Tuesday, November 17, 2020

OnePlus 8T Hands-on, First Impressions

Pretty much since its launch, I’ve been using the OnePlus 8 as my personal daily driver. Naturally, when our OnePlus 8T review unit arrived on my doorstep, I was quite anxious to check it out. What does the company’s newest refresh have to offer? Check it out here.

Up front, it’s pretty much an identical twin to the OnePlus 8, given its screen size of 6.55-inches and the use of a punch-hole for the 16MP f/2.4 front camera. The display features a resolution of 2400 x 1080, a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, support for HDR10+, and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

Checking out the back, it’s almost completely different from the OnePlus 8. We get a rectangular quad rear camera module on the upper left that features a 48MP f/1.8 main shooter, 16MP f/2.2 ultrawide shooter, 5MP f/2.4 macro lens, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor.

The left side contains the volume rocker, while the right houses the power button and the nicely textured signature OnePlus three-way volume switch.

At the bottom, we get the main microphone, loudspeaker, USB Type-C port, and a dual nano SIM tray. Unfortunately, no, we do not get any microSD expansion with the OnePlus 8T.

Now for internals, we get none other than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset with an Adreno 650 GPU, along with 8GB/12GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 128GB/256GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. Whichever configuration you go for, it’s going to perform as it is — as one of the fastest Android flagships.

The smoothness of Oxygen OS 11 also helps a lot with this, combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, of course. Expect very smooth and snappy performance with this one.

Powering everything up is a 4,500mAh battery with support for 65W Warp Charge. Two things about this are exciting — one being the fact that a 65W charger is already included in the box, and the second being that his is an indicator that next year’s OnePlus 9 series will possibly have even bigger batteries.

However, summing things up, despite everything the OnePlus 8T has to offer on paper, the flagship segment is quite competitive nowadays. It faces tough competition in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S20 SE. With its relatively cheap price tag for a flagship though, it’s shaping up to be an excellent choice for consumers. My full evaluation is reserved for our full review, so stay tuned for that.

OnePlus 8T specs:
6.55-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) Fluid AMOLED 120Hz display, 402ppi
HDR10+, DisplayMate, and SGS-certified
Corning Gorilla Glass
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 octa-core CPU
Adreno 650 GPU
8GB, 12GB LPDDR4X RAM
128GB, 256GB UFS 3.1
Quad-rear cameras:
• 48MP Sony IMX586 F1.7 (main)
• 16MP F2.2 (ultra-wide)
• 5MP (macro)
• 2MP (monochrome)
16MP Sony IMX471 F2.4 front camera (fixed-focus)
4K video up to 60 fps
1080p slow-motion video recording up to 240 fps
Dual-SIM (nano)
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.1 aptX HD
NFC
GPS (L1+L5 Dual Band), A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo (E1+E5a Dual Band), Beidou, SBAS
Haptic Vibration 2.0
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
Face Unlock
USB Type-C 3.1
Dual Stereo Speakers w/ Dolby Atmos
OxygenOS 11 (based on Android 11)
4,500mAh battery w/ 65W Warp Charge (10V/6.5A)
160.7 x 74.1 x 8.4 mm
188 g
Aquamarine Green, Lunar Silver