Best phablet phones
Lots of phones have large displays but these are the five best big screen handsets you can buy.
Phones used to be small: the first Samsung Galaxy S had a 4in display that looks tiny by today’s standards. In contrast to this, the new Galaxy Note10+ has a massive 6.8in screen, and it isn’t the only phone with one that size. If you’re looking for a handset with a large display to stream the latest TV shows, watch a movie or play a game, then read on for our top recommendations.
1. OnePlus 7 Pro Price: £699 from fave.co/2Iiqzgf
The near-meteoric rise of OnePlus has in large part been thanks to a pretty clear strategy: offer the most important features of the year’s biggest flagships, minus the flashy fluff, at a fraction of the price. With the OnePlus 7 Pro, that all changes.
The 7 and 7 Pro phones mark the first time that OnePlus is releasing two phones at once: the 7 is the natural next step from last year’s 6T, while the 7 Pro is a step up from that. It’s a full-blooded flagship, OnePlus throwing the gauntlet down and trying to prove once and for all that it can make phones to rival the likes of the Galaxy S10 or Huawei P30 Pro
if it wants to. And on the strength of the 7 Pro, the company clearly can.
I’ve been using the 7 Pro for over a week, and I have been seriously impressed. The core OnePlus ethos is still present, but backed up by better specs focused on two of the areas of the phone people really use the most: the camera and the screen.
Display
Easily the first thing you’ll notice about the 7 Pro is the display, which excels in just about every way it is possible for a smartphone screen to excel.
Size? A whopping 6.67in. Refresh rate? A smooth 90Hz. Resolution? QHD+ – or 3,120x1,440 to be precise. I could go on: colour range, pixel density, curved edges, HDR, Gorilla Glass 5 – on paper this is one of the best panels you’ll find in a smartphone today, and it’s entirely uninterrupted by a notch.
The 90Hz refresh rate is perhaps the most welcome new feature. Mostly limited to gaming phones like the Razer Phone or Asus’s ROG Phone before now, higher refresh rates smooth out animations across the board, leaving every interaction with the phone feeling faster and more fluid.
It’s a change that’s hard to put your finger on at first, but flick between the 60- and 90Hz options and you’ll quickly realize that just about everything you do with the phone feels smoother – not to mention the benefits it brings when playing games or watching content that can make the most of the refresh rate.
There’s a battery drain, of course, so if you prefer you can drop down to 60Hz – and smartly, even while
on this mode the phone will still jump up to 90Hz when you’re, say, playing a game that can make the most of it before dropping back down to 60Hz for your day-to-day stuff.
There’s once again an in-display fingerprint sensor hidden below the surface, though it’s improved from the 6T. OnePlus says it should be almost twice as fast thanks to an upgraded lens and larger sensor area, and it definitely feels it. It still failed to spot my thumb a few times too often, but it feels like this is almost as good as a dedicated physical scanner, which is the highest praise it could hope to get.
Throw in the giant resolution, curved edges (with palm rejection to avoid accidental presses) and support for HDR10+ across both YouTube and Netflix, and it’s clear that this screen is something special indeed.
Those curved edges help the phone feel slim – though at 8.8mm it’s not the absolute thinnest device around – while the Gorilla Glass 5 protection extends to the rear as well. This comes in one of three finishes: Mirror Grey, Nebula Blue (pictured above), and Almond. The blue in particular is stunning, with a slightly matte effect to the gradient design, while Almond is a creamier take on Apple’s Gold iPhones.
Of course, I can’t talk about the display or the design without addressing the notch – or rather, the lack thereof. The 7 Pro is one of the latest proper full-screen phones to hit the west, in this case by shifting the selfie camera into a small slider that pops up when needed, and retracts just as quickly.
Fall detection means it withdraws if you accidentally drop the phone, and naturally OnePlus assures us it’s tested the mechanism hundreds of
thousands of times for durability’s sake. It works for face unlock too, and is astonishingly quick there – the camera retracts almost as soon as it’s opened, so it is still a split-second process.
Cameras
The selfie shooter isn’t the only exciting camera here, though. Beyond the novel design, that one isn’t all that exciting otherwise: it’s a similar 16Mp camera to the one found in the 6T, just in a new spot.
More interesting are the cameras you’ll find when you flip the phone over (after briefly pausing to admire that blue gradient for the umpteenth time, of course). For the first time OnePlus is offering a triple camera setup, and one that could rival the best around.
Let’s take it one lens at a time. The main camera is 48Mp, f/1.6 with optical image stabilization (OIS). It’s powered by the same Sony IMX586 sensor you’ll find in a few other similar smartphones, but the actual lens is an entirely custom design.
Sitting above the main camera is a 16Mp ultra-wide lens, with an f/2.2 aperture and a 117-degree field of view. There’s a very slight fishbowl effect (which actually looks worse than it is thanks to the curved screen), but otherwise this does a good job.
Finally, and more excitingly, the bottom camera is an 8Mp telephoto, with OIS and up to 3x optical zoom – while you can go up to 10x hybrid optical and digital zoom. This isn’t quite into the 5x optical zoom territory of the Huawei P30 Pro (in fact this whole rear camera setup is almost identical to the regular P30), but it is capable of some sharp zoomed in shots.
The software underlying all that hardware has had an update too, and the newly dubbed UltraShot algorithm is clearly an attempt to catch up with the competition – it’s fair to say OnePlus has never been renowned for its photography flex.
Photos process more quickly, despite additional computational work as the camera makes more use of multiple shots to extract more information and enrich images – especially in a revamped take on Nightscape, OnePlus’s take on a flash-free low light mode. This is now in the same conversation as the P30 Pro and Pixel 3 for low light photos, with astonishing sharpness and colour drawn out of even the darkest environments.
In general, photos are crisp and I’ve been impressed by the dynamic range the camera is capable of, while colours tend to be fairly accurate. That can mean photos look slightly muted if you’re used to the heavily saturated shots taken by Huawei and Samsung’s latest, but will deliver if you prefer something that looks more true to life. The optical zoom is comparable to the results in the P30, and actually yields a little more detail than some shots from that phone – though at the cost of slightly more noise.
As for video, the rear cameras can shoot up to 4K at 60fps, while the selfie lens will do 1080p at 30fps, and you also get the option of super slow motion from the rear cameras – either 1080p at 240fps, or 720p at 480fps.
Performance
It’s probably clear by now that OnePlus is really leading on the display and camera when it comes
to the 7 Pro – two areas where the company has never previously made a name for itself, no doubt not by chance.
Still, it hasn’t exactly skimped elsewhere. The processor is the flagship Snapdragon 855, and it’s backed up by some meaty memory options, with up to 256GB storage and 12GB of RAM available – though there’s no support for microSD cards, so what you get is what you get.
That storage is special, too: the 7 Pro uses UFS 3.0 – universal flash storage – which is a fancy way of saying that it should be able to save and access files much quicker. That means faster app opening, game loading, and file transferring – it’s the equivalent to plugging an SSD into your computer. It’s also the only phone on sale right now to boast the tech, though technically not the first – the Galaxy Fold uses UFS 3.0 too, but we all know how well that launch went. It’s not clear yet how much of a difference the new drive is making in and of itself, but it’s contributing to silky smooth performance across the board.
I’ve been testing the 12GB RAM, 256GB storage model, and unsurprisingly all that power has seen it sail through most of our benchmarks, with results up there with flagship rivals – though not blowing them away, and surprisingly it drops below the 6T on some of the graphical tests, where the extra RAM doesn’t really contribute. This is on pre-release software though, which can complicate things, and I’d expect software updates to refine the hardware performance.
Either way, this thing is fast, and it’s at the point where it’s so fast that minor variations in individual
benchmarks really don’t reflect anything to worry about unless you’re absolutely obsessed about maxing out your frame rate in Fortnite.
The 4,000mAh battery just about stretched out to 48 hours of usage, so if you charge every day you shouldn’t ever have to worry about running out – again, this is pretty much in line with similarly priced rivals. The inclusion of 30-watt Warp Charging also means it’ll top up fast – it managed to get 64 percent of its battery back in just half an hour when charging from empty.
That charging is USB-C (still no support for wireless here, OnePlus says it just isn’t good enough yet), with a USB 3.1 port. There’s NFC, Bluetooth 5.0 (with aptX HD support), and stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos
– they sound good for a phone, but y’know. There’s even a new haptic motor – something previous OnePlus phones have struggled with. These still aren’t the best vibrations out there, but how many people really worry about that?
Finally, waterproofing. OnePlus says getting an official IP rating is a waste of money that drives prices up, so there’s no official measure of how waterresistant the phone is. The company itself says the phone can survive a splash (there’s even an extra layer of liquid protection around the sliding selfie cam), but doesn’t recommend you take it swimming.
Ultimately, an IP rating offers peace of mind that the 7 Pro just won’t offer in that regard, but as OnePlus is quick to point out, no smartphone manufacturer covers liquid damage in its warranty – even those with industry-leading IP68 ratings. So basically this should keep working if you drop it in the bath, but I’m not about to risk the phone and this review to find out.
Software
Let’s wrap it all up on a high note. As ever, OnePlus excels on the software side – Oxygen OS is probably our favourite Android skin, and the only one that’s arguably better than Google’s own efforts on the Pixel phones.
The look is close to stock, but with usability tweaks across the board and subtle UI tweaks to smooth over some of Android’s rough edges. Not everything is perfect – swiping up for back remains one of the less intuitive gesture controls out there, and the lack of a true always-on display is still a
frustration, but for the most part this is about as good as Android gets. Tweaks this year are mostly minor, but welcome. There’s a built-in screen recorder in case you want to share footage direct from your phone, which lets you record for as long as you want, pausing and resuming at any point, and record either internal or external sound.
The full-screen means no room for a notification LED, so instead OnePlus has turned to a software solution: the sides of the display will pulse with light when a notification comes through, with the colour actually determined by the app in question. It’s a nice touch, but still actually easy to miss, as the light only pulses once – it won’t keep flashing after the fact, as a
normal LED might. That could get annoying of course, not to mention drain the battery, which is likely why OnePlus opted to avoid it.
Gaming mode has had an upgrade to give more granular notification controls, and there’s even an enhanced version – branded by the e-sports team Fnatic – that not only blocks any and all notifications but also reroutes almost all of the phone’s processing power and network signal towards your game.
If that all sounds a bit intense, Zen Mode is its chilled out counterpart. This also shuts down every notification, but goes even further: it basically locks you out of the phone entirely, leaving you able only to receive calls, phone emergency services, or use the camera. This lasts for 20 minutes – no more, no less – and once activated it’s impossible to turn off. Yup, even if you turn the phone off and on again – this is the nuclear solution to terminal procrastination.
Verdict
I went looking for reasons not to give the OnePlus 7 Pro full marks, but I’ve struggled to find much to fault. The display, camera, and core specs are essentially all best-in-class – or close enough to count – while the few shortcuts (wireless charging, an IP rating) are easily explained away by a price point that still undercuts the closest comparable rivals by some way.
Yes, this costs a bit more than you’re probably used to from OnePlus, but it delivers on enough of its promises to justify that price hike – and if you’re not convinced, the regular OnePlus 7 is always there (outside the US at least), at the same old price
OnePlus has been hitting for the last year or two. In a year that’s already seen both Samsung and Huawei drop pretty phenomenal flagships, OnePlus has still managed to drop a device that’s the phablet to beat in 2019. Dominic Preston
Specifications
• 6.67in (3,120x1,440; 516ppi) Fluid AMOLED capacitive touchscreen • Android 9.0 (Pie); OxygenOS 9 • Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 (7nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.84GHz Kryo 485, 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 485, 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 485) CPU • Adreno 640 GPU • 6GB, 8GB, 12GB RAM • 128GB, 256GB storage • Three rear-facing cameras: 48Mp, f/1.6, (wide), 1/2in, 0.8μm, Laser/PDAF, OIS; 16Mp, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide); 8Mp, f/2.4, 78mm (telephoto), 3x zoom, Laser/PDAF, OIS • Front-facing camera: Motorized pop-up 16Mp, f/2.0, 25mm (wide), 1/3.0in, 1.0μm • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD • A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, SBAS • NFC • Fingerprint scanner (under display) • USB 3.1 Type-C 1.0 reversible connector • Non-removable 4,000mAh lithium-polymer battery • 162.6x75.9x8.8mm • 206g
2. Google Pixel 3 XL Price: £869 from fave.co/2zqZkf0
There’s a new king in town – the Google Pixel 3 XL. The larger of two new Pixel 3 phones has a remarkably large notch at the top of its tall 6.3in display – odd at first given that the smaller Pixel 3 has no notch and the same dual cameras as the XL.
It’s a little unremarkable to look at in pictures, but once you start to use it, it’s all about the software and what it can do wrapped up in surprisingly premium hardware. And oh, that camera. It’s the best yet on a smartphone and is a bug enough reason to buy this phone over any other. Google’s vision of the perfect phone seems to be going to plan.
Notch
Yes, there’s a big notch on the Pixel 3 XL. It’s deep and narrow as opposed to the shallow narrow notch of the Huawei P20 Pro or the shallow wide notch of the iPhone XS. Whether a notch irks you is personal, but it’s not a big deal to us. It’s there to house the earpiece and dual cameras while keeping the phone as small as possible, that’s what notches are for (though for what it’s worth you can hide it).
The 3 XL is virtually the same overall size as the 2 XL, but manages a larger display and an extra camera. On paper, this is not a regression.
The rear of the phone is similar to previous generations yet for the first time supports wireless charging despite being matte – it’s all glass, though. The etching Google has applied to the glass is very clever and keeps the contrast of the previous two
generations’ designs in the classiest way possible. It still feels hefty and premium and the finish is awesome. Fewer fingerprints, but it’s glass, so it’s still at the peril of the ground.
The top section is smooth glass and houses a single rear camera and flash. The phone comes in three colours, Just Black, Clearly White and Not Pink – there is no contrast ‘panda’ edition like we got last year.
White and pink models have contrasting green and orange power buttons respectively while the black stays all-black stealthy.
That notch also allows the phone to retain dual front-facing speakers like the last generation Pixel, with a wider speaker at the bottom of the phone. Google said they are 40 percent louder and richer than on Pixel 2. We’re not sure about that measure, but they do sound better.
There’s also a G logo and fingerprint sensor, but no headphone jack. There’s a dongle in the box though, along with USB-C headphones that look and fit like the wireless Pixel Buds.
Just like those headphones, we find them very uncomfortable after just an hour’s use. Your mileage may vary, but we only used them once because of this. It’s a shame because they have an inline remote and offer real-time translation just like the expensive Buds.
There’s also IP68 waterproofing and massively improved haptics. Where the Pixel 2 (and other phones with less good vibration motors) shook the whole phone when you tapped buttons, the 3 XL’s sharp, precise haptics are a pleasure to use, and as good as those on the iPhone XS and LG G7.
Display
This is quite a playful feeling phone, and that is a lot to do with how good the screen is and how it looks in contrast to the all-glass design.
Google is continuing its design language in a light way, melding the hardware it sees fit to complement the Material Design concept its software is modelled around. The block colours of the phones are a world away from the austere designs pushed out by Apple, Huawei and even OnePlus.
After the problems the Pixel 2 XL had with its display (or at least how it was calibrated for colour hungry eyes) the 3 XL’s display hits the ground running. The 6.3in 2,960x1,440 P-OLED looks brilliant, with good colour calibration and viewing angles.
There’s a new adaptive colour profile loaded on to ensure this. It considers current lighting settings to change the calibration of tone, and works quickly and quietly. It’s great.
Google had to make sure the screen was better than the disaster of having to severely recalibrate the 2 XL’s in a software patch. We’re happy to report this is a huge improvement.
Performance
It’s all in a phone that is run by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip, the same one found in the OnePlus 6 and Samsung Galaxy S9. Google has stuck to 4GB RAM where others push 6 or 8, but in our testing the 3 XL ran smoothly with no hiccups.
This is to be expected as Google is in complete control of the hardware and software of the phone.
It’s the iPhone of the Android world in this way, and is all the better for it.
Our benchmarks pitch the phone against the smaller Pixel 3, the Pixel 2 and other devices with similar specs. What the results show is that in synthetic benchmarking, they are all very good. But we think that using the Pixel 3 XL is the most fluid, satisfying way to experience Android thanks to the optimization of hardware and software.
The battery size is the only thing that changes, aside from the display size, by opting for the 3 XL over the 3. It’s 3,430mAh as opposed to 2,915mAh, so this is the one to get if you want to eke the most out of a day. A day is about the most you’ll get if you’re a heavy user. We got about four to four-and-a-half hours screen-on time with the 3 XL. That’s pretty good, but not as much as you’ll get with the Galaxy Note9 which sometimes gets nearly six.
Camera
The Pixel 2 phones were widely regarded to have the best rear-facing cameras of any smartphone despite only having one lens. The Pixel 3 XL is even better. Seriously. It’s incredible what Google is achieving with post-processing software.
While two or three lens phones try to capture more detail during shooting, the Pixel 3 XL elects to capture several layers of image information with one lens and then uses software to process the best possible image after the fact. And it works stupendously well.
A new feature called Top Shot automatically helps you select the best photo from a burst of photos, so
you don’t get a photo where people have their eyes closed and are smiling properly (or goofing around, but it works well).
Along with this is Super Res Zoom where the phone can detect your hand shaking while using digital zoom and corrects the photo accordingly, mimicking what you’d achieve with a second telephoto lens. It works, but it’s not as good as actually having a second lens.
Whether or not these sorts of features are gimmicky depends on how long you end up using them, but just like with the previous two Pixel generations, using the Pixel 3 XL simply made us take more photos with our phone.
It’s noticeably better than the iPhone X and depending on your tastes, the newer XS. The Huawei P20 Pro might just edge night-time photography still, but Google is promising its own mode Night Sight in a software update soon that could change that,
The 3 XL continuously chooses the right balance of colour and contrast and can handle light amazingly. You won’t be disappointed, and you get unlimited Google Photo storage.
The dual front-facing cameras are an interesting choice, allowing for wide angle selfies and multiface detection to keep everyone in focus. Aside from this there is no immediate advantage to having two lenses – and you get them both on the regular Pixel 3 without the notch, if the notch bothers you.
Software
Older Pixels and the Sony Xperia XZ3 already have Android 9 Pie but, of course, the Pixel 3 XL ships with
it installed. Google makes you use the new gesturebased navigation system as default and it does take a bit of getting used to after years with Android’s three navigation buttons. You can’t revert back to the familiar three navigation buttons, so Google is all in on this new system. But it’s easy enough to get used, if not as beautifully intuitive as Apple’s gestures on the iPhone X series.
A feature that is built in that until now has only been available as beta versions on older Pixels is Digital Wellbeing. This is the ability to set app limits to help you use certain services less, and to actually spend time away from your phone rather than use it more.
You can set app timers so you’re only on Instagram, say, for 15 minutes a day. It makes you more aware of how much time you waste on your phone but it’s pretty easy to override and keep scrolling.
Google made a big deal at launch about how the software ecosystem continues to improve over time. This is in the cloud-based services such as Google Translate, but, of course, other phones can run Google apps and services. It’s true that on the 3 XL though, it’s most closely intertwined in the OS given it’s a Google phone.
This is evident with the excellent Pixel Stand, a £69 accessory that pairs exclusively with your Pixel to become a mini smart display. It wirelessly charges the phone and can act as a digital photo stand, but it’s most useful as a Google Home Mini style device. It’s a worthwhile purchase on top of the phone. Google also said that Pixels would be
the first to get the Duplex feature it teased earlier in the year that can call businesses for you to book restaurants and the like.
A clever call screening feature is currently US-only and even then, initially in six cities only. But it’s a great way to ward off cold callers and unwanted calls as Google speaks to the caller and their reply appears live as text on your screen. It’ll put them off calling again and means you don’t have to deal with it.
We weren’t able to test this in the UK, though.
Verdict
The third Pixel generation is the best yet and if you don’t mind spending more and getting a notch, then the Pixel 3 XL has a bigger screen and bigger battery than the regular version.
You’ll get Google’s best, most premium and refined phone to date. The camera is utterly astonishing and
the best on a smartphone – though not as good as an actual DSLR.
The software is excellently optimized for the hardware and works seamlessly, which we can’t say for non-Google Android phones. The etched glass back is lovely and it’s simply a piece of hardware that’s a pleasure to use. Henry Burrell
Specifications
• 6.3in (2,960x1,440; 523ppi) P-OLED capacitive touchscreen • Android 9.0 Pie • Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10nm) processor • Octa-core (4x 2.5GHz Kryo 385 Gold, 4x 1.6GHz Kryo 385 Silver) CPU • Adreno 630 GPU • 4GB RAM • 64/128GB storage • 12.2Mp rear-facing camera: f/1.8, 28mm (wide), 1/2.55in, 1.4μm, OIS, dual pixel PDAF • Dual front-facing cameras: 8Mp, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), PDAF; 8Mp, f/2.2, 19mm (ultra wide), no AF • 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 5.0 • A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO • NFC • Fingerprint sensor (rear mounted) • USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector • Non-removable 3,430mAh lithium-ion battery • 158x76.7x7.9mm • 184g
3. OnePlus 6T Price: £499 from fave.co/2OjuZUR
When you follow tech and smartphones closely the constant onslaught of new, supposedly better models coming out can be numbing. It can also wrongly convince you that you need to upgrade your phone that is six, 12, or 20 months old. The OnePlus 6T is one such phone.
It is a very good smartphone, but it’s not much of an upgrade from the OnePlus 6 that launched just five months before it. It has the same processor, same basic design, very similar display and comes in two of the same colours. If you own a 6, you do not really need a 6T. And you might not even want one, either.
But for the rest of the world, for the normal people out there, this is one of the best phones you can buy. It just isn’t, in context, anything new or exciting. But maybe that’s just today’s phones in general.
Design
The OnePlus 6T looks a lot like the OnePlus 6 and we compare them here. But for a moment, let’s pretend the 6 doesn’t exist.
The 6T has a premium glass design and you can have any colour as long as it’s black: Mirror Black (gloss) or Midnight Black (matte). It’s gently curved on the back and is a comfortable weight to hold, though the curve coupled with the tiniest of camera bumps means it does rock when used flat on a table.
It has a dew-drop shaped notch at the top of its large 6.41in display that houses a camera, while the speaker is a slit right on the top edge of the phone. We had to adjust how we hold the phone for calls to line it up to our ears properly, but this is an issue with many notched phones that don’t house the speaker in a top bezel.
The back panel houses dual cameras and the OnePlus logo, while the antenna lines are hidden in the aluminium frame.
With a USB-C port and no headphone jack in all black, the OnePlus 6T suffers a tad from the black rectangle syndrome of modern smartphones. In a line up, it blends in with the LG V40, Pixel 3 XL and Sony Xperia XZ3 as an all-glass black slab.
The loss of that headphone jack jars more than with other manufacturers since it was only five months
prior to the 6T’s release that co-founder Carl Pei stood on a stage to announce the OnePlus 6 and claimed people still really wanted one. OnePlus told us it was time to remove it on the 6T, in part to fit the in-screen fingerprint sensor.
The company is between a rock and a hard place – its fanatical community probably wants a headphone jack but the wider public don’t actually care en masse, evident in the acceptance of iPhones without jacks since 2016. It’s the latter market that OnePlus desperately needs to sell to now to break into the mainstream, helped by new operator partnerships.
Removing the headphone jack to fit in a snazzy new piece of tech is the decision. But the big question is, like with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, does the sensor actually work?
The short answer is yes, complete with funky software animations. It’s not quite as fast as most decent physical fingerprint sensors, including the one
on the OnePlus 6. On the 6T it worked through the factory-installed screen protector, which we then took off to test again and it seemed fine. It just takes that split second longer than you might expect.
We also ended up retraining the phone twice to read our thumbs and then it seems fine. It’s less good at edge detection than physical sensors and you have to place your thumbprint quite flat. But it’s amazing that it even works in the first place, and it’s secure enough to use for biometrics.
It’s not as fast as face unlock, which we found ourselves using more and even works well in the dark, but you’ll still need to rely on the fingerprint sensor for secure transactions and app authentication.
It’s notable that OnePlus still won’t give the 6T an official IP rating, though it did tell us the phone is ‘water resistant’ and uses silicone rings and foam in ports and buttons to prevent water damage. During our testing, our 6T unit took an accidental tumble (in a case, thankfully) into a toilet. Apart from being ashamed at our bathroom habits, at least we know the phone can survive such a dunk.
This is a slick phone and we prefer the matte black finish to the gloss option, but like most other black slabs out there it’s nothing new and comes at a time where smartphone design has been reactive to the iPhone X. This notched display with no home button or physical fingerprint sensor is evidence of that.
Processor, memory and storage
What the OnePlus 6T definitely has going for it (like all previous OnePlus phones) is its high-end specs for a
fair price. It has a Snapdragon 845 processor and 6or 8GB of RAM depending on the model you choose.
OnePlus gives you the option of 6GB RAM with 128GB non-expandable storage to hit the lowest price of £499. To totally future-proof your purchase you can also go for 8GB RAM with 128- or 256GB storage.
We tested the 8GB RAM/128GB storage model, but all versions will give practically the same performance. You only need 8GB RAM if you intend to indulge in high level gaming or absolutely cane your phone all day long with tens of demanding apps.
The OnePlus 6T benchmarks using Geekbench (CPU), GFXBench (GPU) and JetStream (browser) are more telling of phone tech in general than the 6T itself. The scores are virtually identical to the OnePlus 6 as well as the other Android phones we chose to compare with similar specs.
You won’t notice a difference in performance in anything you do or view on the OnePlus 6T compared to other current top end phones.
You view everything on the phone through a vibrant 6.41in OLED display, though its resolution is capped at 1080p. Other phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Pixel 3 XL have more pixel-dense 1440p screens, but most people won’t notice the difference and will appreciate the money saved by opting for the 6T. It’s still a higher resolution than the more expensive iPhone XR.
The 6T’s screen has a tiny notch at the top that proves very unobtrusive and is physically the smallest notch we’ve yet used on a phone. The payoff is a large screen with attractively slim bezels.
The haptics on this phone are behind the Pixel 3, iPhone and LG G7. The vibration motor still buzzes audibly and at the same clip for most actions. It’s an area that when done better makes a phone feel surprisingly more premium.
The single down-firing speaker is still here (no stereo speakers unlike the Pixel 3 or S9), but it sounds far better than on previous OnePlus phones. Not great for long video sessions, but good enough for podcasts. And yes, no headphone jack. Fine, OnePlus. The speaker benefits from the space afforded by the loss of it as there’s more room for sound to resonate, OnePlus says. And there’s a dongle in the box for your headphones.
The company has also launched USB-C Bullets, a version of its excellent headphones with the USB-C connector for a reasonable price.
Watching video looks great on the rich OLED display, but bear in mind you’ll either get black bars thanks to the aspect ratio. You can zoom in on video to fill the display, though you’ll lose some of the picture and be more aware of the notch.
Cameras
The cameras on the 6T are physically the exact same hardware as found on the OnePlus 6: a 16Mp f/1.7 main sensor with optical image stabilization paired with a secondary 20Mp f/1.7 telephoto lens.
Results are really good, if behind the Pixel 3. Although the hardware is the same as before, OnePlus has added some subtle software smarts such as a night mode that clearly boosts low light. In daylight
the cameras cope very well with a good contrast and colour balance, though some over saturation particularly of greens and grass.
The selfie camera is a 16Mp f/2.0 lens that sometimes struggles to take portrait shots, but is a capable single lens for most people’s front-facing needs. While easier to turn off than on some other phones, there’s still a beauty mode here that most will likely want to avoid. But it’s important to say that often studying smartphone cameras can really get you into the weeds: the cameras on the phone are very good. Unless you’re after a specific tone to your photos that doesn’t look like our test images, you’ll be more than happy with the lenses on the 6T.
The phone can record video up to 4K at 60fps, though most people won’t do this given the overkill (and file size). However, the capability is there if you want it. Stabilization isn’t as good as on the Pixel line, but it’s pretty impressive and means the 6T is a phone you can completely rely on as a point-and-shoot camera and video camera, no question.
Battery life
The 6T has a 3,700mAh battery, on the higher side for an Android flagship in 2018. Thankfully, the payoff for making the phone a bit thicker for this reason is outstanding battery performance.
Between charges we without fail got at least four hours screen on time with heavy use, and more often than not were pushing six. If you needed convincing on why to plump for the 6T above others, battery life is one of the main reasons.
Even using the phone to hotspot a laptop for most of a day didn’t run the battery down and we went to bed on about 20 percent. It’s a notable improvement that we personally don’t mind swapping for no headphone jack (there, we said it).
Software
OnePlus’s OxygenOS skin over Android 9 Pie is very accomplished and probably our favourite Android version along with Google’s on the Pixel 3.
Our review unit arrived with OxygenOS 9.0, but immediately pushed us an update to 9.0.3 that improved screen unlock, added navigation gestures and fixed some bugs. We like how the 6T lets you use Google’s new Pie navigation system, OnePlus’s own swipe gestures (which we prefer) or switch back to the traditional Android navigation buttons. This is customization you can’t get even on a Pixel
3, and we love the 6T for it. It doesn’t have wireless charging, proper waterproofing or a headphone jack, but the software is truly outstanding for Android enthusiasts and novices alike.
The customization options are easy to get used to and the OnePlus 6T is one of the most pleasingly individualistic phones you can buy at the moment because of this. Additions like granular controls for gaming mode that stops notifications and locks brightness are the sort of thoughtful changes to Android that we approve of – there if you need them, but completely out of the way and silent if you don’t.
Verdict
The 6T is the best OnePlus phone yet along with the now-defunct OnePlus 6. It’s the first OnePlus phone without a headphone jack, but it is also the one with the best battery life, speaker, display and cameras.
Compared to the rest of the market the cheapest model is still very competitive and this is a nobrainer purchase if you are looking to buy outright. Performance is as fast as the Pixel 3 and the flavour of Android is one we might even prefer to Google’s own.
If you really want a headphone jack, waterproofing and wireless charging you’ll look elsewhere, but we are able to look past all three omissions and can recommend the OnePlus 6T to anyone looking for a well-priced, flagship Android phone. Henry Burrell
Specifications
• 6.4in (2,340x1,080; 402ppi) Optic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• Android 9.0 Pie • Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 processor • Octa-core (4x 2.8GHz Kryo 385 Gold, 4x 1.7GHz
Kryo 385 Silver) CPU • Adreno 630 GPU • 6/8GB RAM • 128/256GB storage • Dual rear-facing cameras: 16Mp, f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/2.6in, 1.22μm, OIS, PDAF; 20Mp (16Mp effective), f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/2.8in, 1.0μm, PDAF
• 16Mp front-facing camera: f/2.0, 25mm (wide), 1/3.1in, 1.0μm • 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 5.0 • A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO • NFC • Fingerprint sensor (rear mounted) • USB 2.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector • Non-removable 3,700mAh lithium-polymer battery • 157.5x74.8x8.2mm • 185g
4. Samsung Galaxy S10+ Price: £999 from fave.co/2NzWRaD For our hands-on see page 33. 5. Huawei P30 Pro Price: £899 from fave.co/2GktGVb
Last year we were impressed with Huawei’s P20 Pro, which was then eclipsed six months later by the Mate
20 Pro. Now, another six months on, we have the P30 Pro, which takes a lot of the best features from the Mate 20 Pro and makes them even better. It isn’t the only new model. There’s also the P30, which is arguably just as good a choice for different reasons. Read our review at fave.co/2v2DVH7 to find out why.
Design
One of the biggest surprises is that the P30 Pro is more like an upgrade of the Mate 20 Pro, not its predecessor, the P20 Pro.
The P-series has always led with camera innovations, while the Mate series has been the bigger-screened cousin that focused more on performance (and rivalling Samsung’s Galaxy Note range). Not only has the P30 Pro’s screen grown to 6.5in, which is bigger than the Mate 20 Pro’s, but it also adopts the Mate’s curved edges on the front and back. There’s an in-screen fingerprint scanner as well, which is what allows the screen to be a taller 19.5:9 aspect ratio, compared to 18.7:9 on the P20 Pro.
The bottom edge of the P30 Pro is flatter than the Mate 20 Pro’s and the double-sided SIM tray is to the left of the USB-C port. There’s a more traditional speaker grille instead of using the USB port as the Mate 20 Pro does, but because of the new in-screen speaker, which is used for phone calls, the P30 Pro’s audio prowess takes a step back to mono instead of stereo.
But with 40-watt SuperCharging, 15-watt wireless charging and reverse wireless charging the P30
Pro seems to cannibalize all the best features from the Mate 20 Pro. That’s only a problem for Huawei, though, as there’s no good reason to buy a Mate 20 Pro any more.
The magnetic speaker works well for calls, and sounds like a normal speaker with your ear pressed to the screen. Huawei has upgraded the in-screen fingerprint scanner to make it faster than the Mate 20 Pro’s, although it’s still optical and not ultrasonic, so won’t work well if your finger is wet… or too dry.
Display
You might assume the screen is the same as the Mate 20 Pro’s, but you’d be wrong. It has a lower resolution and a lower pixel density of 398ppi. Huawei calls it Full HD+ because it is 2,340x1,080 pixels. In the flesh it looks sharp enough, though you can’t see the pixels at normal viewing distances.
Compared to Samsung’s AMOLED screens, the colours on the P30 Pro look more muted, even in Vivid mode. It means more natural-looking pictures, though. We still saw the same colour issues in certain apps as with the Mate 20 Pro, though, where they were too dark and just didn’t look right. And, put side by side with the iPhone XS Max, it’s clear that the P30 Pro’s colours are not as accurate. Not a deal-breaker, but something to bear in mind if this sort of thing bothers you.
There’s no notification LED, but you can enable the always-on display, which will show the time, date, battery level and certain notification icons. As ever, Huawei disables it by default.
Huawei hasn’t gone for a ‘punch-hole’ camera like some of its rivals, but the notch for the selfie camera is pleasingly symmetrical and much smaller than on the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro.
Cameras
With the updated design out of the way, let’s get to the important stuff: the cameras. Here’s what they all do:
Main: 40Mp, f/1.6, OIS, 27mm-equivalent Ultra-wide: 20Mp, f/2.2, 16mm-equivalent 5x Telephoto: 8Mp, f/3.4, OIS, 125mm-equivalent Time-of-flight camera: for depth sensing
That’s a lot of information, so to put it more simply, the P30 Pro allows you to take everything from an
ultra-wide photo to a close-up that’s the equivalent to a 10x zoom. To illustrate what that looks like, opposite are the ultra-wide and 10x close-up shots of St Pancras shown opposite.
If you’re wondering how it can be 10x when the telephoto camera is only 5x, it’s because the information from the 40Mp camera is combined with it to produce what Huawei is calling “lossless 10x zoom”. Here’s the same comparison on the Eiffel Tower, plus the 2x effort from an iPhone X
to show the difference in detail that’s achievable from a long distance.
The 10x mode isn’t lossless, but it is still mighty impressive for a phone. If you really want to play, you can zoom right up to 50x, but this is pure digital zoom and you won’t get any extra detail by using it.
It’s easy to use all the Huawei’s cameras because there’s a button at the side of the screen which indicates the current zoom level. It defaults to 1x, but it toggles to 5x, 10x, then Wide if you keep tapping it. You can also pinch to zoom if you want a zoom level in between these.
The photos opposite show the difference in lowlight performance between the P20 Pro (left) and P30
Pro (right) in their standard Photo mode, not long exposure Night mode. Huawei says the reason why the P30 is so much better is down to the new 40Mp SuperSpectrum sensor. It has red, yellow and blue pixels instead of red, green and blue. Yellow is used because it’s more sensitive and the sensor is said to capture 40 percent more light as a result. Combine this with optical stabilization and a larger aperture lens and it’s easy to understand why there is such a big improvement.
It’s possible to shoot in almost total darkness. You won’t see anything in the preview, so it’s hard to frame a shot, but you’ll be amazed at the details and colours
possible with practically zero light. It does tend to make low-light scenes look unnaturally bright as if they were shot in daylight, though.
All of the improvements translate to video as well, which means the P30 Pro is much more capable than its predecessors when shooting in low light with the SuperSpectrum sensor. There’s good stabilization in 4K, and you also get pretty smooth footage when using the 5x zoom, but things become wobbly if you try to shoot at 10x while holding the phone in your hands. Audio is very good too from the phone’s mics.
A future update, said to be arriving by the end of April 2019, will bring a new feature called Dual View video, which is the ability to record using two cameras at the same time – main and telephoto. This gives a dual perspective, with one half of the screen showing the wide view, and the other the zoomed-in view.
On top of this, there’s a new HDR+ mode, which uses the Kirin 980’s AI capabilities to identify not only dark and light areas of an image but what they are. It will then process the image intelligently according to what it ‘sees’, be that a person, a sunset, greenery or another object. Confusingly, HDR is still a separate mode in the camera app and we’d dearly like Huawei to enable it by default when the algorithms determine that it’s needed.
Oddly enough, ‘AI HDR’ is a toggle button in the Portrait mode when using the selfie camera, but not the rear camera.
What about that fourth camera? It’s not for taking photos, instead working in tandem with the IR flood illuminator above it to work out how far away things
are in the scene. This information is then used to determine which parts should be blurred out in a Portrait photo and should lead to more realisticlooking portraits.
The effect does look good, but isn’t perfect. Wisps of Dom’s hair and the rim of his glasses which overlap the background have still been inadvertently blurred.
If you’re not taking a picture of a person, you can get the same depth effect by swiping across to Aperture mode.
Macro capabilities are the last improvement, with the main camera being able to focus as close as 25mm from objects. You have to enable Macro mode
manually for this to work, which is a shame given how much Huawei goes on about the Kirin 980’s AI capabilities. Why can’t it figure out you’re taking a macro photo?
We also found that you can achieve similar results without macro mode by simply switching to the 5x zoom and getting close to your subject.
Photos from the 32Mp selfie camera look quite sharp on the phone’s screen, but we couldn’t help but notice a lack of detail in skin and other textures, and this is with all the beauty modes disabled. It sounds like a great upgrade, but unless Huawei delivers a software update that fixes the problem, all you’re getting is more pixels. The P30 has one other trick: the depth-sensing cameras on the rear allow the phone to measure objects in the real world, much like you can with Apple’s Measure app on the latest iPhones.
Performance
With an extra 2GB of RAM but the same processor as the Mate 20 Pro, the P30 Pro is a great performer. In our usual benchmarks, the results were largely the same: you won’t notice the benefit of the extra RAM in normal use.
Android runs without hiccup – no surprise there – and apps launch quickly and run smoothly. From a top-end phone you’d expect nothing less.
In terms of battery life, with a 4,200mAh capacity the P30 Pro goes on and on. It will comfortably last two full days with light use, and you should easily make it through a whole day with heavy use with juice to spare.
Running our usual test in Geekbench 4, the battery lasted almost exactly as long as the Mate 20 Pro did, running out after 11.5 hours – a lot longer than most of its rivals. If you haven’t experienced Huawei’s SuperCharge speeds, you’ll be utterly amazed at the rapid pace with which the battery tops up. From empty, it will recharge to over 70 percent in half an hour with the included mains adaptor and USB-C cable.
Software
EMUI isn’t to everyone’s liking, but the latest version is the most refined yet. There are still improvements that could be made, paring down settings even further – including those in the camera app.
It’s the same interface you’ll find on the Mate 20 Pro (and the P20 Pro now that the older phone has been updated to Android Pie).
The most recent feature addition is Digital Balance, which is an alternative to Google’s Digital Wellbeing App. It works like Screen Time in iOS, monitoring how much you use your phone and offering the ability to set limits for certain types of apps.
We couldn’t test out the new AR Measurement app as it wasn’t installed on our sample phone, but that’s the other notable difference in terms of software.
All other features are present and correct, including the nifty knuckle gestures that let you quickly launch apps, turn on the LED and take screenshots, plus the ability to run two apps on screen at once. It’s a long way from stock Android, but not in a bad way.
Verdict
The P30 Pro is a brilliant phone. It’s beautifully designed, comes in some eye-catching finishes and has exceptional cameras. It also brings the standout features from the Mate 20 Pro to the P-series, including wireless charging.
There are only minor niggles, such as the mono audio and slightly off colour accuracy from the screen. Yes, there’s no headphone jack, but the P30 Pro is water resistant, unlike the jack-toting P30.
The other negative is price: the P30 Pro costs a full £100 more than the Mate 20 Pro, but you won’t feel that if you’re getting it on contract. And let’s not forget, £899 isn’t unusual these days for a flagship phone. Jim Martin
Specifications
• 6.47in (2,340x1,080; 398ppi) OLED capacitive touchscreen • Android 9.0 (Pie) • HiSilicon Kirin 980 processor • Octa-core (2x 2.6GHz Cortex-A76, 2x 1.92GHz Cortex-A76, 4x 1.8GHz Cortex-A55) CPU • Mali-G76 MP10 GPU • 8GB RAM • 128GB, 256GB, 512GB storage • Four rear-facing cameras: 40Mp, f/1.6, (wide), 1/1.7in, PDAF/Laser AF, OIS; 20Mp, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.7in, PDAF/Laser AF; Periscope 8Mp, f/3.4, 80mm (telephoto), 1/4in, 5x optical zoom, OIS, PDAF/Laser AF; TOF 3D camera • Front-facing camera: 32Mp, f/2.0, (wide) • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 5.0 • A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS • NFC • Fingerprint scanner (under display) • USB Type-C 1.0 reversible connector • Non-removable 4,200mAh lithium-polymer battery • 158x73.4x8.4mm • 192g