OnePlus 7T is here: 90 Hertz screen, fastest chip and triple camera at an incredible price (hands-on)
New features: The four big new features are the addition of a 90-hertz, high-refresh rate screen, a triple camera, a slightly faster chip and a battery that charges up to 50% in just 20 minutes.
Price and Release: We expect the OnePlus 7T to cost slightly more than $550 and it will be released in the United States and India first.
The OnePlus 7T is here and it might just be the best mid-range phone out there.
While it costs nearly half the price of flagship phones like the Galaxy Note series and the Apple iPhones, it is the first phone we see running Android 10, it has the fastest chip available for Android phones, the Snapdragon 855+, and it features a beautiful 90-Hertz, high-refresh rate AMOLED screen.
We have already spent some time with the OnePlus 7T, taking photos and running various tests, and this is our hands-on look.
But first, here is what’s inside the box:
- OnePlus 7T
- See-through silicone case
- Warp 30T wall charger
- Standard USB to USB-C cable (red)
- SIM tool
- OnePlus stickers
- User manual
Display: 90-hertz on an affordable phone? Yes!
The screen measures 6.55″ in size, it’s what OnePlus calls Fluid AMOLED and it’s a bit taller than on earlier OnePlus phones with an aspect ratio of 20:9.
Unlike the 7 Pro, this here screen is not curved, it’s completely flat yet still it has minimal bezels. Many people, us included, find flat screens a bit easier to work with and we’re glad that’s what OnePlus went for.
The screen also supports HDR10+, and it features a very high peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits which makes it easier to see outdoors. Oh and did we mention this: the teardrop notch is now 30% smaller than on the OnePlus 7.
Snapdragon 855+
Under the hood, the OnePlus 7T is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ chip. The main benefit of that chip over the popular Snapdragon 855 is a 15% boost in graphics performance. This boost will be especially appreciated by gamers, but also the whole 90-hertz experience is helped by that. The chip will run alongside 8GB of RAM, which is again is flagship-level.
The 7T will be sold in either 128GB (most markets) or 256GB (some markets) versions, and it does not support microSD cards for memory expansion. This storage is of the new UFS 3.0 type, a much faster kind of storage with higher read and write speeds. OnePlus was the first to introduce this storage on the 7 Pro this summer, and it’s now bringing the feature to the lower-priced 7T.
Faster charging
Another key advantage for OnePlus users is the company’s unique Warp charging technology. While other fast charging solutions slow down when you use your phone while charging, Warp Charge maintains the high charging speeds and it also does a great job preventing your phone from overheating when charging. Here, the battery chemistry has been tweaked slightly, so you get slightly faster speeds, and now you get to 50% charge in just 20 minutes, faster than the half an hour this used to take earlier. Since the change is only in the battery of the phone, you can also use a charger from the previous 7/7Pro models and still get the speed boost.
First phone with Android 10
OnePlus is not only fast to bring updates, it’s also first to deliver devices with new software
Android 10 on the phone runs in a customized form that OnePlus calls OxygenOS. The main changes revolve around dark mode and the new gesture navigation that now uses a gesture from the side to go back, a welcome change from the cramped gesture in previous OnePlus phones where you had to swipe from the bottom edges of the phone to go back a step.
There are a few new features in this latest version of Oxygen OS:
- The Alwas On Display now has more customization options and thanks to machine learning it knows better when to show up
- Zen mode which blocks unimportant notifications and lets you get a break from your phone can be set for more than the initial 20 minute allowance
- When in landscape mode, you can now swipe from the bottom of the screen to go back with a gesture, rather than from the side
- Reading Mode now has an option to show muted color rather than just black and white
A Better Camera
A powerful triple camera system with incredible stabilization in video
The OnePlus 7T comes equipped with three cameras on the back, now arranged in a circle that sticks out slightly out the back. You have the following:
- 48MP main camera, f/1.6 aperture, 26mm 7-element lens, with optical stabilization (OIS)
- 16MP ultra-wide camera, 17mm
- 12MP 2X telephoto zoom lens, f/2.2 aperture, 51mm
- 16MP fixed-focus front camera
See photos taken on OnePlus 7T here
But the best new feature might be the hugely improved video stabilization that allows you to get nearly gimbal-like recordings out of your camera.
Attention to Detail
There are a few small, but still very impressive things that you have on the 7T: our favorite is the new haptic motor (which is bigger than before, but not quite as big as on the 7 Pro). It feels very sharp and gives off a very nice vibration, and will be hugely appreciated in daily use, but also in gaming.
And the mute switch is still here and you can set it to mute the phone, switch it to vibrate mode, or have it ringing.
Price and Release date
The OnePlus 7T is coming in two colors: we have the Glacier Blue which is a very nice shade of blue (lighter than earlier OnePlus phones, we would call it PhoneArena blue as it’s close to our signature tones) and Frost Silver.
It is first coming to the United States and India, but later on it will arrive to select European countries as well.
The price of the OnePlus 7T starts from $599 in the United States, and it will be available on T-Mobile, as well as on d OnePlus.com starting October 18th.