OnePlus 10T Review – Intro
OnePlus has always been a fascinating product to me. It set a different standard when the brand first launched, but its annual transition from one product to the next hasn’t been the smoothest in the industry. Some products were absolutely good, but some did not live up to the standards its predecessors.
It wasn’t too long ago when the OnePlus brand equates to “innovation” and “nails price to performance ratio”. Unfortunately, it isn’t exactly the same brand that I used to know. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it, but there’s something about the brand that makes it “ordinary” or less exciting. OnePlus 10T tries to take that “preconception” back, but like its predecessors, it’s a product that is two steps forward, and one step back.
I did not get the chance to review and OnePlus 10 and 10 Pro, but if there are things that make this different from the previous iteration, they are the following: display is not curved on both sides, which usually makes devices more expensive than usual; the design of the camera layout is somewhat the same but the placement of the lens is different; you won’t find Hasselblad branding here and that’s because OnePlus did not partner with Hasselblad for this specific iteration; and lastly, there is no mute toggle switch, which has been a mainstay of OnePlus devices until now.
OnePlus 10T feels like any other smartphones, but somewhat retains some features specific to OnePlus devices. It just feels a little disappointing that OnePlus had to let go of one feature that makes it distinct among other smartphones in the market.
The Missing Piece
The toggle switch – like their red color cables – is like a signature that they intentionally removed in this iteration. According to OnePlus, their decision to remove the switch is from a technical design aspect to prioritize the inclusion of super fast charging. Whether this is something to be taken seriously is entirely up to you because there are some phones that still allow super fast charging and yet retain or have extra switches. This, however, is not exactly a reason to ditch the OnePlus 10T because this does not entirely diminish the value and experience of using the phone. However, I would have wanted for OnePlus to retain this feature because it gives additional convenience to its users.
Impressive Display
In terms of display, the OnePlus 10T features a Fluid AMOLED display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and supports HDR10+. The resolution is 1080 x 2412 pixels and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. This is one of the compromises that OnePlus decided to make on the OnePlus 10T. Resolution is lower, and this may only be relevant if you’re going to watch super high definition photos and videos.
When you put this next to a phone with a 1440p resolution, the difference is seemingly not that much. As for the performance, the display looks fantastic: photos look amazing and punchy, and the quality of details I see are more than enough to meet my standards. It may be a bit of a downgrade from the OnePlus 10 Pro, but then again, I wasn’t expecting this phone to have exactly the same or better features because this is more focused on performance.
Performance Monster
Now, let’s talk about performance. This is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. It promises a 10% boost from the previous chipset and gives the phone the T in the OnePlus 10T. T means turbo, and this series usually comes out 6 months after the launch of the previous iteration. As earlier mentioned, the focus is more on turbo performance, and this phone really delivers! I know some of you want benchmarks, so here’s how it stacks up compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phones.
I also played 3 games here for good measure: Lost Light, Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, and Tower of Fantasy. They all do very well at maxed settings, showing average of 60fps on all games that I played.
OnePlus fully established that this phone is for those looking for a fast device but with a banging price. Except for the unit I have reviewed, the 8GB/128GB variant of the OnePlus 10T only costs PhP 35,990. This is an impressive price, considering that some brands sell phones with less powerful chipsets in the PHP 30,000 range.
Camera is…. okay
What they have are 50MP main wide camera, plus an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro. This doesn’t have a telephoto lens, and you’re limited to only zooming up to 10 times. This phone also has 16MP front facing camera. I have to say that this is not the phone’s strongest suit, but it isn’t bad. This cannot directly compete with the vivo X80 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max in terms of camera performance, but I still think that its price is fairly reasonable.
You do not get Hasselblad colors here, which I think is okay because it would have changed the price of the phone had they included it. In all honesty, it does not really add much quality to your photos, especially if you are into composing shots and simply post it in social media. You can shoot 4K up to 60fps and up to 240fps slow motion on the main camera, but you are stuck with up to 1080p at 30fps on the front-facing one.
Charging speed is through the roof!
How about battery performance? Oh, I won’t get into that yet because I still need more time to further test its 4800mAh battery. However, I got to test its charging performance. I managed to fully charge this within 22 minutes from 0% to 100%, which is just amazing! It’s a little less than the advertised 20%, pero that’s totally understandable because charging time usually accounts for temperature and humidity of the environment.
Oxygen OS 12 is not what you think
How about software? This is still running Oxygen 12, which is a mix of the Oxygen OS that OnePlus users are familiar with and OPPO’s ColorOS within the Unified OS Codebase. I still have yet to fully understand how that works, and if it is really good for users. I’ve seen how ColorOS works on OPPO devices, and Oxygen OS in the olden heydays of OnePlus. Oxygen OS 13 is just around the corner, and I am honestly excited when it arrives on the OnePlus 10T. It could be a return to form and make it more “stock” in both performance and looks.
Verdict
OnePlus 10T, despite its lack features innate to OnePlus devices, is worth of praise! Its speed and performance make it a reason to buy, making it true to its “brand” as it displays impressive price to performance ratio.
Charging speeds is impressively implemented as well, making it one of its innovative features. Camera performance is not a slouch either despite losing Hasselblad in the picture (pun not intended). In fct, even without the latter in the mix, it works just as you would expect on a low midrange device. It isn’t its most celebrated feature, but its overall performance is justifiable.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
