OnePlus 7T Pro: Small improvements for a top of the range product

Only a few months have passed since OnePlus in London presented OnePlus 7 Pro, the smartphone capable of achieving high performance in many technological fields. Now the company has decided, as scheduled, to replicate and always presents the new OnePlus 7T Pro in London. A smartphone identical to that of the previous generation from an aesthetic point of view that does not change introducing news regarding the use of the smartphone itself in everyday life and that certainly cannot fail to go unnoticed by users.

Over the years the Chinese company has managed to create a record-breaking community with which it was decided more or less in symbiosis what to improve and what was not needed for a modern and current smartphone. OnePlus has changed over the past five years since it was founded. It is now more mature and now able to present to its audience a “Pro” smartphone in the suffix but also in practice, increasing its functionality as well as some hardware components, aiming to obtain an Ultra-Premium device ready to confront even more with the real tops of range.

Many features make the new OnePlus 7T Pro a true flagship. 6.67 inch display called “Fluid AMOLED” completely borderless and able to work constantly with a 90Hz refresh rate instead of the standard 60Hz refresh rates. A plus for those who want the best especially in gaming where the company decides to focus a lot thanks to the study and implementation of the Fanatic mode capable of improving hardware performance during intense gaming sessions.

On the back, we continue to focus on the triple camera absolute novelty for the Chinese company 6 months ago. We speak from a technical point of view of a 48MP primary wide-angle sensor with f / 1.6 focal length and optical image stabilizer. Therefore, a second 16MP Ultra Wide-angle sensor, f / 2.4 focal length and 117-degree shooting angle. Finally, a third sensor 8MP telephoto lens with f / 2.4 focal length and optical image stabilizer. A quality triad that improves from an algorithm point of view thanks to new features for record-breaking shots.

In addition to this there is also to be taken into account a hardware renewal with the Snapdragon 855+ version ready not only to let users play but to carry out all kinds of activities. The new chipset with a 7-nm production process is not only supported by an Adreno 640 GPU but also by 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM capable of making the phone even more “smooth” or “soft” in its work. OnePlus decides to propose only one 256GB version which cannot be expanded with a MicroSD but which are of the latest generation, namely UFS 3.0 2-LANE and capable of record -breaking values.

Then there is the same 16MP front sensor capable of hiding itself if necessary in the metal frame of the top of the smartphone. The Chinese company has tested it for over 300 thousand movements, which means at least a life of 5 years. Increased the battery, which is now 4085 mAh but above all OnePlus offers improved wireless charging with a new 30W Warp Charge 30T power supply. Also present two stereo speakers positioned at the antipodes in the upper part together with the ear capsule and in the lower part next to the USB Type-C port which also guarantees the audio output for the headphones. OnePlus 7 Pro is a Dual SIM device with a category 18 LTE modem so as to allow a download up to 1.2Gbps where possible.

UNBOXING: Everything as always

The new OnePlus 7T Pro comes to the eyes of users in a new sales package completely dressed in red. There are all the accessories that are now put in place by most of the manufacturers of mobile devices. In this case, the equipment we received sees the presence of the smartphone clearly but also:

A 30W Warp Charge 30Tfast charger, a Type-C cable, the dual SIM housing ejection tool and a transparent protective case.

The smartphone is positioned so that the user can see it immediately as soon as the cover of the sales package is removed.

DESIGN: Even more beautiful with Haze Blue

The Chinese company has worked hard over the year to be able to improve the good things that had been done with the 6T version. Starting from this, it has improved the aesthetic appearance of the new 7T Pro, which has the same, features as the previous 7 Pro, so much appreciated by the OnePlus community. Excellent ergonomics thanks to a reduction of the strongly tapered thickness on the long sides that have become curved both front and back. Elegance reigns supreme especially in this version with the new Haze Blue coloring that is completely opaque but iridescent based on light reflections.

The usual positioning of the buttons also for this new 7T Pro which sees on the right side the now ubiquitous scrolling ring tone selector above the on / off button. On the opposite side is the volume rocker that OnePlus offers in a single, non-separate button. Then in the lower part is placed the trolley for the double SIM in nano format to the right of the USB Type-C 3.1 port and to the slot where the first speaker is hidden together with the microphone. Let’s say the first speaker because OnePlus for the first time proposes a double speaker , one in the lower part and one instead in the upper one just flush with the display, between the frame and the front panel.

Not even the upper part that sees the positioning of the front camera pop-up changes: a small metal frame rises to command preserving style and full-screen display that must not give space to a notch. The front camera guarantees facial recognition and quickly and safely unlocks the smartphone.

On a dimensional level OnePlus 7T Pro does not change with its 8.8 mm thickness, that important height of 162 and passes millimeters and a weight of over 200 grams. 206 grams to be precise. But in the end the winning team does not change and therefore the Chinese company decides to keep the same body externally speaking to modify and improve the hardware of this OnePlus 7T Pro.

DISPLAY: 90 Hz and no edges!

The display of the new OnePlus 7T Pro is the same as with the 7T version. A display with total absence of notch giving complete space to the usable surface thanks to extremely thin frames. OnePlus calls it Fluid AMOLED and technically, it is a 6.67-inch display with Quad HD + resolution in 19.5:9 format and with a pixel density of 516PPI. What is different compared to the competition is the refresh rate, that is the refresh rate of the images, which instead of being at 60Hz like in most smartphones here rises to 90Hz.

What does it mean to have a 90Hz refresh rate? As previously mentioned, the refresh rate is a value capable of indicating how many times in a second the display means that the higher the Hertz value, the more fluid the reproduced contents will be. In this, OnePlus allows users to set this parameter by deciding whether to use the panel at the maximum refresh rate (90Hz) or set it to the lowest value (60Hz).

In the first case, the tests carried out have done nothing but highlight the numerical difference, allowing for greater fluidity of the images. The contents are displayed in a more fluid way than we are normally used to, since the number of times in a second in which the image is redrawn on the display is increased. And it is actually true with an obvious difference compared to the 60 Hz of the competition observed especially in the scroll of the web pages that are softer, if you pass the term to me.

On a technical level as seen for the 7 Pro version, even in this the Fluid AMOLED guarantees excellent visibility of the multimedia contents especially for its relationship between body and screen. The color fidelity is really high and as always OnePlus allows to better manage the panel according to personal needs through the settings in the settings. Three choices to manage …

• “Vivid” which allows for more intense color management and above all with typical AMOLED colors and therefore deep blacks and an intense color range.
• “Nature” is instead proposed as a more real profile with colors that are less aggressive and less impacting in the eyes of the users. It is attempted to keep the relationship with what can be observed in reality and what is reproduced on the smartphone screen important.
• “Avanzate” is a highly personalizing method. Here OnePlus guarantees maximum flexibility to the user who can change the AMOLED color range between Cool and Hot, then the sRGB parameter as well as the Display-P3.

To underline the possibility of setting the Theme which includes three different items: Bright Tints, Illumination Tints and Darkened Tints. These three preset themes feature a wide range of backgrounds, highlight colors, shades, and so on. A kind of “Dark” Theme that Android 10 has implemented and that the OxygenOS 10 wanted to customize as only OnePlus knows how to do.

Do not forget also the other settings of the OxygenOS with which you can activate Night Mode, able to mitigate the classic colors of the panel going to change the color temperature as well as the intensity. The reading mode that allows to optimize the display of the screen and text, making the reading experience as comfortable as an e-book reader and the Video Enhancer technology that offers the user an improved video viewing mode concerns the color.

HARDWARE: You can’t do better or almost

OnePlus 7T Pro is still pure power thanks to the most powerful chipset of the moment. Present here the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+. We know it thanks to other devices but here the octa core with a 7 nm production process is supported by 8GB of RAM.

Data in hand we know that the new Snapdragon 855+ processor offers tangible performance gains for CPU and GPU components. The first is the Kyro 485 and implements an architecture that is the evolution of the big.LITTLE with 3 different core levels with the Prime at 2.96 GHz clock. At performance level, the superiority of the Snapdragon 855+ also reaches 4% compared to what is offered in Snapdragon 855, while the increase in the GPU component is more consistent: in this case, we are talking about an increase of up to 15% in the Adreno 640 chip.

		OnePlus 7T	OnePlus 7T Pro
OS (at launch)		Android 10 with OxygenOS 10	Android 10 with OxygenOS 10
Processor		Snapdragon 855+ at 7-nm 4 x Kyro 485 @ 2.96 GHz 4 x Kyro 485 @ 1.80GHz	Snapdragon 855+ at 7-nm 4 x Kyro 485 @ 2.96 GHz 4 x Kyro 485 @ 1.80 GHz
Memory		8 GB of RAM 128 GB	8 GB of RAM 256 GB
Display		6.55″ Fluid AMOLED (20: 9) 2400×1080 px	6.67″ Fluid AMOLED (19.5: 9) 3120×1440 px
Cameras		Rear : Normal: 48 MP f / 1.6 OIS Ultra-Wide: 16 MP f / 2.2 117° Tele 2x: 12 MP f / 2.2Sony sensors – Flash LED Video 4K @ 60 fpFront: 16 MP f / 2.0	Rear: Normal: 48 MP f / 1.6 OIS Ultra-wide: 16 MP f / 2.2 Tele 3x Zoom: 8 MP f / 2.4 OISSony sensors – Ultra HD Video Flash LED @ 60 fpsFront (retractable): 16 MP f / 2.0
Extra		4G LTE Cat. 18 Wi-Fi ac 2.4-5GHz Bluetooth 5.0 NFC Dual SIM (Nano) Fingerprint sensor Below the display	4G LTE Cat. 18 Wi-Fi ac 2.4-5GHz Bluetooth 5.0 NFC Dual SIM (Nano) Fingerprint sensor Below the display
Ports		USB Type-C	USB Type-C
Battery		3800 mAh Quick charge 30W Warp Charge	4085 mAh Quick charge 30W Warp Charge
dimensions		160.9 x 74.4 x 8.1 mm	162.6 x 75.9 x 8.8 mm
Weight		190 grams	206 grams

From a hardware point of view, a specific Gaming mode is set up that is able to implement some important features to maximize the gaming sessions. These concern …

• Aptica vibration: The smartphone has a multiple level of vibration capable of giving feedback to the user with zero delays compared to the actual gaming experience.
• RAM Boost: The artificial intelligence of the smartphone allows to study and understand the uses of the device by the user allowing to act on RAM intelligently, enabling or disabling a justified amount of memory.
• Liquid cooling system: New generation 10-layer liquid technology that allows the smartphone to remain cold even in situations of high stress at the hardware level.

GRAPHIC INTERFACE: Android 10 almost ”stock”

OxygenOS is the proprietary ROM of OnePlus that has reached version 10 based on the new Android 10. Over the years, it has undergone many changes, managing to achieve a maturity that today is really important for responsiveness, fluidity but also safety. The desire to maintain a stable and above all efficient operating system is a prerogative of the company since its first release.

The OxygenOS has an interface similar to Android Stock, with some additions such as color customization, off-screen gestures, Shelf and its proprietary apps. From a practical point of view, it is undoubtedly one of the best Android ROMs on the market thanks to its responsiveness and constant updates. Important in the daily use the implementation of the Gestures, that is the possibility of making disappear any type of screen button in the lower part of the device to completely use the fingers. Nothing classic Android Navigation Bar and delegate to the fingers for the realization of the gestures able to perform specific operations:

• Home: The typical operation of the Home button can be performed with a swipe from bottom to top at the bottom / center of the screen.
• Back: To go backwards in the screens of an app it is instead sufficient to perform the same gesture, then a swipe from the bottom upwards, but this time in the two right and left ends of the lower part of the terminal.
• Recent apps: To access the recent apps screen, you can swipe from the bottom upwards in the lower / middle part of the screen keeping the finger pressed for a few more seconds.

Not to be underestimated then the Game Mode called Fnatic which, as already seen on OnePlus 7T Pro, in addition to implementing the three new generation technologies seen above, guarantees users to set some particular functions in order not to create problems during the game. We have already seen its features with incoming calls routed to the speaker when the Game mode is active but also the ability to block call notifications, improve the details of the game display, improve haptic feedback on supported games and disable automatic brightness.

CAMERA: algorithm improved

No change on the hardware side, even for the photographic sector. It was one of the most important innovations that OnePlus had placed on its 7 Pro and clearly, the improvements from this point of view had to be made on the software side. OnePlus had decided to follow the fashion of the moment and to add a sensor to the dual camera it had placed on the OnePlus 6T. From a technical point of view, we are talking about a 48MP main wide-angle sensor with f / 1.6 focal length and optical image stabilizer. So a second 16MP Ultra Wide-angle sensor, f / 2.4 focal length and 117-degree shooting angle. Finally the last third 8MP Tele lens sensor with f / 2.4 focal length and optical image stabilizer.

Main 

• SONY IMX586 48 MP sensor
• Wide-angle lens with f / 1.6 aperture
• Pixel Size – 1.6 µm (4 in 1)
• OIS + EIS
• Ultra-Wide angle
• 16 MP sensor
• 117 ° vision lens with f / 2.2 aperture
• Telephoto
• 8 MP sensor
• 3x Optical Zoom lens with f / 2.4 aperture
• OIS
• 10x digital zoom
• 4K Ultra HD video @ 60 fps
• Super Slow-motion Full HD @ 240 fps / HD @ 480 fps

Time Lapse

With the new OnePlus 7 Pro, the company had tried to elevate itself from a photographic point of view, given that in the past it hadn’t gone so well. On paper, the triad is highly respected and in reality, it could be done even better. For this, with OnePlus 7T Pro, the company tried to focus more on software. Here is the new OnePlus 7T Pro taking better pictures than in the past and compared to 7 Pro. The effect of the triple sensor is felt as well as the software side improvement.

UltraShot is the first novelty ready to combine HDR + and Super Resolution to guarantee the best shot in any situation, especially the low-light one. HDR + controls the exposure value of each pixel and collects data up to four times compared to before, offering each frame a “multi-frame” treatment. Super Resolution, on the other hand, extracts data from multiple photos and combines the best elements to “enrich” and “superimpose” the final photo with more details. The result is obvious and the shots are actually improved in some extreme situations compared to the 7 Pro.

Also improved the Portrait mode, which allows you to have two different shooting options with more or less scene thanks to the use of the three rear lenses. Also improved the Night mode which guarantees clearer, sharper results, with more details and less noise. All even with the ultra wide-angle lens.

In terms of graphical interface, OnePlus does not change the system since it had already integrated the third camera with the 7 Pro version. It has all kinds of shooting modes with the possibility of taking pictures with the Portrait, understanding that they are at the right distance from the subject thanks to a small form that turns green, and then the so-called “Nightscape” that is the night mode that works a lot of algorithm to stabilize and make “clear” the image in post production. Then present as always all the other shooting possibilities in “Pro” mode, that is manual, “Panorama” for 360-degree shots, the “Slow Motion” and finally also the “Time Lapse”.

How does this new OnePlus 7T Pro work? In the daytime photos the smartphone manages to give its best by getting good quality shots, with an important dynamic range, real colors and a good HDR + job thanks to UltraShot. As with 7 Pro the shot with the main camera even if from 48MP is then realized to 12MP if in automatic while the shooting in Pro mode guarantees the extension to the true 48MP even if there is no work to improve the image, in this case, by algorithm.

Previously there is always a 16MP sensor with a pop-up structure. OnePlus declares over 300 thousand camera movements and this means that for at least 5 years there should be no problems. Moreover, in case of accidental loss of the smartphone, the camera, thanks to the movement sensors, immediately tends to re-enter, avoiding the worst. Here technically the sensor results from 16MP (it is a Sony IMX471) with f / 2.0 focal aperture and with the possibility of also recording video at 1080p. At 30 fps in addition to Time Lapse. On practice, the shots are well made especially for dynamic range, real colors and little noise. By improving the blur effect of the portrait that does not always succeed in cutting off the subject optimally and the bokeh is a bit patently artificial.

AUTONOMY: S lightly better

The battery sees a minimal increase compared to the OnePlus 7 Pro model. We now have 85 more mAh or a 4085 mAh in total that have given us a few dozen minutes more use. We were able to easily reach the almost 6 hours of active display and close not only the stress day but also have some battery residues for the following day.

To underline the fact that we have not established abnormal consumption, a sign that the smartphone is already well optimized with its OxygenOS based on Android 10. Not only, because the display although at 90Hz does not realize then an exaggerated consumption of the battery compared to that at 60Hz: here we have a consumption higher than 10% that actually is a price that is pleasantly paid to have the fluidity of a 90Hz panel that we hope will become a standard among the top of the range.

The package also includes the new Warp Charge 30T fast-charging power supply. There is no wireless charging but in fact the company improves as much as possible the recharge through precisely the Warp Charge 3.0 power supply which guarantees a step from 0 to 100% of recharge in an hour and 10 minutes. Not only because in just 30 minutes you can already get more than 60% of recharge.

CONCLUSIONS

In short, OnPlus renews its top model after only 6 months. OnePlus 7T Pro is a smartphone slightly different from its predecessor both in design and in the hardware sector although clearly something improves by keeping the device certainly able to compete with the bigger ones at a high level.

Present an important AMOLED display completely borderless and capable of refresh rate equal to 90Hz that become important for gaming sessions with graphics of a certain level. There is an upgrade of the camera-level algorithm that now allows better performance especially in shots with dark or less bright environments. There is the new Android 10 that is implemented with the OxygenOS 10 that allows for new features.

Certainly, those who have the “old” 7 Pro in their hands will not have to worry about a hypothetical renewal for the new 7T Pro because they will still be able to count on a practically new and current device and perhaps the company could think of renewing its top of the range products. Once a year and not every 6 months given the price, however important even if lower than the competition.