40 JANUARY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE383
T-BRANDEDONEPLUS PHONEStend to
only present minor upgrades on their
non-Tcounterparts, so the 7T is an exciting
change of tact: there are so many changes
and additions here,it’s hard to know where
to start.
On the rear, forexample, the vertically
stackeddual cameras on the OnePlus 7
(Shopper380)havebeen replaced by three
lenses arranged horizontally. Granted, it’s not
the mostattractive piece of design–the black
housing surrounding thelenses is huge,and
pokes out toofar from theback –but on the
whole,this is stillaverygood-looking handset,
and the display has been improved, too.
GO RATEAHEAD
Besidesbeing slightly biggerthan the OnePlus
7’s screen, at 6.55indiagonally, this displayhas
inherited the higher 90Hz refresh rateofthe
OnePlus 7Pro (Shopper379). The result is
that everythingfrom websiteand menu
scrollingtopanning aroundinGoogle Maps
feels ultra-slick. It’s so smooth,infact, that
goingbacktousing aregularsmartphone
with a60Hzdisplay(that’s most of them)
feels alittle odd.
Although the Full HD resolution remains
unchanged,there have beenother display
improvements, too. We measuredpeak
brightness at 650cd/m2, up considerably
from theOnePlus 7’s 428cd/m2, and the
amountofblue light that the screenemits
has beenreduced.
As with previous OnePlus phones, you
get the choice between
several different colour
profiles in the display
settings: Natural, Vivid
and Advanced.Natural
seemstobecalibratedto
reproduce thesRGB
colour space,which is the
best mode foruse while
browsing the web, while
Vivid is closesttothe
DCI-P3 colour space
used in HDR TV and
movie content. Advanced
allowsyou to choose
from sRGB and DCI-P3
presets and tweak the
whitebalance,but you’re
best off just sticking with
the maintwo modes.
In thesemodes,the
OnePlus 7T’s display
ONEPLUS 7T
★★★★★
£550•Fromwww.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
The OnePlus 7T introduces ahostofimprovements,
but its new camera proves to be afundamental flaw
ANDROID 9.0 SMARTPHONE
performs well,and
it’spretty muchspot
on with the target
colour gamuts.
There are no
particularly
problematic areas
forcolour accuracy
either, and the use
of an AMOLED
panel ensures
perfect contrast.
TheOnePlus 7T
hasn’tentirelyditched
the original model’s
Qualcomm Snapdragon
855 chip,but hereit’s
the Snapdragon 855+,
the plus suffix merely
denoting overclocked core speeds,uptoa
maximum of 2.96GHz.
Sincethe OnePlus 7could reach 2.84GHz,
the performance difference is tiny: the 7T’s
Geekbench 4single-core result of 784 is only
slightly higher than the 7’s 733, and its
multicore result of 2,738 is actually lowerthan
the 7’s 2,805.The two handsetsalso tiedin
GFXBench’s Manhattan onscreen test, scoring
60fps apiece,although the 7T pulled ahead
with113fpsinthe offscreen test.
Thechange in processor speeds hasn’t
changed battery life, either,asthe OnePlus 7T
lasted 21h 13m in ourvideo rundown test, a
mere two minutes longer than the OnePlus 7.
Youcould possiblycomplain about thelack of
bigsteps forward, then,
but ultimately the
OnePlus7Tisapowerful
and long-lastingAndroid
phone; you don’t need
to makemajor
improvementswhenthe
OnePlus7did so well in
these tests to begin with.
SHORTSIGHTED
Going back to that camera
arrangement, thenew
rear cameracomprisesa
48-megapixel primary
lens,a12-megapixel
2x telephoto lens and a
16-megapixel ultra-wide-
angle lens. Thesenew
tools are utilised in some
clever ways: the telephoto
lens enables an impressive
macroshooting mode,
and video shot with
the wide-angle lens
can be stabilisedby
dynamically cropping
pixels aroundthe
edge.Unfortunately,
theseneat tricks
are overshadowed
by some very
serious problems.
48-megapixel shots
are heavy afflictedwith
artefacts, effectively
forcingyou to use
the main lens for
12-megapixel shots
instead,and when
you switch to the2x
telephotolens, the cameraoftengoesmad
and completely oversaturates theimage.
The wide-anglelensalso hasapatch in
the centre whereitnoticeably distorts the
image.Instills, this takesthe form of asmall
bulge in thecentre,which, if you’re shooting
subjectmatter with straight lines, willbe
immediately obvious. Shift intothe stabilised
video modeand, because the footage crops
intothe central areaofthe sensor,the issue
becomes even more obvious.
SHUTTER SHAMBLES
The only thing that works perfectly hereis
the videorecording from the main and
telephotocameras. Youcan record in 4K at up
to 60fps, thefootage is both detail-packed
and very stable,evenwithout thewide-angle
lens’s SuperStable mode enabled,and the
zoom is prettysmooth, too.
Sadly,thisisn’t enough to redeemthe
camera, which is so wracked with issues that
we can’trecommendthe OnePlus 7T even
with its welcome improvements elsewhere.
NathanSpendelow
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 84 forperformancedetails
PROCESSOROcta-core2.9GHzQualcommSnapdragon855+•
SCREEN SIZE6.55in•SCREENRESOLUTION2,400x1,080•
REAR CAMERAS48 megapixels,12megapixels,16megapixels
- STORAGE128GB•WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCYes•
DIMENSIONS161x74x8.1mm•WEIGHT190g•OPERATING
SYSTEMAndroid 9.0•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•
DETAILSwww.oneplus.com•PART CODE7T
SPECIFICATIONS
21h13m
