Black Sheep: why it took so long to get OnePlus 3T in Midnight Black

The Midnight Black color option of the OnePlus 3T seems new, it’s barely over a week old, if you count the colette limited edition. However, the behind-the-scene video tells a very different story - Black was the original color of the OnePlus 3.

It goes back to the beginning - the OnePlus One and its signature Sandstone Black. Its successor also featured Sandstone, but OnePlus heard a growing voice in the community that asked for an aluminum body. In a poll, aluminum outweighed Sandstone.

And so the design team set out to make a black aluminum OnePlus 3. Unfortunately, yield proved low as getting a perfect black was tricky. Especially matte black, since the designers did not want a fingerprint mess that glossy black backs inevitably become. Even Midnight Black features an anti-fingerprint coating.

Currently, only 600 Gunmetal bodies out of 1,000 produced pass inspection but the numbers were much worse for the black model - 400 out of 1,000. It took over a year to get the manufacturing process of black metal bodies to where OnePlus needed them (now Gunmetal and Midnight Black are on par).

Aside from the colette limited edition (250 units sold exclusively in one store in Paris), another batch of OnePlus 3T Midnight Black will be available from HBX.com. Pricing is identical to the 128GB model of Gunmetal and Soft Gold.

Sales start 12PM EST, there’s a countdown on the site so you don’t miss it. There are only 250 units available and you can’t buy more than one. Additional units should be available on OnePlus.net later on.

Via