OnePlus 7T Pro review: small upgrades make a big phone a little better

Although you’ll find many on the cheaper OnePlus 7T

In the right circumstances, There’s nothing wrong with a minor scare or bump, especially when it comes to just six months after the device has improved. That’s exactly what OnePlus did with the 699 OnePlus 7T Pro, the newly upgraded version of the OnePlus 7 Pro from earlier this year. His arrival in Europe and Asia, but not in the United States.

If you’ve already read the review of the Verges OnePlus 7T, you’ll know what improvements to expect from the Pro model. There’s a new macro camera mode, a bigger battery, and the phones processor is also a bit faster at rendering graphics. There’s nothing mind-blowing here, but its also a list of improvements that have been added without any compromises.

Again, if you’ve already read our review of the OnePlus 7T, you’ll also know that we called this phone the best of the 7 Pro, for less money, because with it, OnePlus took the Pros super-slick 90hz refresh rate, and included it on a device that costs between $ 70 and $ 100 less. The OnePlus 7T Pro is objectively better than the oneplus 7 Pro phone, but has now received much stronger competition from its own manufacturer in the form of the OnePlus 7T.

The OnePlus 7T Pro is a very similar device to the OnePlus 7 Pro, which was released earlier in the year. In fact, if you go back and read our OnePlus 7 Pro review from may, almost all points still apply to this new device.

In particular, the 7T Pros OLED screen is as stunning as it was on the 7 Pro. Its still got a super-smooth 90hz refresh rate, its still super crisp, colorful and bright, and it still elegantly curves around the edges of the device. It’s also still completely notchless, thanks to the phones small 16-megapixel pop-up selfie camera and in-display fingerprint scanner that’s still wicked fast.

When it comes to the changes OnePlus has made to the new phone, they can be a bit difficult to quantify. Take the CPU specifications kick as an example. OnePlus has equipped its latest device with a qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, which, in theory, means it’s 15 percent faster at rendering graphics.

Agree to continue: OnePlus 7T Pro

Each smart device now requires you to agree to a number of conditions before you can use its contracts, which no one actually reads. Its impossible for us to read and analyze each of these agreements. But were going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit agree to use the devices when we review them as these agreements most people do not read and certainly cant negotiate.

While you are configuring the OnePlus 7T Pro, you must agree to the following in order to use your phone:

In addition, there are a few additional conventions that you must go through during installation:

• user Engagement
• System stability reporting
• Push notifications for surveys and product updates
• Built-in app updates for phone app, contacts and settings

this leaves us with four binding agreements and four additional agreements for the OnePlus 7T Pro.

In practice, however, the real improvement is difficult to discern. What I will say is that I have never experienced a slowdown when using the phone. The recently released Call of Duty: Mobile ran brilliantly despite the phones high resolution 1440p display, and there were no hiccups as I switched between apps. Is this an improvement over the 7 Pro? Its hard to say but Im certainly not complaining.

Its a similar story when it comes to battery life. The OnePlus 7T Pro has a 4,085 mAh battery, which is technically as much as 85mAh larger than the 7 Pro. Does this make a measurable difference? Who cares? The important thing is that I struggled to drain the phone more than 50 percent a day. When I let the phone run to zero, I found it lasted me from 8am to 4pm the next day. It’s been two comparatively bright days of use filled mostly with email reading and Twitter browsing, but you get the idea.

The OnePlus 7T Pro uses the companys new Warp Charge 30T, which is apparently 23 percent faster than the Warp Charge 30 standard found in the 7 Pro. It works well, and it could charge my device quickly without it getting excessively warm. When charging a completely powered-down device, I found that I got 28 percent of charge after just 12 minutes, 46 percent after 20 minutes, 96 percent after an hour, and I was left with a fully charged device roughly one hour and five minutes after plugging it in. Its still a bummer that OnePlus is using its own proprietary fast-charging technology (so you wont get these same results from third-party chargers), but at least it works well.

The camera hardware inside the 7T Pro is basically unchanged from the 7 Pro, so Im not going to spend too much time covering old ground. We went for this triple camera array quite extensively in our initial 7 Pro review as well when we compared it to the Pixel 3A. Suffice to say you’ll get reasonable photos from the OnePlus 7 Pro, but they won’t be class leading as pixel photos.

That doesn’t mean the camera is completely unchanged, though, because the OnePlus 7T Pro inherited a couple of tricks from the 7T. there’s a new macro mode that lets you focus on objects that are only 2.5 cm long, and Nightscape mode now works when you’re using a wide angle camera. Both modes produce reasonable images, but its nothing mind-blowing.

In terms of software, you get the same OxygenOS-flavored version of Android 10 that was present on the OnePlus 7T, and you can get a full worn-out of its features in our previous review.

The OnePlus 7T Pro is every bit the big phone that the one Plus 7 Pro was when it released earlier this year. While many upgrades like its bigger, faster battery charging and faster processor are minor, none of them come with any noticeable flaws. Pretty much in every way, the 7T Pro is a better device than the 7 Pro was, although the difference is small enough that I don’t think any 7 Pro owners out there need to worry about upgrading.

Its a better device, but I dont know if that means its the better purchasing decision. Last time around, you basically had to buy the OnePlus 7 Pro if you wanted its lovely high refresh rate screen. But this time, you can get a 90Hz display on the OnePlus 7T, and it costs £150 less. Sure, if you opt for it, youll have to put up with a notch, a lower resolution display, and a screen that doesnt curve around the edges of your device, but those seem like reasonable compromises considering the price difference. Theres also the recently announced Google Pixel 4. At £669, it doesnt offer you as much savings, and its got much bigger screen bezels, but given Googles track record, it could get you a better camera.

The OnePlus 7T Pro is a highly specialized phone with a reasonably good camera at a price that is still cheaper than many other flagships. I don’t think its quite a steal was now that the OnePlus 7T inherited what I think is the 7 Pros best feature, its 90hz refresh rate. But if you want to make sure you get the absolute best phone that OnePlus currently produces (and one of the best smartphone screens, full stop), then the 7T Pro can still earn its premium price.

Photo: John Porter / The Verge

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