OnePlus 7T 256GB  +1 variation

Design

• Excellent, premium, 'dreamy' new design, with high quality materials and top-notch build quality - the frosted glass at the back just adds a new dimension to not just the visual appeal but also the in-hand feel
• The front has a smaller teardrop notch than the OnePlus 7
• A bit smaller than the OnePlus 7 Pro and slightly easier to hold (it's still on the large side though on absolute scale, so if you don't like big phones, you might want to reconsider)
• Basic water resistance (though it's not IP rated)
• Snappy in-display fingerprint scanner
• The camera bump at the back may be an eyesore for some (it's subjective though)

Display

• Gorgeous, super smooth 90Hz AMOLED display - along with the display on the OnePlus 7 Pro, this is one of the most amazing displays out there on any smartphone - you will enjoy how much zippier and smoother the phone feels scrolling through things like web pages and apps
• Strong brightness and great sunlight legibility
• This time it's also a flat screen without the curved edges of the OnePlus 7 Pro - while that makes it look perhaps less stunning, it's a more practical design from a usability point of view

Software

• OnePlus continues to have one of the most refined, butter-smooth, minimalistic (nearly stock), yet very useful Android skins, with some handy off-screen gestures, smart customization options, an excellent and improved 'Reading' mode, and Zen Mode to control your phone usage - the excellent software experience remains one of the primary reasons to consider a OnePlus phone

Performance

• Breakneck speeds with the new Snapdragon 855 Plus (which is supposed to be about 15% faster than 855 with graphics), and fast UFS 3.0 storage
• Playing graphic-intensive games is smooth, and the phone is lightning quick at launching and quitting apps, surfing the web and taking photos

Camera

• Good, versatile, triple rear camera setup, almost identical to the OnePlus 7 Pro - the only significant difference is that the telephoto lens, while packing more pixels (12MP vs 8MP on the 7 Pro), lacks OIS, and has up only to 2x zoom (instead of 3x on the 7 Pro)
• What that means is that picture & video quality is also very similar to the OnePlus 7 Pro - in daylight, the photos are clear, bright and vibrant with some very good HDR rendering - in low light too, the performance is more than decent, and the Night mode helps with that
• The wide-angle camera takes bright and sharp landscape photos, and the pictures don't show much warping around the corners, as wide-angle cameras tend to do
• The new macro mode is good too - allowing you to take pictures of objects closer and with much more in focus than before
• Portrait shots are also great - the fallout between the foreground and background looks smooth and natural, and you can now take portrait photos with the wide-angle camera as well
• The 16MP front camera is good too - again similar to the 16MP front camera on the OnePlus 7 Pro
• It's a very competent camera setup for the price, but again it's not quite up to the level of the most expensive flagships like the Galaxy S10 series, Galaxy Note 10 series, Pixel 3 series, or the iPhone 11 series

Audio

• Uses its earpiece as a speaker, which gives the OP7T an excellent stereo audio setup - it's even slightly louder than the 7 Pro - and one of the best stereo audio setups on a current smartphone
• No included earbuds or a 3.5mm headphone adapter

Battery

• Good battery life with a 3800mAh battery, and a 1080p screen - you will comfortably get a day's use, even with the 90Hz display
• Amazingly fast charging with the new Warp Charge 30T technology - it charges to 34% in 15 min, and 68% in 30 min

Verdict

• On the whole, the OnePlus 7T is an excellent, top-grade addition to OnePlus' tradition of providing top-grade flagship devices at surprisingly reasonable prices - arguably its best value device in recent times - it's again the new 'budget flagship' to beat - near perfect
• Between this and the OnePlus 7 Pro, it will be mostly down to whether you value the curved screen and the pop-up selfie camera enough to pay the extra moolah - for most people, the OnePlus 7T will be the more sensible value choice
• If you want to look at even lesser expensive budget flagships though, you do have some strong options now - the two best value ones would be the Asus 6Z, and the Redmi K20 Pro - though you will be missing out on the super smooth 90Hz display and the great software experience of OxygenOS