The OnePlus 8T is the familiar mid-year upgrade of the OnePlus 8 series of smartphones. But what’s new from the OnePus 8 which was just launched back in April? There are about 3 main areas – (1) screen, (2) camera, and (3) battery. We’ll take a look at the changes, and some observations.

Unboxing

In the box, you’ll get the following items:

OnePlus 8T smartphone
Warp Charge 65 power adapter
Warp Charge Type-C to Type-C cable
Silicon case
Sim tray ejector
User manual

Tech specs

Dimensions	Height: 160.7 mm Width: 74.1 mm Thickness: 8.4 mm Weight: 188g
Display	Size: 6.55 inches (measured diagonally from corner to corner) Resolution: 2400 x 1080 pixels 402 ppi Aspect Ratio: 20:9 Type: 120 Hz Fluid AMOLED Support sRGB, Display P3 Cover Glass: Corning Gorilla Glass
Performance	Operating System: OxygenOS based on Android 11 CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G Chipset: X55 GPU: Adreno 650 RAM: 8GB/12GB LPDDR4X Storage: 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 2-LANE Battery: 4,500 mAh (2S1P 2,250 mAh, non-removable) Warp Charge 65 (10V/6.5A)
Connectivity	4×4 MIMO, Supports up to DL Cat 20/UL Cat 18 (2.0Gbps /200Mbps) WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax Bluetooth 5.1, support aptX & aptX HD & LDAC & AAC NFC
Sensors	In-display Fingerprint Sensor Accelerometer Electronic Compass Gyroscope Ambient Light Sensor Proximity Sensor Sensor Core Flicker-detect Sensor
Ports	USB 3.1 GEN1 Type-C Support standard Type-C earphones Dual nano-SIM slot
Audio	Dual Stereo Speakers Noise cancellation support Dolby Atmos

Screen

The screen is more or less the same as the OnePlus 8 – the large and vibrant 6.55-inch AMOLED display, but now comes a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The screen peaks out at 1100 nits brightness and also has a very responsive touch sensor. The front camera is a cutout on the upper corner which remains neat and unobtrusive.

The OnePlus 8T comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor, which is actually quite fast to unlock and has a nice haptic feedbacks. Check out the video demo below:

Battery

The OnePlus 8T now packs a slightly larger battery than the OnePlus 8, just 200mAh more at 4,500mAh. Also, the OnePlus 8T now supports a faster charging speed which OnePlus dubs the ‘Warp Charge 65’. As you guessed it, the 65 means that the OnePlus 8T can now charge at 65W. This means you can charge from 0% to 100% in about 40 minutes – insane fast. You can literally see the battery percentage going up during the charge.

There are concerns that fast charging can depreciate your battery health quickly. It’s hard to say for sure. I would have to use the OnePlus 8T for more than a year to judge fairly. Thankfully if you’re worried out that, OnePlus has made some software tweaks such as ‘Optimise Charging‘ so your battery remains healthy in the long run. One thing to keep in mind is that the OnePlus 8T (like the 8) does not support wireless charging, which feels like a huge miss for a S$900 priced phone.

As for battery life, it is reliable. I can get through a full day of use with always-on display turned on. Speaking of always-on display, which is called ‘Ambient Display’ in settings, you can also set a schedule for it. This is a pretty nifty feature as you don’t actually require the display to be turned on when you’re sleeping at night, thus saving some battery if you don’t charge your phone overnight.

Camera

The OnePlus 8T comes with a quad rear camera setup:

48MP f/1.7 wide
16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide
5MP macro
2MP monochrome

To be honest, I don’t think would get much use of the macro and monochrome lens given such low megapixel. I’ll be focusing on the main wide and ultra-wide camera.

Photos are sharp, contrasty and have colours that pop, but can be slightly inaccurate in terms of white balance. Comparing photos shot on the OnePlus 8T to the iPhone 11, the OnePlus 8T’s photos are not as colour accurate, and are more aggressive on shadows and highlights.

Let’s take a look at the typical landscape scenery shot in good daylight with the main wide lens below. Unless looking at both of them side by side, you can’t really tell which is which. But you can notice that the shadows are greater on the OnePlus 8T. The OnePlus 8T also retains slightly more detail, which I’ve noticed zooming in.

The photo below is shot on the ultra-wide lens. This time, the difference is a little more obvious. OnePlus 8T looks more punchy and aggressive.

Now let’s check out some some indoor shots.

In the two photos above taken of food, you can see that on the OnePlus 8T, the white balance is slightly off. In the sushi photo, the yellow on the cheese is lighter than that of the iPhone. I found the colour reproduction of the iPhone 11 to be more accurate. The photo of the McCrispy drumstick shows the white balance difference more clearly. The photo was taken indoors with warm lighting. The iPhone 11 yet again produces more colour accurate photos.

The above photo of the stairway was both taken in normal mode (ie. no night mode or nightscape). As you can see, the larger aperture of the OnePlus 8T is able to take in more light to reveal the background buildings.

Nightscape (ie. Night Mode)

Both of the above comparisons are taken with OnePlus 8T’s Nightscape and compared with iPhone 11’s Night Mode. In both photos, the OnePlus 8T look brighter and more punchy. It does look pretty nice especially in the bicycle picture, but it is not as accurate of a representation of what my eyes were seeing. OnePlus 8T’s Nightscape can blow out the highlights when scene is tricky such as the one at Jewel.

Day-to-day usage & OxygenOS 11

With a smartphone running Snapdragon 865, you can expect the OnePlus 8T to be snappy. Everything loads quickly and feels responsive. There is still the physical mute switch which I am very fond of. OxygenOS11 is a a pretty nice look. It takes some design cues from Samsung’s OneUI, but it’s good as it helps with one-handed usage which is helpful for a large phone like the OnePlus 8T. OnePlus 8T feature dual stereo speakers which supports many audio codecs like aptX HD and LDAC. Volume is loud enough and sound clear with good mid-treble emphasis.

Conclusion

The OnePlus 8T is offers an almost flagship experience at a price that is pretty reasonable. If you are used to wireless charging then the lack of it may be a deal breaker for you. Having said that, the insanely fast Warp Charge 65 can be really useful. You can still expect a very solid performance on the OnePlus 8T especially with the fluid 120Hz.

OnePlus 8T retails in two variants: S$899 (8/128GB) and at S$1099 (12/256GB).