OnePlus is known for its flagship-killer phones since their inception in 2013. It’s been a couple of years since we last reviewed their phone, so we’re fortunate to receive the latest OnePlus 10T. We think this is the smartphone that will fill the gap between the OnePlus 10 Pro and Nord 2T, only with much better specs. Let us see further if it remains true.
Table of Contents
OnePlus 10T Specification
| OS: | OxygenOS 12.1 - Android 12 |
|---|---|
| Processor: | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Adreno 730 |
| Display: | 6.7 inch 120Hz AMOLED (2412 x 1080 resolution) |
| Wireless Connections: | 5G, Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi, NFC, GPS. GLP, BDS, GAL, QZSS, |
| Memory: | 8GB/16GB LPDDR5 RAM 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 Internal Storage |
| Connectors: | USB Type-C, OTG |
| Cameras: | Rear Camera Main Camera: Sony IMX766 50MP, ƒ/1.8, 1.0 µm, OIS support Ultra-Wide Camera: 8MP, ƒ/2.2, 1.12 µm Macro Lens: 2MP, 2-4cm Effective Shooting Distance Front Camera 16MP, ƒ/2.4, 1.0 µm, EIS Support |
| SIM Card Slots: | Dual SIM (Nano-Sim) |
| Battery: | 4,800 mAh with 150W charging |
| SRP: | 8GB + 128GB: Php 35,990 |
The Unboxing
We got the OnePlus 10T in their signature red box with the model number written on its front, while on its sides are the OnePlus 10T 5G text and a OnePlus logo. Packaging is quite minimalistic.
Moving on what’s inside the box, we got the OnePlus 10T review unit, 160W SuperVooc charging brick, the iconic red charging cable, a SIM ejector pin, Quick Start Guide, and Safety Information guide.
The Design
We have here an almost identical design to the OnePlus 10 Pro but with subtle downgrades to get its affordable price point. It has a minimal glass back panel with the OnePlus logo. Both its front and back glass are using Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection which is a step down from Corning Gorilla Glass Victus that the OnePlus 10 Pro uses. For its rear camera module, we can see that it doesn’t have Hasselblad text and ceramic coating but it still has a nice smooth transition curve to its camera rather than a hard edge. We think the camera module design looks like a stovetop with three burners!
We have here the Jade Green color where the back has smooth glass. But if you don’t like it, there is also a Moonstone Black color with a textured back and glitter glow-like when it shines by the light.
Proceeding on the sides, we have here a plastic frame that is a downgrade from the metal frame of the OnePlus 10 Pro. As for its buttons and ports, we have a power button on the right side, and on the left side, we have the volume rocker. Sadly, we don’t have the alert slider that has been a staple of the OnePlus since the OnePlus 2 release. It was only seen on the OnePlus 10 Pro. On the bottom, we can find the sim tray that supports two nano sim cards, a microphone hole, USB Type-C Port, and two speaker holes. For the fingerprint sensor, it uses an in-display fingerprint reader.
The Display and Speaker
The OnePlus 10T has a 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED display that has a 2412 x 1080 resolution. We really got immersed in its gaming performances, thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate that you can also toggle down to 60Hz. There is no option to make the display into being in adaptive mode therefore, only giving us two options to choose from.
Out of the box, we got a vibrant and inky black display. A great phone for outdoor, and an excellent display for watching contents. But you can also change its screen color by heading to its “Screen color mode”. We have three options namely the Vivid, Natural and Pro Mode and by default, it is set to vivid. Besides that, we also have slider options for its screen color temperature to make it cooler, warmer, or in default.
On its display & brightness settings, we also have a video enhancement engine where you can enable its Image Sharpener that enhances the clarity of low-quality images and video. There is also a Video Color Enhancer that widens the color gamut. And lastly, the “Bright HDR video mode” wherein. if you are watching HDR videos, it increases its screen brightness. Among all the said features, upon enabling them, can lead to consuming more power.
As for its speaker, the OnePlus 10T is a stereo speaker, but the sound focus is skewed towards its bottom-firing speaker. The top part speaker is firing forward making it still sound good even if you are playing and your hands blocking the bottom-firing speaker. The overall sound is very good as it sounds loud and clear even if you max it out.
The Performance
The OnePlus 10T uses a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is uncommon as it is a higher tier compared to its Pro version which uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 only. It has slightly improved performance and significantly improved efficiency over the OnePlus 10 Pro. Our review unit has the 16GB/256GB variant, but the available configuration that you can purchase on retail is 8GB RAM paired with 128GB internal storage.
The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is already a powerful chipset but you can enable furthermore power by enabling the “High Performance Mode”. By enabling it, this can lead to your phone overheating quickly and draining your battery faster. We didn’t see the necessity to demand more fps because it is already smooth to play out of the gate. But, if you still want to enable it, it doesn’t do much for everyday use, it just dramatically improves CPU benchmarks scores. Here are some benchmarks scores of the OnePlus 10T.
The OnePlus 10T runs OxygenOS 12.1 built on top of Android 12 with the August 2022 security update. It is a very simple UI with a vibrant design element to it and tons of additional performance tweaks that you can do. Also, it has little bloatware only having only google apps, netflix and some apps from them. Altogether, using it daily was fast and smooth. We didn’t encounter any bugs or problems.
Gaming performance plays exceptionally well in all the games we throw at it. From the low-demanding graphics games like Mobile Legends, we can max its setting and handle it like a champ. To the high-demanding graphics games like Genshin Impact, it still runs smoothly even if you max out its setting. Also, the included gaming mode tools are able to help the OnePlus 10 boost or manage its performance and keep annoying notifications from appearing when you are playing. For its thermal performance, it handles the heat pretty well because of its cryo-velocity vapor chamber, which is the largest vapor chamber in any OnePlus device as of the moment.
The biometrics and security of the OnePlus 10T uses two types: In-display fingerprint reader, and face unlock. Both are snappy and we didn’t encounter any problems while using it.
The Camera
We can see that the Hasselblad branding is missing in its rear camera module of the OnePlus 10T, which we can see in its pro version. The rear camera hardware is a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor with optical image stabilization which we can also find in its OnePlus Nord 2T. The image magnification it can do is up to 10x digital zoom. It also has an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 2MP macro lens. For its selfie camera, it has a 16MP camera with EIS support.
The primary camera performs great but admittedly it is not as good compared to its bigger brother the 10 Pro. Regardless with that information, the primary rear camera of the OnePlus 10T can be a great daily shooter, producing a decent amount of detail and almost close to natural colors in well-lit areas. But there is an occasion where it over saturates the scene or is not that sharp yet but you can easily retake it to get the result you wanted. For the low light aspect, it still manages to deliver the details of the image pretty well and generate bright images due to it takes a few seconds before it finishes its captures. However, there is a hit or miss in the results of its HDR performance. There is inconsistency in its colors sometimes and it overcompensates its exposure to the images, most especially if you are in a well-lit area with a cast of the deemed area.
And with that, it goes downhill furthermore with its other rear camera. The 8MP ultrawide was underwhelming for its price. The shots we have with it are of a mid-range type of smartphone capture result. Giving us in the soft side range of images, the color accuracy got worse. By shooting multiple times to see if there will be a good one, there are still some softness to the image.
For the 2MP macro camera on the OnePlus 10T, as expected, we have a poor level of macro shots that we commonly see on mid-range types of phones that slaps to it. Highly, this camera will be not used and is likely just a move by OnePlus to bump up the specs sheet. It would somehow be better if they went for the same camera telephoto lens that the OnePlus 10 Pro uses for a better use case.
On the other hand, the selfie camera on the OnePlus 10T works well. The image qualities, if we are in a well-lit area are best, maintaining the skin tones and good color range. But as usual, when we are in a poorly lit area, we can see the image qualities we are getting are having quite some noise to it. Despite that, we are still satisfied with the results we are getting.
Talking about the video recording capability of the OnePlus 10T, the rear camera can shoot up to 4k@60fps and the selfie camera can shoot up to 1080p@30fps. The video quality is impressive and the built-in camera stabilization does its job pretty well, giving us a smooth video when we are in a shaky scenario like when we are taking video while we walk.
The Battery
We have here a 4800mAh battery for the OnePlus 10T. Running a benchmark gives us a 13 hours and 37 minutes result which is average for its battery size and specs. In day-to-day use of the OnePlus 10T for around 12 hours, we are having around 5% to 12% remaining battery percentage. We are just doing general use of it like browsing the internet, scrolling in our social media feed with mobile data on, and taking pictures.
The real kicker in this aspect of the OnePlus 10T is its charging capability. We have a 160w charging brick included in the box but we can only charge up to 150w. From 10% to 50% we got it with just 8 mins of charging, for 17 mins, we reached 80% and for its full charging, we just needed 23 minutes. That is quite an insane charging speed making us not worry if we forget to charge our phone last night.
OnePlus 10T Verdict
Honestly, the OnePlus 10T is impressive with its performance. The placement of the OnePlus 10T is at the flagship smartphone level but is really a downgrade of the OnePlus 10 Pro in some aspects like with its camera. It is for sure a value for people that will be using it primarily for gaming and they wouldn’t want to shell out tons of money for a fully flagship smartphone. For its camera, if you are just shooting with its primary and selfie camera, this phone is also a good option for its price point.
The OnePlus 10T is priced at PHP 35,990 for its 8GB + 128GB variant. As for the 16GB + 256GB variant, it is still not available right now in the market. You can spot the 8GB + 128GB variant for around PHP 33k or 34k and it will be a great deal for the price to grab it at once. It is available on Shopee and Lazada.
