OnePlus 7T Pro review: the best kind of deja vu
The OnePlus 7T Pro is an update to the best phone of the first half of 2019 and the good news is that they haven’t messed up, with tweaks that make it just as good, if not better, than the model it replaces.
The bad news is that the updated phone starts at £50 more than its predecessor, at £699, although as it also comes with more storage and RAM; in effect it matches the cost of the earlier mid-range 7 Pro version. It also gains a faster processor, an improved camera and a slightly tweaked paint job.
The star of the show is the 6.67in 90Hz QHD+ AMOLED screen, which is just as stunning as it was five months ago. Once you get used to the smoothness of 90Hz display it’s very difficult to go back.
The popup selfie camera removes any notch at the top, while the bezels are still thin all round, with curved sides reaching a slim metal band at the sides and a curved glass back. It’s an attractive, incredibly modern-looking design with excellent build quality.
The 7T Pro is just as big and heavy as its predecessor: 206g, 162.6mm tall, 75.9mm wide and 8.8mm thick. While much more manageable than Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro Max (77.8mm wide, 226g) the 7T Pro is still a beast that is right on the limit of usability – those with smaller hands will struggle. The 7T may only be a little bit smaller with its 6.55in screen (74.4mm wide, 190g) but the difference is palpable.
Flip the phone over and you’re treated to a slightly lighter but equally gorgeous shade of blue for the glass back. There’s also a new laser focus patch to the left of the vertical camera lump. The USB-C socket in the bottom is the only input for charging or connecting wired headphones.
Specifications
Screen: 6.67in 90Hz QHD AMOLED (516ppi)
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+
RAM: 8GB of RAM
Storage: 256GB (UFS 3.0)
Operating system: OxygenOS 10 based on Android 10
Camera: triple rear camera 48MP, 16MP ultra-wide angle, 8MP telephoto, 16MP front-facing camera
Connectivity: LTE, dual sim, WiFiac, NFC, Bluetooth 5 and GPS
Dimensions: 162.6 x 75.9 x 8.8mm
Weight: 206g
Sheer speed
The OnePlus 7T Pro is faster on paper than its predecessor, with Qualcomm’s slightly newer Snapdragon 855 + chip, which has 15% faster graphics and a slightly faster processor.
Whether anyone will be able to tell remains to be seen. The OnePlus 7 Pro was already the fastest-feeling phone available, and the 7T Pro is no different, powering through things with an immediacy unrivalled by anything else on the market.
There are two versions available. The standard, widely available 7T Pro comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. A McLaren Edition, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, as well as a new black and orange paint job, will also be available in limited quantities.
All that speed is backed up by solid battery life of about 32 hours between charges – four hours longer than the OnePlus 7 Pro and enough to last from 7am on day one until 3pm on day two.
That was as my primary device, with the usual deluge of email, messages and push notifications, lots of browsing, five hours of Spotify via Bluetooth headphones, watching 50 minutes of Into the Badlands on Amazon Prime Video and shooting about 10 photos a day.
Despite the glass back, there’s still no wireless charging. Instead, OnePlus has reduced the internal resistance of the battery to make it charge even faster, hitting 70% in 34 minutes and full in just under 70 minutes.
OxygenOS 10
The 7T Pro ships out of the box with OxygenOS 10, based on the latest version of Android 10, making it one of the first phones to do so, just like the 7T.
OxygenOS continues to set the standard for custom versions of Android from third-party manufacturers, focused on refinement and speed. Full theming support for changing the colour and shape of screens, icons and boxes, including a full dark mode, is new for this version. But it is Google’s new swiping navigation gestures, replacing the custom ones used by OnePlus on previous phones, that are the biggest improvement.
Swipe up on a bar at the bottom of the screen to go home, up and hold for recently used apps, or left or right to jump to a previously used app. A swipe in from the left or right side in the lower two-thirds of the screen is now used for going back, which is a vast improvement, making using largescreen phones much easier.
The traditional three-button Android navigation bar is available if gestures aren’t your thing. New privacy controls for location data are also welcome.
OnePlus offers software support for at least three years from release, including two years of Android version updates and then a further year of security updates on a bi-monthly schedule.
Fingerprint scanner
The 7T Pro has an even faster version of OnePlus’s excellent in-display optical fingerprint reader, which continues to set the standard for speed and accuracy, matching traditional capacitive sensors and putting everyone else to shame.
Camera
The 7T Pro has the same triple camera system, combining a 48-megapixel main, a 16-megapixel ultra-wide angle and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera, as its predecessor and performs similarly.
The primary camera is great, capable of capturing some really good, finely detailed and well-exposed shots that aren’t too far away from what you get from the very best on the market. Low-light performance was solid. A revamped version of OnePlus’s Night Scape proved to be more effective and can now be used on the ultra-wide angle camera too.
The 3x telephoto camera (which is technically 2.87x rounded up) is also good, but produces noticeably more noise in dull lighting than the main camera. It has optical image stabilisation and 1x more magnification than the cheaper 7T.
The 10x digital zoom rivals the best, but isn’t in the same league as Huawei’s 50x zoom. The ultra-wide angle camera was great fun, and the 7T Pro also gains OnePlus’s new super macro mode. Focusing on objects at a minimum of 2.5cm away takes a bit of practice but you can produce some really interesting images, rich in detail the human eye can’t see on its own.
Video quality was generally pretty good too, but could be a little yellow in indoor lighting. The popup 16-megapixel fixed-focus selfie camera was also capable of capturing some great, detail-rich images.
Observations
OnePlus’s excellent alert slider toggles between silent, vibrate and ring
The stereo speakers are some of the best
A screen protector comes pre-applied, while a good clear plastic case is included in the box
Price
The OnePlus 7T Pro costs £699 in haze blue with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The McLaren Edition with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage costs £799.
For comparison, the OnePlus 7T costs £549, the Huawei P30 Pro costs £749, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ costs £899, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ costs £999 and the iPhone 11 Pro Max costs £1,149.
Verdict
The OnePlus 7T Pro is the best kind of deja vu: an exact copy of arguably the best smartphone of the first half of 2019 with an improved camera, slightly longer battery life and a slightly faster processor.
Whether an update was really required is debatable, but OnePlus has made a name for itself with this rapid, six-month refresh schedule.
The camera’s new macro mode is great fun and can produce some spectacular images. Android 10’s new gestures have made handling the phone easier, the fingerprint scanner is even faster and having the very latest Snapdragon 855+ processor keeps the 7T Pro at the top of the pile on paper, even if the difference is hard to see.
The 7T Pro starts at £50 more than its predecessor, but also comes with more storage and RAM, matching the cost of the mid-range 7 Pro version.
It still has the downsides of its predecessor too: there’s no water resistance rating, no wireless charging, no expandable storage or headphone socket, the camera is good, but not quite iPhone 11 Pro standards, and it’s massive and fairly heavy. But that gigantic, gorgeous, fast and notch-free screen is still something to behold and the curved glass and metal band make it just about manageable.
Class-leading performance, extremely fast charging and a battery that’ll last 32 hours round out a device that still undercuts rivals and offers a better experience in almost every way. The biggest challenge to the 7T Pro is actually OnePlus’s cheaper (£549), smaller 7T, which offers much the same but is easier to handle.
If you want the biggest, best screen, in the fastest, slickest device, that’s the OnePlus 7T Pro. A massive phone still worth stretching for.
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