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The OnePlus 7T Pro is a super performer packed with great specifications like good looks, good camera, great software experience and the latest hardware, says Ashish Narsale.
Text, photographs and video: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
In the last few years, OnePlus has managed to attract users with an impressive range of phones -- from the ergonomic ones that meet your budget to the expensive flagship ones that'll make your jaws drop in an instant.
The latest OnePlus 7T Pro is just a minor upgrade to its predecessor OnePlus 7 Pro launched a few months earlier. In fact it has almost the same hardware specifications as its budget series OnePlus 7T.
We reviewed the 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM variant to find out what's so exciting.
Want to know what's inside the OnePlus 7T Pro box? Watch the video below:
Design
The OnePlus 7T Pro has a stunning glass body design, protected by 3D Corning Gorilla Glass on the front and back of the phone.
The side metal edges have smooth glossy finish.
It is 6.4" tall x 2.9" wide x 0.3" thick and fits well in hand.
On the flipside, its glass build, smooth side edges and weight (206 gm) makes it slippery. For a better grip, I would recommend using the TPU casing provided in the box.
The phone is available in two editions -- the Haze Blue colour with a frost glass finish and the special McLaren edition that comes in papaya orange.
Display
The 6.67" AMOLED curved display is gorgeous to look at; the colours reproduced are deep and vibrant.
The 90Hz display might not be noticeable when compared to 60Hz display of the OnePlus 7 as both phones demonstrate fast and smooth UI animation.
The screen's visibility under direct sunlight is also good enough.
Hardware
The phone is powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 855+ processor, has 15 per cent faster graphics than its predecessor Snapdragon 855 on paper.
When playing games, the animations were smooth and there were no lags.
We tried games like Call of Duty, Alto's Adventure, Asphalt Xtreme: Rally Racing and Shadow Fight 3 all of which ran quite well and there were no heating issues or lags as such.
Software
The phone came with Android 10 pre-installed with Oxygen OS 10 on top.
The OS is smooth and fluid.
Camera
These days when you consider buying a mobile phone everything boils down to camera performance.
By that measure, OnePlus 7T Pro is a great performer.
The 7T Pro has three cameras in the rear and one pop-up selfie camera.
The first is in the rear -- the 16MP ultra-wide camera which helps you while shooting landscape or to cover a larger view in a cramped area.
An upgrade from OnePlus 7 Pro, 7T Pro's camera can also shoot close-up Macro shots from up to 2.5 cm.
While this feature is an added advantage, the images shot do not have much detail.
The rear 48MP main lens shoots excellent pictures; the picture processed demonstrates little saturation in colour but are pleasing to eyes.
The 48MP camera sensor uses the pixel binning technology where four pixels are merged to make one pixel in order to capture more light.
The resultant image captured by the 48MP camera is approximately 8MP, but the image retains much more details compared to a standard 8MP sensor camera would produce.
In other words when you zoom in to a certain extent an image captured with the 48MP with the pixel binning technology, you will be able to crop the image without losing much details.
Besides, the camera also helps click brighter images in low light too.
The third camera is the 8MP telephoto lens camera which can be used to shoot portraits; it also has 3x optical zoom.
Talking about the portrait, no the camera also support group portrait through the main sensor.
Here's what the camera's key functions are:
Nightscape
Technically, the nightscape mode is used for low light photography.
In OnePlus 7T Pro, you can take advantage of the ultra-wide camera for nightscape. However, the camera doesn't perform that well; it fails to capture much details and comes with lots of noise.
Pro mode
It's a perfect tool for a beginner as you will be able to experiment with ISO, aperture and light sensitivity settings.
This mode also supports shooting in RAW, the images captured in RAW can be post processed using any image processing application on your mobile or PC.
It also allows you to capture a 48MP image without the pixel binning processing.
Video
The camera can shoot 4K at 60FPS and minimum 1080P resolution.
You can get the best of all three cameras while shooting the video.
The phone has a super stable mode for action videos; it only supports resolution upto 1080P.
The slow motion video can be shot at resolution of 720P with maximum of 480FPS and 1080P at 240FPS.
To take a perfect slow motion video it is advised to shoot in daylight or environment with lots of light.
The front camera
There has not been much upgrade in the front camera since the previous generation.
The same camera 16MP sensor is good enough to shoot HDR photos, portraits and video at 1080P.
It is also used for facial recognition security.
The in-display fingerprint sensor is more secure and faster than all the previous generations.
Sound
The set of stereo speakers generate great sound supported by Dolby Atmos.
As there is no 3.5 mm audio jack the Type-C charging port can be used to connect your old earphones provided you buy the Type-C to 3.5 mm audio adapter separately.
It sounds great with the earphones, including the wireless Bluetooth headsets.
Battery
Its embedded 4085 mAh battery is good enough to take you through the day in a single charge when used moderately.
Even if you fall short of battery power the bundled warp charge 30T fast charges the phone from 0 to 27 per cent in 15 minutes and 0 to 100 per cent in 1 hour 38 minutes.
Verdict
The OnePlus 7T Pro is a super performer packed with great specifications like good looks, good camera, great software experience and the latest hardware.
It may seem like an expensive phone -- OnePlus 7T Pro is priced at Rs 53,999 for 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM; the McLaren edition is available at Rs 58,999 for 12 GB RAM + 256 GB ROM.
But it's still cheaper than some of its closest competitors.
