OnePlus 8T
A glorious 120Hz screen, fabulous performance and ridiculous battery life – what more could you want?
SCORE
PRICE 128GB, £458 (£549 inc VAT) from oneplus.com/uk
What’s the difference between the OnePlus 8 ( see issue 309, p61) and the OnePlus 8T? Far more than a “T” suffix might suggest: the 8T has a new design, 65W fast charging and twin batteries that mean it goes from zero to full in 39 minutes. Battery life is phenomenal, too: in our video-rundown test, the 8T’s 4,500mAh double battery lasted 26hrs 30mins, placing it fifth in our all-time list.
It inherits the 120Hz AMOLED display from the OnePlus 8 Pro ( see issue 309, p58), which is a nominal improvement on the 90Hz screen of the regular OnePlus 8, but I’m unconvinced it makes a discernible difference. In my experience, 90Hz is as slick an interface as anyone needs. Still, I’m not nitpicking as this 1,080 x 2,400 screen remains a cracker. Brightness peaks at 451cd/m2 with auto-brightness disabled and goes up to o 733cd/m 733cd/m2 on sunny days with auto-brightness switched witched on, ensuring the screen creen remains readable in the he brightest conditions.
There are three colour modes: Vivid delivers 148.5% 48.5% of the sRGB colour gamut, amut, Display P3 goes up to o 138% and the more naturalistic sRGB mode delivered 92.7% coverage out ut of a 94.8% volume. Colour accuracy is strong in n both sRGB and Display P3 colour modes, returning average verage Delta E colour difference scores of 1.58 for sRGB RGB and 1.36 in Display
P3, with Vivid not being so accurate ccurate but adding extra pop to colours.
There’s one significant new feature: an always-on display. It’s a little late, but OnePlus has implemented it t nicely with 11 different “AOD” AOD” displays to choose from rom – one of which shows you how many times you’ve unlocked your phone that day.
I mentioned a change of design, but it’s subtle. The display fills the majority of the body with slim bezels on each of the four sides, and there’s a small hole-punch selfie camera peeking out from the top-left corner. OnePlus hides the phone’s fingerprint reader beneath the display at the bottom and this works reliably. A quick squint around the edges reveals that OnePlus hasn’t fiddled around with the positioning of the phone’s controls, with the ever-useful do-notdisturb slider still present on the right-hand edge.
The rear of the phone is where we see the first big change, with the camera array moved from a strip in the centre to a rectangle in the top-left corner. OnePlus makes more of an effort than Samsung to make this look nice, with rounded corners, plus extra detailing surrounding the second column of sensors.
The main camera remains a 48-megapixel, f/1.7 Sony IMX586 module with OIS as used in the OnePlus 8, and this is joined by three others: ultrawide, macro and monochrome (there’s a fixed-focus 16-megapixel f/2.4 selfie camera too). The ultrawide camera has a slightly wider field of view than the one on the OnePlus 8, at 123° versus 116°, although its resolution and aperture are still 16 megapixels and f/2.2. The macro camera enjoys a resolution bump, up from two megapixels to a more useful five megapixels.
“In short, the OnePlus 8T has enough power for years to come and, as with the OnePlus 8, 5G comes as standard”
The new monochrome camera is the most interesting inclusion. It’s employed in conjunction with the main sensor to add extra lightgathering capabilities and it works: images look more detailed, thanks to less noise and the image softening this often leads to. The only gripe I have is that the mono camera doesn’t have a mode of its own in the camera app. Instead, you must select the filters menu then scroll to the end until you reach the “Mono” filter.
Otherwise, performance from the main camera is as expected. That is, very good – until you compare it to a rival such as the iPhone 12 ( see p58). The macro mode is a dramatic improvement: as long as your subject isn’t moving around too much, you can grab impressive close-ups.
Video capabilities remain the same, with the OnePlus 8T able to capture 4K at up to 60fps, fully stabilised, while slow-motion footage can be captured at up to 240fps in 1080p and 480fps in 720p resolution. The quality is okay, but fine details often take on the appearance of an oil painting when examined closely.
With Qualcomm’s well-established Snapdragon 865 inside, there are no surprises in terms of performance. In short, this phone has enough power for years to come and, as with the OnePlus 8, 5G comes as standard. It’s supported by 8GB of RAM if you buy the 128GB version, and 12GB if you splash out £649 for 256GB. Note that there’s no microSD expansion slot here. Nor is there an official IP rating for dust and water resistance, or wireless charging come to that, but NFC is present for contactless payments.
All of these improvements push it ahead of similarly priced rivals, including the Google Pixel 5 opposite.
Not only does the OnePlus 8T have a nicer design, but also a longer-lasting and fastercharging battery. It can’t match the very best for photography and video, but if you’re looking to spend around £500 on a smartphone, this is the one to beat. JONATHAN BRAY
SPECIFICATIONS
Octa-core 2.84GHz/2.42GHz/1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 8GB/12GB RAM
Adreno 650 graphics 5G 6.55in 120Hz AMOLED screen, 1,080 x 2,400 resolution 128GB/256GB storage quad 48/16/5/ 2-megapixel rear camera 16-megapixel front camera Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 NFC USB-C connector 4,500mAh battery Android 11 74 x 8.4 x 161mm (WDH) 188g
1yr warranty