Editor's take: The OnePlus 7T is an extremely capable handset with a large 90Hz display. It was a great deal when it dropped to $449 and we picked it as a best value smartphone, but now at $399, it's much better than the Pixel 4a or iPhone SE if you favor performance and display size and quality over anything else.
For $400 you can pick the Apple iPhone SE which is a solid phone, but it's on the smaller side and comes with a somewhat outdated design. Similarly, Google's Pixel 4a is attractive at $350, but it's still a budget-oriented phone, as are many other Android alternatives in the $300-400 range. Instead you may opt for the OnePlus 7T which used to be a top value choice when it was released about a year ago for $600.
Now available for just $399 (B&H Photo, $429 on Amazon), that price gets you a phone with a large 6.55-inch AMOLED screen and 90Hz refresh rate that is usually reserved for premium handsets. The OnePlus design is modern and well executed, showing a small teardrop notch for the front-facing camera with minimal bezels.
There's a fast processor inside (Snapdragon 855 Plus, 8GB RAM) running OxygenOS, a modified version of Android 10 that is praised by owners as it's very close to stock Android with some useful additions. The OnePlus 7T gets a main 48-megapixel camera with OIS and two more 12MP telephoto and 16MP ultra-wide lens on the back. In the front, a 16MP front facing camera. So you get all the array of options, however most critics agree that photos are not nearly as good as those taken by top iPhones, Huawei and Google phones.
The in-screen fingerprint reader is excellent, you get 128 GB internal storage, but no option to expand it. The OnePlus 7T lacks wireless charging, water resistance, and a headphone jack. But there's a reason why this was regularly voted one of the best smartphones of 2019 and it's found a new breath of life at $399.