Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “OnePlus 8T review: Flying too close to the Nord”.
It’S that time of year again, it seems like every smartphone maker is making new smartphones and oneplus has just announced its t line of devices for this year. This time around, it’s just the 80, no ht pro, because oneplus said it wants to keep its ultra flagship devices to a yearly thing. I’Ve spent the last week with the oneplus 8t, and this is android authority’s review. Before we get into the details. I just want to compare it first to its predecessor, the oneplus 8.. Now, as you can see here, there are some standout physical differences, it’s a tad bigger in all dimensions, but the two main changes are that the camera has moved up to the corner and the front glass has been flattened. If i had to sum it up, it just looks and feels a lot more like the oneplus nord than it does the 8 and 8 pro it feels exceptionally well made.
The haptics are very crisp and, as always, the alert slider is a joy to use on paper. The two differ a little less than the 7 and 7 t, so it’s the same chipset, ram and storage, but with a slightly bigger battery, an added monochrome camera, a beefed up macro camera, a 120 hertz display instead of a 90 hertz and warp charge 65 versus Warp charge 30 charging so fundamentally at least it’s very, very similar to the oneplus 8 and i would actually say if you’ve got a oneplus 8, don’t even consider upgrading because they’re just so similar using the oneplus 8t. I noticed immediately how quick, snappy and responsive it felt kind of like a lot of smartphones from oneplus really, even though oneplus decided to leave out the plus variant of the processor and just sticking with the 865, there were basically zero hiccups during my usage and barely Any during games, i don’t really play many games, but i like to try out real racing 3 and riptide renegade and they were buttery smooth experiences.
If you’re a gamer you’re not going to be disappointed. Another reason you might buy a oneplus phone in the past is for its software and oxygen. Os has been revered for balancing features and clean, aesthetic and smoothness and speed, but with oxygen.
Os 11, based on android 11 oneplus, is taking a slightly different approach to things sure it’s still focused on speed, but there is a different approach to the aesthetic vision and the layout. A few notable changes are the quick settings tray, which now has the brightness slider on the first layer. Instead of having to swipe further down the big clock on the second layer of the quick settings has been changed as well and a redesigned settings menu which has been optimized for one-handed use and, of course, the new ambient displays with new options.
Coming with later, software updates, one change that i’m not so sure about is the smooth brightness slider. So what oneplus has done here is taking a perfectly working standard across the board. Everyone knows how to use it, brightness slider and try to make the transition from bright to dim and dim to right, smoother, but in doing that, they’ve introduced a lag and a delay, and what that means is it’s oftentimes, very finicky and awkward to get the right.
Brightness, if you’re in a specific environment where you don’t want it to be too bright or too dim, and if anything they’ve just tried to reinvent the wheel a bit here. It’S really odd, because the rest of the new interface is fantastic and i think anyone who picks up a device with oxygen os 11 is really going to enjoy it. But this one feature just stands out as a bit of a kind of they’re trying a bit too hard. Oneplus 120 hertz amoled display here is no bigger than that of the eight, but because it’s now flat you don’t get that awkward curved screen glare that you got with the eight. Also. There is a tiny bit of a taper right at the edge to aid in gesture ergonomics, for example, when sliding to go back, which i appreciated when using the phone.
The panel gets very bright. Very dim has great viewing angles and a fairly quick optical in display fingerprint scanner as well. The oneplus 8t’s 4500mah battery has been bumped up by 200 milliamp hours over its predecessor and it’s actually given fantastic battery life. Even though i kept this thing on 120 hertz mode, the entire time, i managed to get around six hours of screen on time on average, which is a lot of screen on time for me, but it still left the phone with around 20.
At the end of the day, so you could squeeze even more out of it. My usage is kind of mid to high brightness, a lot of camera usage watching a couple of youtube videos here and there and a mix between lte and wi-fi connectivity with the new included, walk charge 65 brake, which is now usbc thanks oneplus the 8t can charge In just 39 minutes that means that one, the included cable in the box is a red cable. That’S usb c to see which i don’t know, but i just i find that really satisfying and two that this thing just charges really quickly and what i’ve been doing with it is not actually charging it overnight, but just letting it run throughout the night and then Wake up in the morning, i’ll put it on to charge, go, make a coffee and by the time i’ve done all my morning, routine, the thing’s charged at 100 again, which is fantastic. It’S definitely not the fastest charging we’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly very quick.
Oneplus has stuck a couple of new cameras in the 8t and, if anything, it kind of just fluffs up the spec sheet a little bit, there’s still no dedicated telephoto camera and the beefed up macro camera and monochrome cameras are pretty useless compared to one of those. The results oddly oneplus has decided to go with a color profile – that’s very heavy, in contrast, actually, rather similarly to the oneplus nord that we checked out not so long ago. You notice this immediately when looking at the 80s photo samples. Colors have taken a nice boost in saturation, though, and they’re a little bit over saturated, but really only just a tad, not because they look ugly but because they’re, just a little bit more saturated than in real life.
Switching to the ultra wide samples are slightly softer and there’s a little bit more of a lens flare problem, but the dynamic range looks very similar and the sharpness, especially when zoomed out on a social media profile, is really very similar and that’s impressive. That said, overall, the cameras are still not flagship level. There’S way too much contrast, not enough dynamic range, and it looks like someone’s taking the structure slider in instagram and just whacked it all the way up. It’S really odd. The oneplus 8t can take some pretty decent night shots. It can see in the dark pretty well, but what i found that focus became more of the issue in really challenging scenarios. Of course, these are some of the toughest scenarios to put a tiny phone camera sensor in, but it did a decent job regardless selfies and portrait mode shots do look decent out v80. As with the main samples, there’s a lot of contrast, and so it can make photos, look a little bit moody. But if that’s your thing, then this is the phone for you, the ultra hd 60fps videos again have a lot of contrast.
They’Re relatively smooth and stabilization is pretty good, but the 8t just won’t be taking home any awards for the best in class video at 750 for the 12 gigabyte by 256 gigabyte model, it’s competing with the likes of the samsung s20 fan edition the zenfone 7 pro. The me 10 t pro there’s a lot going on there and really out of all of them. It doesn’t really stand out, like i said right at the start of the video. It feels a lot like the oneplus nord in layout and in holding in the hand, and if you’re, not a smartphone connoisseur, then you would be forgiven for thinking they’re way too similar. But you know this one cost double the price of the nord.
So why would you buy it in a similar vein? The equivalent samsung is probably going to give you better cameras, better display. It might not beat it on speed, which is, of course all oneplus is known for, but if you’re really not about that life, you can get something that’s more rounded out than the oneplus 8t overall, the oneplus 8t is a solid smartphone. It’S got great performance. Great battery life, a great screen and a decent camera, its biggest weakness, though looking and feeling so much like the nord, the untrained eyes might pick that instead and that about covers it.
For today’s oneplus 8t review. Please do check the links in the video description to where you can buy this phone and also to the full article, which will have even more detail than what i was able to put into this video once you’re down there. Please do hit like and subscribe to. Never miss a video like this one and let us know in the comments what you think of the 80. Is it a little bit close to the nord? Is it not that much of an upgrade over the oneplus 8? Let us know, anyway, guys i’ve been ryan. Thomas with android authority and i’ll catch, you later .