OnePlus 10T 5G Review

One of the things that some smartphone brands do is release smartphones with flagship chipsets and then offer them with a price tag that is lower than the competition. Brands like OnePlus are known for it. However, you can’t simply lower the price without compromising in some areas. In the case of the OnePlus 10T 5G, we can call it a flagship but where did it compromise? Find out in our review.

Design and Construction

One of the things we immediately noticed about the OnePlus 10T 5G is its size. It’s a pretty tall device at 163 mm, which can be attributed to the 6.7-inch screen. It has a punch hole at the top and uses Gorilla Glass 5 for protection.

Placed on the left side is the volume rocker, while on the right is the power/lock button. They’re firm and clicky, and easy to reach as they’re placed near the middle of the frame.

On the top frame, we have a loudspeaker and a secondary microphone.

Down below is the dual-nano SIM card slot, main microphone, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

Turn it on its back and you will see the large camera module that houses the 50MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, the 2MP macro, and the LED flash. Covering the back is Gorilla Glass 5 which curves to the sides.

Being a flagship smartphone, the materials used are also very premium as the exterior is mostly glass or metal. This makes the device a bit hefty at 204 g. It’s still comfortable to hold it with one hand, although navigating it will require you to do it with two. Using a protective case will definitely add more dimensions and weight to it, but it’s a small trade-off to keep it protected from bumps and scratches.

One of the things that got us wanting is the lack of dust and water resistance, which means that you need to be extra careful with this device, especially if there are liquids around. We also noticed that when placed in a phone mount inside our car near the AC, the lens gets foggy after being directly exposed to the cold air, something we never experienced with our other IP68-rated smartphone.

Display and Multimedia

The 6.7-inch display has slim bezels and uses a Fluid AMOLED panel for rich colors and deep blacks. The resolution is 2412 x 1080 or equal to 394ppi, while the refresh rate is at a maximum of 120Hz, which produces really smooth animations. There’s also an option to lower it to 60Hz to conserve battery, however, there’s no option that allows it to automatically adjust depending on the application.

Other features include Screen color mode that lets you adjust between Vivid, Natural, Cinematic, and Brilliant, Image sharpener, Video color enhancer, and Bright HDR video mode.

The viewing experience is great as the screen is sharp, immersive, and bright enough for outdoor use. Watching videos and playing games on it is also a treat as the dual loudspeakers are loud and crisp. It supports Dolby Atmos when a headset is connected and has multiple sound profiles available depending on the activity.

Cameras

The OnePlus 10T 5G is equipped with three cameras — the 50MP main with Sony IMX766 sensor, 8MP ultra-wide, and the 2MP macro. If you’re looking for the Hasselblad branding, sad to say this model does not have it, unlike its Pro sibling. It has Night, Portrait, Pro, Long Exposure, Panorama, Macro, Slo-mo, Dual-view video, Time-lapse, and Tilt-shift.

The images produced are sharp, although I find the colors more neutral and could use some boost. A quick edit with Auto adjust within the gallery will actually do the trick. Shots taken with the ultra-wide camera are also sharp but with a warmer tone. The performance in low light is good, although you’ll need to hold the camera steady for a couple of seconds to allow it to capture more light. So far, it was able to keep things blur-free. When it comes to the front camera, the 16MP camera can produce sharp images with natural colors and skin-tone, and can nicely implement blurred backgrounds.

When it comes to video recording, the OnePlus 10T 5G can shoot up to 4K at 60fps. The quality is similar to still images but with good stabilization as seen in the sample video where we’re naturally walking and holding the camera with one hand.

OS and Apps

For the software, it runs on OxygenOS 12.1 based on Android 12. It’s a very simple UI with colorful icons and uses an app drawer and multiple home screens to house the apps. Swiping down from the top right will bring a dashboard of your favorite widgets, while swiping down from the top left will show the quick shortcuts and notifications.

As for special features, it has Quick launch which lets you access frequently used functions while unlocking your device, Split screen, OnePlus Shelf, Work-Life Balance, and Scout, which is a smarter search function across apps, and Emergency.

It’s also great to see that OnePlus didn’t pre-install unnecessary apps and just included Google’s apps, Clone Phone, and the OnePlus Community app. Storage-wise, this model has 256GB UFS 3.1, which is more than enough for heavy users.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the OnePlus 10T 5G is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset with an octa-core CPU clocked at a maximum of 3.19GHz, an Adreno 730 GPU, and up to 16GB of RAM with RAM Expansion in 3GB/6GB/7GB increments. When it comes to performance, there’s no question that it will perform well.

Apps launch quickly and multi-tasking is a breeze. You can really feel the snappiness. Games like Genshin Impact and Tower of Fantasy ran in their highest settings without hiccups. We also didn’t experience any heating issues, just the usual warming and nothing more. Check out the benchmark scores below:

• AnTuTu v9 – 1,041,768
• AnTuTu Storage v9 – 1,869.2 MB/s (Seq. Read), 1,095.9 MB/s (Seq. Write)
• 3D Mark – 2,813 (Wild Life Extreme), Maxed Out! (Wild Life)
• PC Mark – 14,149 (Work 3.0)
• Geekbench 5 – 1,313 (Single-Core), 3,945 (Multi-Core), 6,478 (OpenCL)

Connectivity and Battery Life

For connectivity, we have the usual dual-SIM with 5G, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and SatNavs. For biometrics, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock.

For the battery, it has a 4,800mAh capacity. It was able to last us a whole day of moderate to heavy use, while our video loop test got us 22 hours and 55 minutes of playback, which is good. Charging is even more impressive as the 160W charger and the phone’s 150W fast charging were able to replenish the battery from 0% to 100% in a little over 30 minutes.

Conclusion

The OnePlus 10T is definitely a flagship smartphone but a very toned-down version of the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G if you compare it. It has a lower screen resolution, refresh rate, camera resolution, and battery capacity. It would have been nice if OnePlus let the 10T 5G keep the dust and water resistance, but it didn’t.

But all of that is necessary to keep the price down. At PHP 35,990 for the 8GB + 256GB model (the 16GB+ 256GB model is coming soon), that’s PHP 15K cheaper than the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G 12GB + 256GB that is priced at PHP 50,990. It’s also a lot more affordable than other flagship devices on the market. A lot of people would consider that a good compromise.

On the bright side, the 10T 5G comes with a much faster processor and bigger RAM, so not everything is “toned-down.” It’s simply a powerful flagship for those on a budget.

OnePlus 10T 5G specs:
6.7-inch FHD+ (2412 x 1080) Fluid AMOLED, 394ppi
120Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 SoC
Adreno 730 GPU
Up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM
Up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
Triple-rear cameras:
• 50MP F1.8 Sony IMX766 main, OIS
• 8MP F2.2 ultrawide
• 2MP macro (2~4cm)
16 MP F2.4 front
Dual-SIM (nano)
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
NFC
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
USB-C
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
OxygenOS 12.1 (Android 12)
4,800mAh battery w/ 150W SuperVOOC (160W charger included)
163.0 x 75.4 x 8.75 mm
203.5 g
Moonstone Black, Jade Green

Source: Yugatech