OnePlus has this tradition of bringing out a ‘T’ version of its phone. After all, how boring would it be to have just one phone for the whole year while other phone makers grabbed all the new tech.
So right on cue, or rather, a little early in the day, OnePlus released the OnePlus 7T for a price of Rs 37,999ava. For now, this new device sits between the top-end OnePlus 7 Pro (Rs 48,999 for 6GB RAM 128GB storage, Rs 52,999 for 8GB RAM 256GB storage, Rs 57,999 for 12GB RAM 256GB storage) and the regular OnePlus 7 for Rs 32,999.
That’s a lot of OnePluses to confuse us and who knows whether there’ll be more coming but it also means more choice.
A bit strangely, the new OnePlus 7T has a feature or two that tops the top-of-the-line OnePlus 7 Pro, making the choice a little more confusing. It’s a bit of an odd one out as gives the impression of being heftier and not quite as sleek and slim as the other OnePlus devices, but in fact, it’s really the same form factor except for a very prominent circular camera assembly of three lenses and a flash sitting proudly in the centre at the back of the device.
Obviously some prefer a quiet looking set of cameras but personally I like the look of prominent cameras as they give me the feeling photography on the device is bound to be good.
The back of the OnePlus 7T is smooth glass, very much like the OnePlus 7 Pro and almost like its Nebula Blue but lighter in a shade the company calls Glacier Blue. Another colour variant is Frosted Silver. It doesn’t show finger smudges half as much as glossy glass does. But you’ll need a case, if nothing else but to protect the camera lenses a bit more though OnePlus has looked into that with the glass protection for it and also put a metallic rim around it so it doesn’t touch a surface directly. Once you put it into a case, a slim one like the sandstone case, for example, the cameras recede into the protection of the case. With all three from the 7 series sitting in front of me in the same type of case, I find them looking about as good as each other.
Fast fluid display
One coveted feature the OnePlus 7T has is the most talked about 90Hz refresh rate on the 6.5 AMOLED HDR10+ screen of the OnePlus 7 Pro. This is now apparently to come to all future OnePlus phones. The upcoming Pixel 4 may also have it, if rumour is to be believed. The high refresh rate means that everything is faster and smoother. To many, it really makes no difference for phones that are so fast in any case, but OnePlus devices are a favourite with the tech savvy, and so it happens to be a really popular feature. The 7T actually has a lower resolution than the 7 Pro’s screen. That’s 1440x3120 while the 7T is 1080x2400, but it’s really not that noticeable.
The OnePlus 7T’s screen has a negligible notch which soon stopped annoying me. This means it lacks the pop up camera from the 7 Pro, but that’s not difficult to live with as I find pop-ups can get a bit distracting with their popping up. The screen also is thankfully flat and not curved into the sides like the 7 Pro’s and this is something I find quite universally welcomed. A curved screen doesn’t do that much for viewing pleasure while it leads to countless accidental touches sending these very fast phones doing something you never intended them to before you can think of stopping them.
Packed with specs
Another thing the OnePlus 7T has over the 7 Pro is a faster, more advanced processor, the Snapdragon 855 Plus. With that you get 8GB of RAM - while the 7 Pro goes up to 12GB - and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. It also doesn’t lack other specs either such as the faster UFS 3.0 storage which means faster working with saving files.
It also comes with Android 10 to begin with and even beats the Pixel 4 on that front. Other phones running the newest version of Android are using beta versions for now, awaiting updates. OnePlus has also refreshed its OxygenOS to level 10 bringing a few new features and refinements. One of these is an upcoming feature that will classify SMS messages for better handling. A special chromatic reading mode for instance is really nice and makes the screen really comfortable to use. Yet another advantage on the 7T is its faster charging which OnePlus calls Warp Charge 30T. This charges the phone 18% faster than already fast charging OnePlus phones, notching up its 3,800mAh battery to 70% charge in just half an hour.
The OnePlus 7T has three cameras, not just two like the OnePlus 7. In addition it has the ability shoot macro from about an inch away from the subject. If the light is good, it does this quite nicely.
In the end, the OnePlus camera, as is evident on the 7T, has come a long way and though it isn’t quite as good as the top few, the gap is no longer that huge.
The main camera on the 7T is a 48MP with an f/1.6 aperture and optical image stabilisation which does a really good job when shooting video. We took it for a bumpy ride and found every jerk smoothened out very nicely on playback. The 12MP telephoto lens leads to 2X zoom (not 3X as on the 7 Pro) and performs adequately with an f/2.2 aperture. The 16MP ultra wide angle lens is going to be enjoyable for most people. It has a 117 degree field of view. There’s pretty nice night mode.
- Price: Rs 37.999 for 8GB 128GB, Rs 39,999 for 8GB 256GB
- Pros: Fast and future proof, zero lag screen, macro lens a nice addition to the three cameras, excellent software experience, very fast charging, more improvements coming with software updates
- Cons: Nothing in particular at the price