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The OnePlus 8T replaces the OnePlus 8 launched just six months ago, with a flatter, faster screen and blazingly fast charging.
The smartphone costs £ 549 or £ 649 depending on storage and falls between the mid-range OnePlus Nord £ 379 and the higher-end OnePlus 8 Pro £ 799.
The 8T’s design has more in common with the Nord than its predecessor or the 8 Pro, as it adopts a traditional flat screen rather than one that curves on the sides. The switch makes the phone 1.2mm wider than its predecessor despite having the same 6.55-inch screen.
The display also has a higher refresh rate at 120Hz versus 90Hz, matching the best in the business for smoothness, brightness, and color.
The sides of the device are aluminum and the back is glass. The green color variant has a new glass treatment that almost completely eliminates the annoyance of fingerprint smudges while staying shiny. The phone has a great OnePlus alert slider on the side, a good set of stereo speakers, and a USB-C port on the bottom, but it has no headphone jack and no official water resistance rating.
The 8T is on the big side of regular phones, but it’s fairly easy to grab. It comes with a plastic screen protector applied, plus a nice clear plastic case is also included in the box in Europe.
specs
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Screen: 6.55-inch 120Hz FHD + AMOLED (402ppi)
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Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
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RAM: 8 or 12 GB of RAM
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Storage: 128 or 256 GB (UFS 3.1)
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Operating system: OxygenOS 11 based on Android 11
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Camera: four rear cameras: 48MP, 16MP ultra wide angle, 5MP macro, 2MP monochrome; 16 MP front camera
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Connectivity: 5G, dual sim, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.1 (aptX / HD. LDAC, AAC) and location
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Waterproof: no official rating
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Dimensions: 160.7 x 74.1 x 8.4 mm
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Weight: 188g
Superior performance, super fast loading
The 8T has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor as its predecessor and 8 or 12GB of RAM, depending on how much storage you choose. It is 5G enabled and supports two SIM cards at the same time.
So the 8T runs as fast and as fast as the previous 8 and current 8 Pro; the latter also has the same chip. That means it is one of the fastest devices on the market.
The 8T has a new battery and charging system design. Instead of having one battery inside the phone, you have two that work together. For recharging, that means both can charge at the same time for a higher charge rate.
The batteries last just under 33 hours between charges, which is about the same as its predecessor, starting at 7 a.m. M. From the first day until 4 p.m. M. From the second day with the screen set to 120 Hz. During the test, the phone was on 5G for two hours and the rest of the time it was on wifi. You’ll get more time with 5G and 120Hz display mode off.
The new WarpCharge 65 system will fully charge the phone in just 37 minutes (two minutes faster than OnePlus states), which beats pretty much everything else. That’s a full charge in 28 minutes faster than the phone’s predecessor, which was already charging really fast. Reach 50% in 14 minutes.
If charged via a third-party USB-C charger, instead of the included 65W charger and cable, the phone will charge at speeds of up to 27W, which is still faster than most competitors who are limited at 18-24 W. To keep everything safe, the phone has 11 temperature sensors plus one on the charger to make sure nothing overheats while charging at the fastest speeds, although the phone stays surprisingly cool. No wireless charging available.
The OnePlus charger can also charge other devices at 45W. Supports the latest USB Power Delivery Programmable Power Supply (PPS) standard, which is required by some tablets, computers, and smartphones for fast charging, including those from Samsung. PPS-enabled chargers are quite rare and expensive, so it’s great to see one included here, and it eliminates the need for another charger for other devices.
Sustainability
OnePlus rates the 8T battery for 800 full charge cycles up to 80% capacity, better than the typical 500 cycles for other rechargeable batteries. Battery longevity is also aided by an optimized charging system that delays full charges overnight until closer to when you wake up so as not to keep the battery stuck at 100% for extended periods. The battery can be replaced for £ 18 excluding VAT and labor, and OnePlus can usually repair the smartphone in the UK, and the screen costs £ 130.50 excluding VAT and labor to replace.
The firm offers a trade-in program for its own phones and rivals’ models. He did not comment on the use of recycled materials on his smartphones.
OxygenOS 11
OxygenOS 11 is the company’s custom version of Android 11, which in this case is a slight deviation in design from previous versions of OxygenOS.
You get the standard Android 11 changes, including improved media controls, faster access to smart home devices, and Google Pay via a power button menu, and improved messaging app notification controls.
But what’s new about OnePlus is a quick access dark mode and ambient display mode, which places notifications, time, and music playback information on the phone’s screen while it’s not in use. It’s a feature that most rival manufacturers have had for some time, but it performs very well here.
Also new is an attempt to make using a large phone with one hand a bit easier, mirroring Samsung’s One UI design, which places the parts of the apps you interact with closer to the bottom. the screen and the information you don’t have to do. tap towards the top of the screen.
Overall, OxygenOS 11 is still one of the most refined and stylish versions of Android available, with plenty of customization options, but minimal bloat and fast performance.
OnePlus offers software support for at least three years from launch, including two years of Android version updates and then another year of security updates on a bi-monthly schedule. Updates to new versions of Android are also quite fast after the Google launch.
Camera
The 8T has the same 48-megapixel main camera and 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera as its predecessor, plus a new 5-megapixel macro camera and 2-megapixel monochrome camera. However, there is no telephoto zoom camera.
The main and ultra-wide cameras work very similarly to the OnePlus 8, producing excellent standard photos in good to medium light, with automatic HDR where high-contrast scenes need to be handled well. What’s new is an automatic Nightscape mode that kicks in when shooting in low light for better photos.
The 5MP macro camera is an improvement over the really poor 2MP version on the OnePlus 8, but I still got sharper images using the main camera and zooming in a bit.
The 2MP monochrome camera doesn’t shoot images directly. Instead, it is used as a color sensor for the main camera by applying a monochrome filter through hardware rather than pure software. The results are better than a software filter and fun to play with, but the images aren’t quite as sharp as you’d get with a 20MP full monochrome camera on competitors in the past.
The 16MP front camera has fixed focus but is really good, producing very detailed and well balanced images in good and medium light, and a reasonable portrait mode is also available.
Observations
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Haptic vibrations are excellent – short, sharp, and powerful.
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The alarm app can wake the phone completely off as long as it still has battery power in the morning.
Price
The OnePlus 8T comes in two versions in the UK. The silver version with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage costs £ 549 and the green version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage costs £ 699.
For comparison, the OnePlus 8 Pro is priced at £ 799, the OnePlus Nord is £ 379, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is £ 1,179, the iPhone 11 is £ 729 and the Fairphone 3+ is £ 425.
Verdict
The OnePlus 8T is another excellent phone, very well priced and with the best specifications of the Chinese smartphone brand.
It has a large 120Hz screen, good build, attractive design, best performance, good battery life, 5G, dual-sim, and a good set of cameras. But it’s the blazing-fast loading that really changes the game. A full charge in 37 minutes means you don’t have to worry about battery life, and you can even turn it off overnight.
Not perfect.The lack of a telephoto camera is disappointing, as it does not have an official water resistance rating and only receives three years of software updates. It’s not really an upgrade from its predecessor, the OnePlus April 8, either, but at £ 549 it’s at least £ 50 cheaper at launch.
The OnePlus 8T is a top-notch phone for its price – it undercuts much of the established competition, making it all the more reason not to spend more than £ 600 on a phone.
Pros: great screen, high performance, good battery life, incredibly fast charging, good camera, excellent software, alert slider, top-notch build, 5G, dual-sim, super-fast in-screen fingerprint scanner.
Cons: no headphone jack, no telephoto camera, no formal IP rating, only three years of software updates, no wireless charging.
