships in India and Motorola never update their phones.
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One can also get a xiaomi phone with sd 870, flash pixel experience on it to get the clean experience. Asus phones also have a relatively clean rom. Oneplus's last few generations have been not at par with their original flagship killers.
Motorola also didn't release their g100 in India this year.
 
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bhp91 said:
Sorry to disappoint but priliminary bechmarks for 8 gen 1 by Anandtech show that peak power has gone up yet again. The chip is faster and has better perf/watt but still, the peak power draw is higher than 888.
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Yeah. Read that article and was disappointed. The earlier article from Andrei made me think that the 8 gen 1 will run cooler. But based on the new article and the moto device with 8 gen 1, it seems worse than 888. I am a big android (not google) fan, but use an iphone. Sadly, it doesn’t look like i will move to an android flagship this year either.

I really wish Mediatek pushes qc into making better chips. Otherwise iphone will create an unbridgeable gap.
 
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icysmoke said:
Yeah. Read that article and was disappointed. The earlier article from Andrei made me think that the 8 gen 1 will run cooler. But based on the new article and the moto device with 8 gen 1, it seems worse than 888. I am a big android (not google) fan, but use an iphone. Sadly, it doesn’t look like i will move to an android flagship this year either.

I really wish Mediatek pushes qc into making better chips. Otherwise iphone will create an unbridgeable gap.
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It is important that mediatek develop good chips, open its code for devs to optimise for it. This will help both app developers and end user. Iphones already are in a league of their own. There isn't much overlap between options offered till 40k by Android mobiles and Apple mobiles. Apple till 40k has significant compromises in the battery department, also most of the iphones under 40k have 64 GB of internal memory.
So snapdragon flagships aren't in any danger from iphones. Only if samsung improves drastically and mediatek continues improving will the Qualcomm start doing good. Their last good chip was SD 870.
We will have to wait and see how D9000 and latest exynos perform. 2021 wasn't very good from Qualcomm's offerings, let's see whether they manage to get something good out this year.
 
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DrkLord said:
It is important that mediatek develop good chips, open its code for devs to optimise for it. This will help both app developers and end user. Iphones already are in a league of their own. There isn't much overlap between options offered till 40k by Android mobiles and Apple mobiles. Apple till 40k has significant compromises in the battery department, also most of the iphones under 40k have 64 GB of internal memory.
So snapdragon flagships aren't in any danger from iphones. Only if samsung improves drastically and mediatek continues improving will the Qualcomm start doing good. Their last good chip was SD 870.
We will have to wait and see how D9000 and latest exynos perform. 2021 wasn't very good from Qualcomm's offerings, let's see whether they manage to get something good out this year.
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So the problem is when you dont have a strict budget, android stops making sense. If i put 70k on a 128gig iphone 13, i will get a best in class camera, best in class SOT, a capable chip which doesnt overheat and the device will easily last 5 years. I just compromise on 120hz and Fast charging. So i end up spending 14k per year. That equation is very bad for android flagships in recent years.

It was better before this when iphones sucked at battery life (like my xs). Right now, for those not on a strict budget but looking for value, apple has indeed entered a league of their own with bith M1 air and iphone 13.

There was a time when apple meant paying for the logo. It is still true for headphones etc, but now the phones and laptops offer good value. Just absolutely hate not being able to transfer data with a usb cable.
 
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icysmoke said:
So the problem is when you dont have a strict budget, android stops making sense. If i put 70k on a 128gig iphone 13, i will get a best in class camera, best in class SOT, a capable chip which doesnt overheat and the device will easily last 5 years. I just compromise on 120hz and Fast charging. So i end up spending 14k per year. That equation is very bad for android flagships in recent years.

It was better before this when iphones sucked at battery life (like my xs). Right now, for those not on a strict budget but looking for value, apple has indeed entered a league of their own with bith M1 air and iphone 13.

There was a time when apple meant paying for the logo. It is still true for headphones etc, but now the phones and laptops offer good value. Just absolutely hate not being able to transfer data with a usb cable.
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Very true, at that price point your problems become more like "first world problems".
For general use and photography, iphones can't be beaten right now. One takes up other things like custom roms(few android users ever do this), emulation (again, few android users ever do this), here android emerges better. But these people aren't going to overlap most of the times.
I mean for above things, poco x3 pro is best value for money. It sits at 20k right now.
Sure if a person is going for a phone of 70k, iphones become incredible value compared to their android counterparts.
 
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DrkLord said:
Very true, at that price point your problems become more like "first world problems".
For general use and photography, iphones can't be beaten right now. One takes up other things like custom roms(few android users ever do this), emulation (again, few android users ever do this), here android emerges better. But these people aren't going to overlap most of the times.
I mean for above things, poco x3 pro is best value for money. It sits at 20k right now.
Sure if a person is going for a phone of 70k, iphones become incredible value compared to their android counterparts.
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Couldnt agree more. Android offers amazing value at around 20k. Its the 30-60k range where it stops adding proportional value. I ran crdroid A11 on my poco m2 pro without gapps. The absence of play services made it fly. The performance at 12k was unmatchable. For someone who doesnt need upi apps and has some time to tinker (since most roms dont support ota updates), custom roms are awesome.
 
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icysmoke said:
Couldnt agree more. Android offers amazing value at around 20k. Its the 30-60k range where it stops adding proportional value. I ran crdroid A11 on my poco m2 pro without gapps. The absence of play services made it fly. The performance at 12k was unmatchable. For someone who doesnt need upi apps and has some time to tinker (since most roms dont support ota updates), custom roms are awesome.
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Yep above 30k android phones aren't very good. The recent SD offerings like SD888 haven't been very good, also SD 8 Gen 1 isn't showing much promise in efficiency department.
In recent years Samsung has upped their software game but still are overpriced for what they offer.
We need new players to revolutionize the 30k-40k bracket. Or we need iphones to dip in price. Both seem unlikely :(
 
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Honestly OnePlus isn't the brand to go to as of the moment. The news surrounding Nord 2 blasting and the general lack of user support after two years isn't goo. I have a OP 6 and since then nothing game changing has been released than the run of the mill stuff you can see on other Phones as well. They have lost their creative edge and Day by day becoming a generic brand.
 
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SamuraiGaming said:
Honestly OnePlus isn't the brand to go to as of the moment. The news surrounding Nord 2 blasting and the general lack of user support after two years isn't goo. I have a OP 6 and since then nothing game changing has been released than the run of the mill stuff you can see on other Phones as well. They have lost their creative edge and Day by day becoming a generic brand.
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Android as a whole is currently very disappointing.(in flagship department)
 
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paraman said:
Motorola never update their phones.
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What are you even talking about dude ? I've been using motorola devices for almost 7-8 years now , they always receive updates for approximate ~ 3 years. Earlier maybe that was the case , but motorola has completely Revamped themselves , and personally would be getting the motorola edge 30 pro whenever it launches

DrkLord said:
Or we need iphones to dip in price. Both seem unlikely :(
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Iphones are actually much cheaper now comparatively to the last few years , on sales the XR which is still a good phone is available for as low as 27k with all added discounts , the battery life on that thing is amazing only downgrade I'd say is the screen is average since not an OLED. Talking about iphones being cheap , you can totally skip the current gen and always go for the last gen models , they have minimal upgrades either way
 
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