As the saying goes, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” While the villain is a strong word, OnePlus has definitely become something it was once set out to kill. Started as a “flagship killer”, the latest iteration of OnePlus comes with a starting price of Rs 53,999.
OnePlus 7T Pro
What Is Good?
- Swanky design
- Fluid user experience
- Brilliant OLED display with 90 Hz refresh rate
- Excellent gaming performance
- Water and dust resistance
What Is Bad?
- Too big for one-handed use
- Lacks a 3.5 mm headphone jack
- Doesn't ship with earphones
- A few niggling bugs
- Camera is underwhelming
For the price, the OnePlus 7T Pro offers top-notch Snapdragon 855+ chip, 90 Hz AMOLED display, a triple camera setup, and 30 W quick charge support. On top of that, the handset is quite a looker. But, does it still hold an edge over other more expensive handsets like it did in the past?
[P_REVIEW post_id=170889 visual=’full’]
Design And Build Quality
The OnePlus 7T Pro looks exactly like the OnePlus 7 Pro. It is boring when the manufacturers don’t bother to refresh the design. But, looking at the OnePlus 7T with a big ugly circle on its back, I’m glad that OnePlus has gone back to tried-tested design. While the OnePlus 7T Pro may not win any points for a fresh look, it is definitely a charmer. I have a thing for blue and OnePlus couldn’t have chosen a better shade of it. The company has nailed it with the frosty glass finish. It strikes the right balance between style and elegance.
The phone’s impressive design is complemented by its top-notch build quality. The OnePlus 7T Pro can give Apple and Samsung a run or their money on any day. The way front and back glass curves around the edge on this handset are elegant. The sturdy pop-up selfie camera instils confidence in the mechanized solution. OnePlus has even implemented a fall detection system that retracts the selfie camera before the phone hits the ground.
While some premium handsets have switched to bone conductive display glass tech to achieve thin bezels, OnePlus has opted for a simpler solution. It has cleverly moved the conventional earpiece where the display glass and metal frame meet. You don’t even realize it is there until you deliberately look for it. The phone is water and dust resistant. However, OnePlus hasn’t got it rated for Ingress Protection.
Display
Much like the design, the display of the OnePlus 7T Pro is exactly like that of the 7 Pro. It is a 6.67-inch AMOLED apnel with QHD+ resolution. Packing in 1440 x 3120 pixels, the screen has an impressive pixel density of 516 ppi. AMOLED tech is inherently superior to LCD screens. AMOLED panels are emissive and hence don’t rely on the external backlight. Each pixel in an AMOLED screen can produce its color and light. As a result, you get vibrant colors. And since these pixels can be shut off individually, you get inky blacks that simply cannot be achieved on an LCD panel.
To ensure that the display retains its sharpness even when you are scrolling and swiping through the webpages, OnePlus has tuned this screen for 90 Hz refresh rate. This means that the display refreshes 90 times in a second. When paired with 90 fps content, it delivers a smooth buttery smooth experience. The screen does well outdoors too. It remains legible even under direct sunlight.
Thanks to the pop-up camera mechanism, the handset offers a full-screen display without any notch or cutout. The screen is certified for HDR10+, which enhances visuals further. The Chinese company offers elaborate display settings. You can choose between Natural and Vivid presets. In advance option, you get more options such as SRGB, P3, and AMOLED Wide Gamut. then, there’s color temperature control too. Of all these combinations, I prefer AMOLED Wide Gamut with a picture leaning slightly towards the warmer side.
The Quad HD+ resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate takes a toll on the battery. THe handset dynamically adjusts the frame-rate to conserve battery. For instance, if you are playing a 60 fps video on YouTube, a 90 Hz refresh rate isn’t going to make any difference so the phone would dial down to 60 Hz.
Software
Right from the lock screen, it is clear that the phone’s focus is to deliver speed. The OnePlus 7T Pro features an in-display fingerprint sensor, which is as quick as a conventional sensor. The pop-up camera is no slouch either. If you have face unlock enabled, you can’t help but appreciate the speed at which the selfie camera pops-up and scans your face.
OnePlus has one of the Android best customization out in the markets. For the 7T Pro, the latest Oxygen skin is built on top of the latest Android 10 operating system. The company has stuck to the successful formula of adding new features without making too many changes to the core Android design.
I’m not a fan of gesture navigation on Android. Thankfully, OnePlus lets you switch back to the navigation strip at the bottom. Among new things, you get a neat customization menu that lets you alter the look as per your preference. This includes elaborate options to set accent colors, icon shapes, and launcher layout. A neat addition is the Hidden Space area that can be accessed by performing a zoom-in gesture on the homescreen. Another feature worth mentioning is the Parking Location Service that does what it says.
Performance
Of all the phones I have used so far, the OnePlus 7T Pro is the smoothest one. Every swipe, click, and transition happens instantaneously. On the flipside, the new software has some nagging bugs. For instance, trying to share multiple images crashes WhatsApp. The phone also restarts randomly while idle.
The Oxygen OS comes with the Fnatic mode that aggressively keeps notifications and calls at bay when you are playing games. Speaking of which, the device runs Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile at the highest setting without any issue. This isn’t surprising considering the phone is backed by Qualcomm’s flagship 855+ and 8 GB RAM.
It is a shame that the phone doesn’t ship with earphones. You can understand such a move in case of a budget device. However, it is unacceptable for something that costs over Rs 50,000. The phone lacks a 3.5 mm jack and OnePlus hasn’t even bothered to ship it with an adapter. When paired with Bluetooth devices, OnePlus has a strange tendency to deliver abrupt volume gain in the first three notches. On the bright side, the phone’s sound output is very good. And the on-board mono-speaker is quite loud.
Camera
The OnePlus 7T Pro features a triple camera setup. It comprises of 48 MP sensor, accompanied by a 16 MP wide-angle lens, and an 8 MP telephoto lens. The main 48 MP Quad-Bayer shooter uses pixel binning to produce 12 MP photos. The results are damn impressive. The resulting shots contain an incredible amount of detail. The colors look great and the sharpness is quite uniform across the image. It captures the sky very well. However, the grass or small plants look unnaturally sharp at the edges.
The sharpness falls as you switch to the 16 MP shooter. However, if all your pictures are meant for social media, the wide-angle shots definitely look better. I also prefer the slightly warm colors on the wide shooter compared to the main camera. By default, the phone gets rid of the barrel distortion. The telephoto is decent for zooming in on far objects. However, it is not useful in framing a good shot.
In low-light conditions, the main camera takes decent snaps. Even in scenes that aren’t very dark, the OnePlus 7T Pro adds a significant amount of noise. The company’s aggressive sharpening algorithm doesn’t help either. Using Nightscape yields better results. The camera performance of the OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro is almost similar. The reason why we appreciate the camera quality on the OnePlus 7T is due to its competitive Rs 34,999 price tag. On the other hand, the 7T Pro costs Rs 53,999 but offers no noticeable improvement in the camera quality.
Moving onto the video recording, the OnePlus 7T Pro can record 4K 60 fps videos with the primary lens. The wide lens is capped at 4K 30 fps. Thanks to the OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), the videos come out smooth. On top of that, OnePlus offer Super Stable mode for Full HD recording that does an incredible job of getting rid of jittery movement. It does, however, isn’t that great at resolving detail of dark and bright spots in the same frame.
Sony’s IMX471 sensor, this module snaps good pictures. It comes with features such as HDR, Screen Flash, and Face Retouching to make your face tolerable. That being said, like any fixed focus unit, it is not that great at separating foreground from the rest.
Battery
The OnePlus 7T Pro packs in a 4,085 mAh battery. The phone ships with a 30 W charger. It juices up around 60 percent of the battery in half an hour, which is impressive. What’s missing, however, is the wireless (induction) charging support. For over two weeks, I regularly noticed the battery to last for a day on a single charge. Dialing down the display resolution and refresh rate does result in a slight gain in battery life.
Verdict
The OnePlus 7T Pro ticks all the right boxes. It comes with a premium build, great display, and snappy UI. It gets so many things right but lacks a killer feature. It gets so many things right but lacks a killer feature. In short, the OnePlus 7T Pro is a jack of all trades. And that’s a compliment because as they say, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” Overall, the OnePlus 7T Pro is a great phone. However, ironically, the Realme X2 Pro undercuts the OnePlus 7T Pro by a huge margin. For Rs 29,999, you can get a similar performance if you are okay to settle for a less-fancy design.
