- Hey guys, this is Austin!
The OnePlus 7T is my favorite OnePlus phone yet.
At 600 dollars, you have a terrific screen,
great performance, and cameras
which are actually decent this year.
Now if that's all you care about,
feel free to stop watching the video,
but there's a lot more to this OnePlus 7T
than meets the eye.
We've got to start with the screen, it's terrific.
Not only is it plenty bright even in daylight,
but importantly, it is a super smooth 90 hertz.
Now this is certainly not the first
high refresh rate display on a phone,
the Razer Phone a couple years ago pulled that off,
however it was a phone with lots of compromises.
Sure you had that smooth performance, then things
like brightness and color accuracy really weren't there.
However with the 7T, I really feel like they nailed it.
Now sure, it's only 1080P as opposed to 1440P like the pro,
and that was plenty sharp,
but I will take this screen any day.
It gets significantly brighter, and importantly
you pay less of the battery life penalty.
Not only resolution hurts, but also the higher frame rate
means that your GPU is not being taxed more.
I think that this is a really nice sweet-spot.
So the last week I've been using a pair of phones,
the OnePlus 7T, as well as the iPhone 11 Pro.
Well obviously this is the more expensive phone,
there's a lot going for it, you know what?
I keep going back to the 7T, and almost entirely
because of just how smooth the screen is.
The 90 hertz isn't a huge deal for some people.
I know some people can't tell a major difference.
But as far as I'm concerned, it is so, so much smoother.
Obviously iOS 13 and the more powerful A13
on the iPhone are quick, but the actual response
on this in the way this looks and feels to me,
is sort of ruining every other
60 hertz display out there, which is like literally
all phones besides the Razer Phone and the ROG.
I think we're going to see a lot more of this
super smooth display action in
a lot of other phones coming up.
I mean the Pixel 4 is very heavily rumored to include it.
Because Samsung is making the OLED panels
that go well out of these phones,
wouldn't be surprised to see it
on the next generation Galaxy as well.
I mean really at this point, it just makes such a difference
to smooth this that why wouldn't you do it?
Especially considering that it's now
on a 600 dollar OnePlus phone.
This is a smaller point, but something
I really like with the 7T, is the physical size.
As much as I like that 7 Pro, it is a big, hefty phone.
And I like the 7T because it's
pretty much smaller in all aspects.
So it's significantly thinner,
it's also a little bit smaller,
and pretty much all other dimensions,
but the thing that really makes the big difference
is the fact that it is a little bit narrower
thanks to that 20:9 display.
Now with that, it means that yes the phone is very tall,
but in the hand, especially paired with the tapered back,
and how like narrow it is,
it actually is a very usable size.
A lot of times when I get a really wide phone,
a really heavy phone, it's hard for me
to use on a regular basis.
But this 7T hits a really nice sweet spot.
It's a lot better than I thought,
considering that on paper, it's only like a millimeter here,
a few grams there, but it does add up.
Now the next question is the camera
which is traditionally been a weak point on OnePlus phones.
Now this time around the OnePlus 7T
has a very familiar triple camera set up,
a 17 millimeter ultra-wide camera,
a 28 millimeter wide camera,
as well as 51 meter telephoto camera.
In fact, if that sounds familiar,
that's because that is nearly the exact same setup
as which you'll find on the iPhone 11 Pro.
So why don't we do a little blind camera test
to see if you guys can tell the difference
because there are some pretty major ones,
but also some of these shots look pretty close as well.
Not bad for a phone that costs 400 dollars less.
First off we have a shot taken on the ultra-wide cameras.
So camera A, I immediately liked the color more,
Camera B looks a little bit more washed out.
If I zoom in here, I think,
there's definitely a little bit more detail
in camera A, compared to camera B which is, I don't know.
It looks like every thing is a little bit more washed out
there's actual skin tones here,
where it's kind of almost black and white here.
Next up we have a shot taken on the standard
white angle cameras on both phones.
Now this one, I think is a very very clear win for camera 2.
You can see it, there's so much more dynamic range,
whereas in camera A it's almost kind of like silhouette-y.
Now this next shot was taken on the telephoto lenses.
So I think camera B is probably a little more life like,
but honestly, I think that it's a
clear win for camera A here.
You can see that there's a little bit more detail
on the actual basket here, and especially the flowers
kind of all fall a little bit flat on camera B
whereas they're actually kind of nice and punchy.
I can easily kind of distinguish between them.
This next photo is a macro-shot.
So here they're actually pretty close.
Detail-wise, it looks like camera B
did a little bit of a better job.
Yeah that leaf is definitely sharper on camera A.
I think camera B is a little bit warmer, but I'd give a
slight lend to camera B, but not by a huge amount here.
Now the last comparison is with the night modes.
So camera A is a clear loser here.
So this was shot in a very dark environment
and both actually did a really good job
of pulling the level up, in fact I think camera A
did a little bit better job sort of getting the white balnce
just right, however if you look at my face,
it's just not focused correctly,
whereas camera B did a much better job.
Now at this point I think it's very clear
that there are some pretty major
differences between these cameras.
Shall we reveal which one's which?
So I'm very curious, which phone do you like better?
Is it camera A or camera B?
Let me know in the comments below
of which phone you think is which.
Don't worry, don't cheat, I'm just gonna sit here,
go down to the comments, pause the video,
let me know what you think, and the answer is,
Camera A is the OnePlus 7T,
whereas camera B is the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Bet you didn't see that one coming, did ya?
Or maybe you did.
There are some real surprises here,
and I think the main thing that really jumps out to me
is that these camera actually traded blows.
A lot of times where I'd prefer the much more
less expensive OnePlus 7, now specifically
with the night mode, this is actually
where the 7T stumbled the most, focus,
it just didn't like to focus at night.
So I've taken some really nice night-scape shots
and some of them look fantastic,
but as far as actually having people in the frame,
it generally just doesn't like that focus,
and I wanna think that we took probably six or seven
of these before we finally got
the OnePlus to actually lock on.
So if we take a look at the OnePlus side by side
with the iPhone as far as portrait mode,
I've gotta say I actually kind of prefer
the OnePlus in this shot.
So especially when you look at Ken's fingers here,
you can actually see that it's really nicely cut out,
whereas on the iPhone, it kind of misses a little bit.
Now the iPhone does do a little bit of a better job,
I think it warms the image up,
it looks a little bit more natural.
But, that being said, I think the OnePlus
actually does a much better job
of cutting Ken outta the frame.
There's really no misses at all,
when the iPhone's a little bit soft.
The OnePlus does have a couple of extra features,
so it has a super steady video mode
which it does bring it down to 1080P,
it looks good although the video
generally speaking does not match up to the iPhone,
and you lack the ability to easily change
between the lenses while recording that the iPhone can.
But one thing the OnePlus does have going for it
is a dedicated macro-mode.
So this takes advantage of the ultra wide camera
so there's actually a physical motor there to help it focus.
You can get super super close.
Some of the shots I've gotten on the OnePlus,
I could not have gotten them pretty much any other phone.
Generally speaking, The OnePlus 7T
actually has a pretty impressive camera set up.
So while yes, the main camera can't touch very high end
such as the iPhone 11 and the 11 Pro.
Both the ultra wide and especially the telephoto
do a really good job of trading blows.
And between the portrait mode
which seems to be really solid,
and especially that ultra wide with the macro mode?
There's a lot going for this phone,
especially getting considering it is 400 dollars cheaper.
Well I guess it's only 100 dollars cheaper
that the iPhone 11, but then you're lacking
the telephoto, that's not quite a fair fight.
Regardless though, OnePlus 7T is
really stepped up in the camera games this year.
Like most other 2019 flagships,
the 7T is taking advantage of a
very matte finish on the glass panel.
Personally, I like the way it looks and it feels.
Especially with this nebula blue color,
I think it looks really nice,
it's actually called glacier this year isn't it?
Glacier, not nebula that's the pro.
This one's better anyway though,
I like the blue, it's much bluer than the pro ever was.
The rest of the design should feel very familiar
if you've used any recent OnePlus phones.
So not only does it have a very high quality vibrate motor
but it's also paired with the little
alert slider which I just love playing with.
And on top of that, this is the third iteration
of their in display fingerprint sensor.
Now the harder I think, is that big of a difference
this year so, it's still not quite as fast or as accurate
as I'd like, however OnePlus says that they've done
a lot of software tuning, just beat up the animations,
and generally speaking it is better
that what has been in the past.
It's not my favorite, I definitely prefer a physical sensor,
but it is certainly usable and it getting better.
I can imagine with a few more updates
it actually might be good and not just okay.
Now there are certainly things missing from the 7T.
So there's still no official IP rating,
although they do have a fair
but of water assistance already.
It's just not officially certified,
but things like the SIM card tray
actually have a little rubber gasket
so, I wouldn't be that concerned about getting it wet.
And there's also still no wireless charging.
This is a little bit more of a sticking point for me,
I really do enjoy the convince of just throwing my phone
on a wireless charger from time to time,
but OnePLus's answer to that is, Warp Charge 30T.
So this is basically the same technology
they've been using since the seven pro,
as well as the McLaren edition of the 6T.
However the 30T means that there's actually additional
optimization going on on the phone,
which will allow it to charge even faster.
They claim that this will go from
zero to 100% in just 60 minutes.
Now, I didn't try a full 0-100 run, but doing stuff like
15 to 60 percent, takes like 20-25 minutes.
I mean it is incredible fast charging.
I just wish you know you could drop
on a wireless charger when you want,
but regardless, this is about as fast
as a phone can do right now.
Now only the 7 Pro which completely has gotten rid
of the notch, the 7T has one,
except it's just very, very small.
So in fact it's something like 30% smaller than the 6T.
And honestly I don't care.
It doesn't bother me in the slightest.
It is incredibly small, and doesn't even impact
anything beyond just a little tiny part of your status bar,
and realistically I kinda prefer this
opposed to a moving part which may or may not break.
I mean, I don't know.
It's just to me it's a complete non issue.
This is one of the smallest notches on any phone right now.
Inside, this has some of the best specs
on any Android phone out right now.
So you've got the new Snapdragon 855+
processor, paired with 8 gigs of ram,
as well as either 128 or 256 gigs of fast UFS 3 storage.
And on top of that, you also of course
do have that 90 hertz display.
That's a lot of spec talk, that's a lot of things
which sound great on paper,
but in reality, this thing is stupid fast.
OnePlus's have always performed well,
but especially when you put that 90 hertz display
paired with all the other stuff
they've got with the optimization and the great hardware.
I mean this is one of the fastest phones I've ever used
like straight up, it absolutely flies.
Part of the credit here certainly goes to Android 10,
which is shipping preloaded on the 7T.
Now OxygenOS has long been the least offensive of most
Android skins, most of the stuff they've added
here is actually good and they've really pretty much
left all the stock stuff alone,
so that means we have dark mode,
we also have some of the great
Android 10 battery life improvements.
Which paired with the 3800mAh
cell and the 1080p screen
means that I've actually had no problems
getting through a full day of use with the 7T.
With the Warp Charger, I mean literally like 10, 15 minutes
of charging is all I need to top this guy out.
That's actually pretty impressive battery life wise.
Now it's not a OnePlus exclusive feature,
but man I've gotta say that I love
the multitasking gestures in Android 10.
It's a huge step up over nine as well as the buttons,
Although you actually can turn those on still if you like.
You're able to just swipe up,
we can easily swipe between apps,
it is so much better and it's pretty much
straight up the way that iOS works.
Now, do I care that they stole it?
No, this is the way to do it,
just better in like literally every way.
Yeah there are some tweaks I'd like to see.
First of all the auto brightness
just kind of isn't very consistent here,
80% of the time it's totally fine,
but a lot of times, I'm having
to manually change it 'cause it's not quite keeping up.
And on top of that, the camera app could use some tweaks.
It's generally fine, hadn't really had any crashes,
but it's not anywhere near as fast as I'd like,
you know, switching between modes, or whatever,
it feels just a little bit finicky.
These are fairly minor nit picks though,
the 7T actually does a lot right
especially considering it's got stereo speakers,
and I was about to say headphone jack, I guess I can't.
That's too soon.
The lineup is actually fairly
straightforward here in the US now.
So OnePlus 7 Pro will be sticking around,
The 7T will be joining it at
T-Mobile stores starting on October 18th.
Now for your 600 dollars, you are getting a great display,
a solid performance, and a pretty decent camera.
All of which adds up to a phone
which I think is pretty easy to recommend.
Now yes, I do wish it was a little bit cheaper,
something like the OnePlus 6T of last year
like 550 or something but at 600 dollars
there's a lot to like here.
I think they've done a terrific job.
This is straight up my favorite OnePlus yet.