OnePlus 7T: A top performer

The recently launched OnePlus 7T does not get a major upgrade over the OnePlus 7 Pro launched earlier this year. But then, it is still the high-performance smartphone and potent flagship killer.

The first major difference is the upgrade from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 to the 855 Plus in the 8 GB RAM and 256 GB (UFS 3.0) storage version that we tested.

While the 7 Pro has a pop-up selfie camera, the 7T has a neatly placed teardrop notch front 16-megapixel shooter. Apart from these, the only difference is the horizontal three-lens main camera setup.

Thirdly, the charging time is faster by 23%, the company says.

Design and build quality

OnePlus have consistently brought out stunning looking sets and this is no different. The front and back are Gorilla Glass clad and the frame is made of aluminium. The top of the phone has just the microphone.

The right side has the ring-vibrate-silent mode slider switch and this is a great feature to have on a smartphone as it allows the user to quickly change from ring to silent mode without having to go into the settings.

Apart from this, the power button is on the right side.

The bottom has the speaker, Type-C charging/ earphone port, a microphone and the SIM tray.The left side has the volume rocker button.

The front, apart from the selfie camera, features an in-display fingerprint sensor. However, unlike the 7 Pro that we reviewed, the display is not seen on the curved part. There is a black frame on the front, which also has the front-firing speaker that is barely noticeable.

The rear has the three camera lenses and an LED flash. The Glacier Blue set that we reviewed looks very nice. . Overall, the design is very nice.

Display

The OnePlus 7T has a 6.55-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400x1080 pixels, a density of 402 PPI and an aspect ratio of 20:9. This is lesser than the resolution of the 7 Pro (3120x1440 pixels, 516 PPI) but the 7T’s display did not feel inferior and still performed very well. Viewing 4K video clips was a great experience. It also gets the 90 Hz refresh rate screen and can be switched to 60 Hz.

It has the Oxygen OS based on Android 10 and navigating is easy. One interesting feature OnePlus has added is the on-screen line almost across the entire bottom width. A flick from the bottom bezel upwards takes the user back to the home screen (gesture feature) and the three bottom on-screen buttons have been done away with.

Performance

The main processing power comes from the octa-core, 7 nm, 2.96 GHz maximum clock speed with Qualcomm AI Engine. The GPU is Adreno 640.

The 855 Plus chipset and 8 GB RAM is a rather powerful combination and an overkill for light users, mostly those who use a smartphone for email, YouTube, WhatsApp and other commonly used apps.

Having said that, the processing power comes to use while playing games like Asphalt 9. And it is expected of this chipset too.
The main triple and selfie cameras perform extremely well. The colours look great and more than that, the detail captured is extremely good. Moreover, the bokeh is good and makes the subject stand out.

Battery and charging

The charging time of the 3800 mAh battery has been reduced with the Warp Charge 30T. In our test, the battery did charge up to 74% in 30 minutes and a full charge took 54 minutes. In real-world usage, a full charge will keep the phone going for almost two days with light usage.

In conclusion

For a handset that costs Rs 39,999 (8 GB+256 GB), the 7T is value for money and lives up to the hype. So, this is a set we would recommend.