OnePlus 10T review: quick as a flash

Name: OnePlus 10T
Item: OnePlus 10T
Rating: 3.5
Author: Kshitij Pujari

Published On: August 8, 2022

Review Summary

Expert Rating
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OnePlus 10T is the latest smartphone from the brand and the device starts at Rs 49,999 in India. In terms of specs on paper, the OnePlus 10T is a solid offering and the device is among the handful of phones in the country to feature Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 mobile platform. I have already concluded, in a full performance comparison, that the OnePlus 10T is one of the fastest phones on the market right now. So, today, let’s take a closer look at the device to see if the handset lives up to the expectations in other aspects too. Read on, to find out if the OnePlus 10T is worth the hype, or not.

Table of Contents

Verdict

The OnePlus 10T is a stellar performer and the device is also backed by a reliable software experience and long-lasting battery life. The phone’s shortcomings are amplified only by its choice of camera hardware which, does not befit its price tag.

The lowdown

The OnePlus 10T draws a lot of parallels to the OnePlus 10 Pro (review) in the design department. Now, the 10 Pro was wrapped in a matte finish, whereas, the OnePlus 10T opts for a glossy look. Barring that, however, the devices look quite similar and the 10T even features its pricier sibling’s distinctive stove top-like camera array. Do note that the Hasselblad branding is absent on the 10T, and the positioning of the LED flash module, as well as the tertiary sensor, has been switched. And, much to my dismay, the device doesn’t ship with an alert slider on the side, a component which has for long, been vital to OnePlus’ brand identity.

Apart from that, it is difficult to distinguish the 10T from the 10 Pro, at least from a distance. The USB Type-C port, speaker grille, and dual-SIM card tray all find their way to the bottom. A power button is present on the right side of the phone, within reach of my thumb, while the volume rocker can be found towards the left fascia.

On the display side of things, the phone gets a 6.7-inch, FHD+ (2,412×1,080), Fluid AMOLED panel that can refresh at 120Hz. Unlike the OnePlus 10 Pro, the display does not have LTPO 2.0 technology but it can oscillate between 60Hz and 120Hz. OnePlus has typically been at the top of the game as far as the viewing experience goes and the OnePlus 10T tries to follow along that path.

The panel is HDR10+ compliant, has a 10-bit color depth, and packs in a peak brightness of up to 950nits. For OTT consumption, I watched a few episodes of The Witcher and came away quite impressed with the visual details available to me. I also like that the edges of the screen are flat, unlike the OnePlus 10 Pro which has a curved display. Lastly, the punch-hole on the top is non-obtrusive in nature and the bezels surrounding the panel are razor thin.

Optics-wise, the phone has a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor at the helm supported by an 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro sensor. Considering the price tag on the device, it can said that the camera setup on the OnePlus 10T is rudimentary, at best. In fact, the smartphone’s primary sensor has been used several times on smartphones that cost a lot less, including but not limited to the OnePlus Nord 2T (review). Understandably, images clicked from the OnePlus 10T look good, provided you have ample lighting at your disposal.

Be that as it may, while the shots exhibit good detailing, the images appear a tad oversaturated, which has become the norm with most OnePlus phones as of late. The dynamic range is adequate and the exposure levels are metred, which is something that can be expected from a smartphone at this price. The AI-based scene enhancement toggle can output a slightly overprocessed look with overly bright colours. Apart from that, you have the standard 50MP mode for a better crop-in than the default pixel-binned 12.5MP images.

As for the ultra-wide sensor, the 8MP resolution does not bring out a significant amount of detail in its shots. While there is no warping around the edges, the focus tapers off significantly giving the photos a soft look. That said, the colours in the frame are maintained more amicably when compared to the primary shooter. The macro sensor is nothing to write home about and its 2MP shots are not on par with phones that have macro capabilities attached to their ultra-wide shooter.

Low light photography on the device is relatively decent with ample details and defined highlights when aided with ambient lighting. The colours are on the saturated side but I do appreciate the lack of excessive oversharpening to reduce noise in the night sky. With the dedicated Night mode, there is an improvement in the level of detailing but at times the photo turns out overexposed.

For video recording purposes the phone can shoot at 4K @ 60fps with the Ultra Steady mode capping the resolution down to 1080p. Finally, the 16MP selfie camera up front is able to churn out respectable shots that have correct exposure in the background along with accurate facial detailing.

In terms of performance, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC is running the show. Via benchmarks, it can be conclusively proved that the chipset is currently the fastest processing unit in the Android world. What this means is that you get the best performance to accomplish even the heaviest of mobile computing tasks without any worries. Furthermore, unlike the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset which throttled under a sustained load, the newer platform is decidedly more adept at running resource-hungry tasks without buckling to its knees. As for the GPU capabilities, the Adreno 730 is capable of running titles like BGMI at Extreme frame rate (60fps) with HDR graphics enabled. You can read my performance comparisons of the OnePlus 10T here for a better understanding. The OnePlus 10T comes with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage with no option to expand using a microSD card slot.

Other features on the device include a dual-speaker unit which outputs reasonably sharp and loud audio. The device also ships with an in-display fingerprint sensor as well as facial recognition tech, both of which worked quite well during my stint with the device. 5G services in India should start rolling out later this year and the OnePlus 10T will be able to leverage them. That said, I was satisfied with the 4G LTE speeds on Noida’s Jio circle while the microphone and earpiece worked as expected. OxygenOS 12.1, based on Android 12, is running on the device and for the time being, it has a separate identity from OPPO’s ColorOS. There are some UI elements borrowed from the latter’s camera app and settings menu. However, the overall interface remains clean with little-to-no bloatware.

On the battery front, the OnePlus 10T ships with a 4,800mAh cell which is backed up by a 150W SuperVOOC charging adapter. During my time with the device, I was easily getting upwards of 7 hours of screen-on time with the set, with my usage comprising BGMI gaming for up to an hour along with a couple of hours of Netflix playback. Rest assured, battery life should not be an issue while operating the OnePlus 10T. In ideal room temperature conditions, the 150W charger can juice up the cell fully in less than 20 minutes and you can get about 50 percent of the battery in just seven minutes.

Final verdict

The OnePlus 10T is certainly the performance champion it claims to be and for its asking price, the device is only rivalled by the iQOO 9T (review). Apart from that, the smartphone offers a healthy power backup and lightning-fast 150W charging speeds. However, the camera setup is underwhelming and in my opinion, the handset would’ve benefitted immensely from more versatile auxilliary cameras. There’s also a distinctive loss of OnePlus’ identity thanks to the omission of the alert slider, among other things. Regardless, buyers looking for a fast Android with clean software will still find plenty to like about the OnePlus 10T.