After a two-year hiatus, the ‘T’ series of phones is back to debut new mid-term technology, this time with 150W charging – more than five times the power of Apple’s flagship iPhone. The OnePlus 10T costs £629 ($649), undercutting fast-charging rivals from Xiaomi and other Chinese smartphone makers that typically cost around £1,000. The molded glass back has a smooth feel – it slides on uneven surfaces if you’re not careful. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian Externally the 10T follows a familiar formula. Shiny metal sides meet glass front and back. The back plate now completely surrounds the camera piece in a smooth piece of glass, similar to parent company Oppo’s Find X5 Pro. The 6.5-inch screen is very nice and has a high refresh rate of 120 Hz, which keeps things smooth. It’s a little less bright than the older 10 Pro and some top rivals, but otherwise excellent. OnePlus’ unique notification slider, which quickly switches the phone between silent, vibrate and ring, and has been a fan favorite for years, is nowhere to be seen, which is a shame.
Standards
Display: 6.5-inch 120 Hz FHD+ OLED (393 ppi) Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 RAM: 8 or 16 GB RAM Storage: 128 or 256 GB Operating System: OxygenOS 12.1 (Android 12) Camera: 50MP main, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro; 16MP Selfies Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and GNSS Water resistance: None Dimensions: 163 × 75.4 × 8.8 mm Weight: 203.5 g
Full charge in just over 19 minutes
SuperVooc 150W charging may have a stupid name, but it sure is fast. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The 10T features Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, which on paper is 10% faster than the regular 8 Gen 1 processor used in flagship Android phones at the start of the year. It’s certainly fast and responsive, but the biggest improvement is that the chip is 30% more power efficient, which helps preserve battery life and keeps the phone noticeably cooler in operation. Battery life is good but not great, lasting about 36 hours between charges, with the screen on for about six hours using a mix of messaging apps and media use. That’s seven hours less than the 10 Pro, but on par with a Google Pixel 6 Pro. What the 10T may lack in durability, it makes up for in both charging speed and battery life. Using the included USB-C power adapter, the phone will fully charge in just over 19 minutes from 1%, and it does so steadily without getting too hot, unlike its nearest Xiaomi rival. Its massive charging speed doesn’t harm the battery either. OnePlus rates it for a full 1,600 charge cycles while retaining at least 80% of the original capacity – double that of most competitors. That means the battery should last more than 6.5 years if charged every day and a half, so you probably won’t need to replace the battery over the life of the phone, which can’t be said for most phones.
Sustainability
The phone does not contain recycled materials, but is generally repaired by OnePlus, with a replacement battery costing around £20 plus labour. The company operates a trade-in program and is included in parent company Oppo’s annual sustainability reports.
OxygenOS 12.1
The OnePlus in-display fingerprint scanner is extremely fast and accurate for unlocking the phone, but it’s placed a bit too low on the screen. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The 10T runs the same OxygenOS 12.1 software based on Android 12 as the 10 Pro since April, not the recently announced OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13. OnePlus will provide bimonthly security patches for four years from launch and three major Android version upgrades. including OxygenOS 13 later this year. For now, it has the same sleek look and similar faults as before, so for more, check out our 10 Pro review.
camera
The OnePlus camera app is quite simple to use with some useful tools to get the best shot. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The camera system on the 10T is a downgrade from the 10 Pro, eschewing the Hasselblad technology from previous OnePlus smartphones and removing the telephoto camera. It still has a 50-megapixel primary camera and an 8MP ultra-wide camera, as well as a useless 2MP macro camera that can be safely avoided. The 50MP main camera is quite good, capturing shots with a good level of detail, reasonably good color balance and dynamic range. With a little effort you can get some really beautiful images. It gets a bit grainier than the best cameras in low light, but portrait mode, night mode and other fancy features work well. Video shot up to 4K at 60fps is also decent. The ultra-wide camera is weaker, however, struggling with detail and dynamic range, often making scenes appear much darker than the main camera. Digital zoom isn’t great either, producing noticeably blown-up images beyond 2x. The 16MP selfie camera produces detailed images, but lacks dynamic range, making it a bit washed out in bright light. Overall, the primary camera is decent for the price, but it’s not an update to the best in the business, and it can’t compete with the 10 Pro or cheaper competitors like Google’s Pixel 6a.
Price
The OnePlus 10T costs £629 ($649) with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, or £729 with 16 and 256GB, shipping on August 25. For comparison, the OnePlus 10 Pro costs £799, the Google Pixel 6 costs £599, the Pixel 6a costs £399, the Samsung Galaxy S21+ costs £949 and the Xiaomi 12 Pro costs £999.
Verdict
The OnePlus 10T is a good phone at a cheaper price – something that undercuts most of its close rivals. But corners have been cut to get to that price, so how good it is will depend on your priorities. It actually charges so fast, it changed the way I thought about using it. I no longer needed to charge it overnight because it was full again in the time it took me to brush my teeth. It also has a better chip, slick performance and a big and fast screen. But that display is less bright than the flagship models, and the camera is a marked downgrade from previous highs for the brand. The removal of OnePlus’ unique notification slider makes the phone more generic and looks like an erosion of the brand from parent company Oppo, which is a shame. Four years of software support is also a bit short for 2022, when top competitors offer at least five. Buy it for the performance and charging, not the camera, and the OnePlus 10T is a good flagship phone at a very competitive price. But with extremely good mid-range phones like the Pixel 6a costing £400, is that enough? Pros: Smooth performance, good software, reasonable battery life, under 20 minutes full charge, long battery life, decent screen, reasonable price. Cons: no optical zoom, weak ultra-wide camera, useless macro camera, no water resistance rating, no notification slider makes it more generic, only four years of updates. The phone is available in that hospital-green color, which is a fingerprint magnet, or the more interesting black embossing. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
