More people lined up to buy a new $580 Android phone at T-Mobile's flagship store than the iPhone

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

• There was a larger line of people waiting to buy the new OnePlus 6T smartphone outside of T-Mobile's flagship Times Square store in New York City than there was for the new iPhones.
• The OnePlus 6T is the first OnePlus phone that is sold by a carrier in the US.
• T-Mobile is offering a trade-in deal where anyone can trade-in their eligible smartphones for a $300 credit towards the new $580 model of the OnePlus 6T.
• That means the OnePlus 6T could cost a mere $280 for those who took advantage of T-Mobile's trade-in deal.

At the OnePlus event on Monday, the company announced some big news: You'll be able to buy the new OnePlus 6T smartphone at a US carrier store.

If you're unfamiliar with OnePlus phones, the latest OnePlus 6T comes with high-end design, specs, and performance that costs under $600, compared to other top, similarly specced smartphones, which can cost above $800.

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Indeed, the OnePlus 6T is available to buy from T-Mobile stores nationwide and online starting November 1, making it the first smartphone from OnePlus that's sold in a US carrier store. It's a big deal for OnePlus to make its mark in the US market, as a smartphone's popularity usually relies almost entirely on whether or not it's available from a carrier.

OnePlus fans in and around New York City got a bit of a treat on Monday: they could buy the new $580 model of the OnePlus 6T at T-Mobile's flagship store in Times Square, three days before the smartphone's official release. And to top things off, T-Mobile offered prospective OnePlus buyers the option to trade in their old smartphone for a $300 credit towards the OnePlus 6T, a deal that will end in about a month.

With the trade-in deal, a smartphones user could snag the OnePlus 6T for $280. To be clear, it's possibly the best value in a smartphone in recent memory - and judging by the crowd of people outside T-Mobile's store at 5 p.m. on Monday, I certainly wasn't the only one who noticed.

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

The screen on the new OnePlus 6T.

'I've never seen anything like this'

On Monday, T-Mobile's flagship store in Times Square saw a larger crowd of people waiting to buy the OnePlus 6T than it did for the new iPhones, a T-Mobile employee told me at the store on Monday.

"I've never seen anything like this," the employee said.

The same goes for other Android phones from major companies like Samsung and LG, too.

Now, to be fair and accurate, new iPhones are available to buy from numerous Apple stores dotted around the city, as well as nearly every carrier store. It's safe to say that lines of people waiting to buy the new iPhones are diluted across several stores around the city. If the new iPhones were being sold at a single store like the OnePlus 6T was, it's likely that the city would need to shut down several blocks, perhaps even a district or two.

Still, a plucky smartphone company that's significantly smaller than Apple, as well as the biggest Android players like Samsung and LG, gave T-Mobile's flagship New York City store the biggest line in recent memory.

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

The back of the new OnePlus 6T.

The popularity of the brand is growing to the extent that budding content creators are starting dedicated YouTube channels to talk about OnePlus devices, much like the numerous brand-centric YouTubers that already exist for Apple and Samsung devices. Watch out for the "OnePlus Hype" YouTube channel when it launches, whose creator was waiting in line to buy the new devices.

Others in line skipped "optional" exams and work to get in line at the Times Square T-Mobile store, some of whom waited for three hours by the time I spoke with them at around 5:15 p.m. One man originally from India skipped classes at Northeastern University in Boston to travel to New York City to get the new OnePlus 6T. His professor supposedly understood.

One of those in line to buy the new OnePlus 6T was on vacation in New York City from Bogota, Colombia. One of checklist items for the Colombian traveler during her stay was to get the now-older OnePlus 6 because her boyfriend has the OnePlus 5T and she liked it, noting its comparatively low price tag as the main draw. "But then I heard that they launched the 6T," she told me, and the rest was history. By the time this post is published, she likely owns the latest OnePlus smartphone before the majority of OnePlus buyers. Her boyfriend was not in line as he was studying, she told me.

One man owned the most recent Google smartphone that was released just a few weeks ago, the Pixel 3, which isn't eligible for T-Mobile's trade-in offer. He was unphased about buying the OnePlus 6T for the full $580 asking price. For reference, the Pixel 3 costs a minimum of $800, at least $220 more than the OnePlus 6T at T-Mobile. He was accompanied by his fiancée, whom he had just proposed to hours earlier after the OnePlus keynote with the help of OnePlus representatives and OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei himself. She was wearing a hat with OnePlus' slogan "Never Settle," which seemed appropriate.

Another man who's on the Verizon network was accompanying his friends in line and said he's finally able to buy a OnePlus phone now that the OnePlus 6T is compatible with Verizon's network. It wasn't clear if he was switching to T-Mobile to buy the new OnePlus 6T, but he said that he's always wanted a OnePlus phone and couldn't buy one in the past because previous OnePlus phones weren't compatible with Verizon's network.

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

OnePlus founder Pete Lau takes selfies with fans at the Times Square T-Mobile store.

Overall, those in line referenced the quality, software, design, feature-set, and high-end specs for the comparatively low price of OnePlus devices as the main driving factors behind their OnePlus fandom.

But the one single element that nearly everyone mentioned was "community." OnePlus fans seemingly have a closer connection with the company behind their mobile device, possibly the most important device in their day-to-day lives. There's constant communication between OnePlus and its fans, with tweets and blog posts often addressing fans as "friends."