Over the last week, I've been revisiting the older OnePlus 6T in the wake of using the 7 Pro as my daily driver for some months. While there are still things about the older phone that I enjoy (and frankly prefer, like the smaller size), I just can't recommend the phone anymore at its current $550 price. OnePlus needs to bring that price down closer to or under $500.You might remember back to the OnePlus 7 Pro launch. At the event, the company revealed that it would continue selling the 6T in the US (seemingly in place of the non-"Pro" OnePlus 7), but at a discount. The cheaper 6GB/128GB version was dropped from the company's virtual shelves, so that meant a 6T still basically cost you the same price at $550, you just got a spec bump for waiting.

At the time, that seemed like an okay value — clearly not as much of a steal as the 6T was at launch, but you got a bit more for the same price. Unfortunately for OnePlus, summer changes everything. Sales start in earnest once the temperatures begin to rise, and we've seen substantial standing discounts on 2018-era phones that push the 6T's metaphorical value meter down to "poor."

The OnePlus 6T's specs aren't bad in 2019. When it comes to anecdotal speed, I think you'd have a tough time telling the difference between it and most newer devices, even if the latest flagships pack in higher-end specs and upgraded chipsets. You definitely will notice the difference in camera performance — OnePlus seriously stepped things up when it came to the 7 Pro, and every other high-end device in the last year will beat it — but price and value are always major moderating factors, and it doesn't have that edge anymore.

Right now over on Amazon, you can pick up a Galaxy S9 with the same chipset as the OnePlus 6T and a better camera, all for $100 less at just 0. For the same price as a OnePlus 6T, you can get the bigger Galaxy S9+, or even a brand-new Galaxy S10e — that's a 2019-era flagship with 2019-era specs. Even the Pixel 3 and 3 XL have occasionally fallen under the 6T's price during summer sales, and as of now the smaller phone is just more.

With this much competition, the 6T's value advantage is eliminated. While Oxygen OS provides a really nice software experience, and the 6T still feels more than fast by 2019's standards, the simple fact is that right now spending $550 for a OnePlus 6T means paying more for objectively less.

Without another price drop, we just can't recommend the OnePlus 6T any longer.