OnePlus 7T: one of the most powerful smartphones on the market

Presentation

Five months after the announcement of the OnePlus 7 and the OnePlus 7 Pro, the Chinese manufacturer returns with a new model, the OnePlus 7T. This new model is inspired by the OnePlus 7 by providing it with 3 photo sensors, a new processor or even a 90 Hz screen.

At the time of this writing, OnePlus has not yet communicated on the price of the 7T, but one can easily imagine that it should be close to that of the OnePlus 7 when it is released (€ 559 as a reminder). Its direct competitors could then be the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, the Asus Zenfone 6, the Xiaomi Mi 9 or even the Google Pixel 3a XL, to name a few.

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Ergonomics and design

At first glance, the OnePlus 7T looks a lot like the previous OnePlus 7. The differences are noticeable in a few details. The mobile that interests us today adopts a slightly larger template - it is a bit higher, of the order of the size of a teardrop notch. It is one millimeter wider, but remains less than 10 mm wider compared to the OnePlus 7 Pro. In hand, the phone is relatively light (190 g).

At the front, there is not much except a notch in the shape of a drop of water. The Fluid Amoled screen has a definition of 2,400 x 1,080 px and occupies approximately 88% of the total surface. The fingerprint sensor is located below, as in the two previous iterations of OnePlus.

It's when you linger on your back that you spot the biggest change. The sensors now rest on a round island - like what we saw on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, for example. The polished glass finish of this OnePlus 7T is similar to what we saw on the OnePlus 7 Pro. Very pleasant to the touch, it ensures a good grip, although a little slippery at times.

The slices are fairly standard. On the right, there is the start button as well as a button to slide to switch between silent, vibrating and ringing modes. Opposite are the volume controls. On the lower edge are placed the USB-C port, a speaker and the slot that can accommodate up to 2 SIM cards.

Like the previous two models, the OnePlus 7T is deprived of a 3.5 mm mini-jack. There is also no adapter delivered to connect your favorite headset. It will therefore be necessary to use USB-C headphones or prefer the use of a Bluetooth device.

Rare thing, these are two speakers (one on the low edge and the other, just above the screen) which deliver here a rather good sound, close to what we could observe on the Pro version OnePlus 7.

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Screen

With its 7T, OnePlus brings 90 Hz to a more affordable terminal. And let's say at the outset, the proposed slab is of excellent quality. With its diagonal of 6.55 inches, it displays in 2,400 x 1,080 px for a resolution of 405 ppi. It is however necessary to take a quick tour in the settings of the device in order to make the most of it. We therefore recommend that you access the parameters, choose the display tab, open the choice of screen profile and opt for Natural mode; Vivid mode being unconvincing. This done, you will get an average delta E of 2.3. This value means that the color drifts of the screen are generally so weak that they appear imperceptible to the human eye. If videographers calibrate their screen to 6,500 K to work, you will have here a 7,010 K screen, close enough to the video standard to be satisfied. Oled obliges, the contrast of the slab tends towards infinity.

To guarantee optimal comfort, the OnePlus 7T panel is capable of climbing up to 566 cd / m² and going down to 2 cd / m². It therefore remains legible in full sun and does not damage the retinas in the most complete darkness. It also offers a fairly good reactivity, with a tactile delay of 72 ms. Finally, its only gap is on the side of the reflectance, much too high (53.2%).

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Performances

In terms of performance, the OnePlus 7T offers a paradoxical experience. Equipped with 8 GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 855+ chip, one of the most powerful on the market today, the smartphone delivers excellent results in multitasking (index 99.89) and is positioned on the second of our podium, just behind ... the OnePlus 7 Pro (100).

On the other hand, things are spoiling on the side of the game. The OnePlus 7T achieves here a halftone performance (score of 53.28). It is a little worse than the 7T Pro (59.77), but above all that its direct competition. This translates into disappointing graphics and framerate compared to a Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, a Samsung Galaxy S10e or even a P30 Pro.

This gap brings down the overall performance index of this 7T, which is finally positioned at 76.58, a little below its direct competition, whether on the lower or higher price bands.

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Photo

There will obviously be two schools in 2019. On the one hand, the Americans (Apple, Google), who opt for square photo islands on the back of their smartphones, and on the other, the Chinese, who prefer rounding. Unsurprisingly, OnePlus is therefore in the second camp, accompanying Huawei. At the heart of its island, the 7T houses three modules: the main, with a 48 MP sensor and a lens opening at f / 1.6 (equivalent to 26 mm in 24x36); the second, dedicated to the very wide-angle, offers a 16 MP sensor supported by a lens opening at f / 2.2 (equivalent 17 mm); finally, the third and last module offers a 2x "telephoto" (8 MP, f / 2.2, eq. 51 mm).

With the basic settings, the 7T captures snapshots in 12 Mpx, despite the definition of its sensor in 48 Mpx. The reason is as always the action of the pixel bining, a technique allowing to combine four pixels in order to catch more light at night. It is however possible to switch to 48 MP via the parameters of the manufacturer's photo application.

It must be admitted that the pictures are disappointing. By day, the OnePlus 7T strongly overexposes the scene. So we are left with burnt whites and bland colors. To make matters worse, a loss of detail is felt at the periphery. These results are all the more regrettable as the image processing operated by OnePlus 7T turns out to be rather light. We therefore find a controlled smoothing, letting all the details show through in the image, especially in the center.

At night, the result is strangely more convincing. The scene is better exposed and remains perfectly legible. A lot of details are present. To obtain this result, OnePlus chose to extend the pause time (1/10 s) and maintain the sensitivity (5000 ISO). Unfortunately, the colors are still discreet.

For its part, the night mode (available in the application concocted by OnePlus) is content to accentuate the contrasts, even if it means delivering more artistic than realistic results.

By day, the very wide-angle module of the OnePlus 7T suffers from the same problems as the main module. We thus find an overexposed scene and bland colors. Added to this is a little more present image processing, erasing certain details of the image. But overall, the result remains more than correct in the face of competition still groping on its secondary modules; proof is the result of the Xiaomi MI 9T Pro.

As always with very wide angle modules, things are much less brilliant at night. The result is here drowned out under the image smoothing and only the center of the photo turns out to be correctly exposed. The entire periphery is therefore found in the dark. Result, a cliche little exploitable.

The 2x telephoto module of the 7T offers satisfactory shots. The scene turns out to be correctly exposed and the colors faithful. A touch of smoothing is regrettable, but nothing too serious. We are facing here clichés of good quality.

Like its competitors, the 7T switches to its main module when the light runs out. Impossible to judge the quality of the third night module therefore.

The 16 MP front sensor offers rather satisfactory selfies. The camera is not too abrupt by the strong lights and, in fact, correctly exposes the scene. The portrait mode is doing admirably well, the clipping is effective and the blurring effect is fairly well balanced - even if we would have liked to be able to adjust it ourselves.

The macro lens, although anecdotal, works well. Much better than on an Honor 20 Pro, but not yet at the level of what is offered on the Huawei P30 Pro.

Finally, on video, you can film up to 4K at 60 frames per second with electronic stabilization (EIS) which effectively limits tremors.

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Autonomy

The OnePlus 7T arrives with a 3,800 mAh battery. Not as enduring as on the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 pro, it will still last 16 h 05 min before running out.

On the other hand, for recharging it is a real racing beast. It takes a hair more than an hour to get 100% battery thanks to the fast charger at 30 W.

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Conclusion

The OnePlus 7T brings welcome changes like a third sensor or the screen at 90 Hz and is therefore a continuation of the OnePlus 7 - which also remains an excellent mid-range smartphone. It will easily delight those who wish to invest in one of the most powerful phones on the market, without aiming for the top of the basket.

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