So, we have a bit of a problem here. We were in London for the rather large OnePlus 7T Series yesterday. It was, without doubt, the biggest OnePlus launch we’ve ever been to. Again, and I’ll be honest, the problems Huawei are currently experiencing mean that the competition can smell blood. OnePlus are definitely in that pack and are pushing hard.
OnePlus are heavy on community engagement, and there was a sizeable crowd of fans and followers who had paid to attend and get their hands on with the new OnePlus 7T, the 7T Pro and the McLaren model.
But that problem, and one I mentioned to good friend Dan, is that I actually preferred this supposedly “lower end” model over the 7T Pro model. This, the 7T, looks great with the rear circular lens housing and only costs £549.
For your money you get 8GB of RAM, 128GB storage and it’s available to buy on October 17th with pop-up events showing the phone off before that. Oh, and UK network Three will be picking this and the 7T Pro up. Prices with them will be £29 upfront and £46 per month for this 7T and £29 upfront plus £53 per month for the OnePlus 7T Pro. That’ll get you unlimited calls, texts and data on a 24 month contract. You can also buy the phone from OnePlus.com, Amazon and John Lewis.
The big focus was that 90 Hz display. With such a high refresh, it means that you don’t see any judder – everything is silky smooth. Imagine watching those cheap old cartoons (I remember Transformers) where the animation was about 1 frame a second. It was terrible, but here OnePlus have added some crazy Disney-style gloss to everything. It makes images and video as slick as a pebble on a frozen pond.
The screen, covered by Corning Gorilla 3D Glass, is big – a 6.55″ 2400×1080 AMOLED unit (402PPI) with a 1,000 nit brightness and less blue light than before so that your eyes aren’t harmed as much. The 20:9 aspect ratio makes that 6.55″ panel manageable and they’ve tweaked the new OxygenOS so that there’s better animations and a responsive visual experience. This all sits on Android 10, which you’ll have out of the box without needing to upgrade. The screen also includes HDR10+ for excellent playback quality on apps like YouTube, Netflix and so on. In the middle, near the bottom, is an on-screen fingerprint reader which can unlock in as little as 0.21 seconds.
So, those cameras – and the examples we saw here were brilliant. We’ve added some shots below from the 7T Pro but the camera setup is broadly the same between the two handsets other that an extra bit of zoom action.
The OIS and EIS stabilisation worked well when it was shown to us, and the ultra-wide angle lens really added a new dimension to photos. The main shooter is a Sony 48 megapixel lens (7P with f/1.6 aperture), then there’s a 12 megapixel telephoto lens (f/2.2) and the ultra-wide 16 megapixel lens. These are all helped with a 2x optical zoom and dual LED flash. It’ll also film in the wide-angle lens and you can do 4K plus Super Slow Mo footage.
Lots of extra camera goodness has been added, including Nightscape, a Pro Mode, Panorama, HDR and an AI Scene Detection too.
Up front, another camera – this is the 16 megapixel fixed-focus Sony cam which also adds Face Unlock, HDR and “Face Retouching”. This is in a notch at the top – something the 7T Pro doesn’t have (more on that in a moment).
Under the hood, a very powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 + (Octa-core, 7nm, up to 2.96 GHz) with an Adreno 640 GPU. It’s all kept ticking along thanks to rapid charging with OnePlus WarpCharge 30T – a system which is 23% better than the previous WarpCharge 30 – and we thought that was good enough already! Here you’ll go from completely flat to a 70% charge in just 30 minutes, and the phone will remain cool throughout.
The battery is a 3800mAh unit and you get all the usual GPS, Bluetooth 5.0 (aptX & aptX HD), USB-C charging, Dolby Atmos stereo, 4G and dual-band WiFi.
Yes, there’s NFC but no, there’s no wireless charging. At this rather excellent price-point I think we can forgive that.
What did I think? Well, it’s gorgeous to hold and yes – even when I turned the screen off the insanely-bright “demo mode” – it was still gorgeous. The screen was just wonderful – like putting your finger on water in a way, and that camera arrangement did brilliantly well.
The soft, brushed finish and the two colours that OnePlus have gone with here are amazing to look at. You almost wanted to just sit there and stare at the back of the phone more. It’s an understated masterpiece. Quality and style in spades.
This is a terrific phone. This, I believe, will be a major turning point for the company. A well-priced device which is right up there with far more expensive phones. Amazing bit of kit. No microSD card though, but 128GB of storage should keep you going for a bit.
Price? £549. Head here for more details.