Friends+Design
- Gorgeous, more practical design - the new glossy Aquamarine Green finish shifts from a warm green to turquoise based on the ambient lighting - there’s the Lunar Silver variant which uses the matte finish
- OnePlus 8T does away with its curved display and adds a flat screen at the front this time - there's also a hole-punch selfie camera
- OnePlus’s handy alert slider is still here, which enables you to quickly switch between silent, vibrate and sound-on modes
- The in-display fingerprint reader is quite accurate and works quickly
Display
- A gorgeous 6.55-inch, FHD+ screen, motion is smooth, colours are vibrant, and the resolution is sufficiently high
- 120 Hz refresh rate means smooth scrolling in apps, and better fluidity, which provides an overall premium experience
Software
- OxygenOS continues to be one of the most thoughtfully-designed, clean UIs for Android with a host of additional customisation
Performance
- Blistering performance from the Qualcomm's top-of-the-line Snapdragon 865 chipset - with its 120Hz display, highly-optimised OxygenOS software, and plenty of under-the-hood tweaks, the OnePlus 8T feels crazy fast
Camera
- Good quad rear camera setup - a 48MP primary sensor, a 16MP ultra-wide, a 5MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor
- During the day, main camera captures good detail, colours are really punchy and vibrant, the dynamic range is impressive and white balance appears to be accurate
- The ultra-wide unit also performs well and adds a fun new perspective - it produces softer images compared to the main cam but it retains the excellent dynamic range
- Low-light photos are decent and the Night mode further helps in improving the image quality - it reduces the noise, brings even more detail out of the shadows and highlights - it's also probably the fastest night mode in any phone
- The macro pictures are decent - the resolved detail is great, and the images are vibrant (though there's no autofocus, it is difficult to take an accurate photo)
- The portrait mode is good - the faux bokeh effect seems pretty well-executed, it delivers a good amount of detail, the images look generally sharp, colours pop while retaining pretty natural and accurate skin tone
- The selfie camera is excellent, producing sharp, colourful pictures - the selfie portrait mode looks just as good as with the main camera, the edge detection is surprisingly accurate
- Good video recording - video looks nice colour-wise, and offers wide dynamic range, good contrast and no noise - the Super Stable video mode gives you gimbal-like stabilisation
- The lack of a telephoto camera is disappointing - the crop zoom isn't nearly as good as the proper 2x telephoto, the images lack detail, are soft, fuzzy and noisy
- Overall, the cameras on the OnePlus 8T are very similar to the 8, there are some software improvements but nothing game changing and they aren't the best
Audio
- Excellent stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, providing richer, deeper sound
Battery
- Good battery life with the 4500 mAh battery - it will comfortably last a full day on a single charge with moderate use
- Crazy fast charging - the Warp Charge 65 can fully top up the phone in just under 40 mins
Verdict
- OnePlus 8T adds a bunch of smaller improvements across the board - its strong points are once again the display, software experience and performance (though, if it had a more reliable camera, it would have been a near-perfect smartphone)
- However, if you’re looking for a phone in this segment that offers a great camera, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is worth checking out - if you'd like to save some money, the slightly cheaper OnePlus 8 offers much the same experience with a sleeker design that is more recognizable
