OnePlus 7T Review: Best Phone Worth Buying For Under Rs 40,000?

The latest OnePlus 7T phone gets an improved display quality, more cameras at the back and higher price tag also.

OnePlus 7T is the latest phone from the brand in India.

(Photo: The Quint)

OnePlus did its annual ‘T’ upgrade ritual this year as well, and with the 7T people did get more features than most of us expected. The phone made its public debut before the 7T Pro (which is hardly an upgrade) with a new set of features, which resulted in a price bump of Rs 5,000 for the base variant.

We’ve taken a few weeks to test the phone, to study its battery consumption patterns, how the camera responds and getting a couple of updates that help in improving some features.

So, does the OnePlus 7T make a strong case to be your go-to phone in the sub Rs 40,000 segment right now? This review will give you the answers.

Pros:

• Compact and user-friendly design
• Sharp and bright 90Hz display support
• Powerful hardware
• Impressive Oxygen OS software
• Decent cameras in day and low light
• Good value for money

Cons:

• Still no dust or water resistance
• No headphone jack
• Ultra-wide camera loses detail
• Average battery life

What’s Good?

I am glad that OnePlus decided to bring 90Hz display refresh rate to the 7T. This means people who were eyeing the OnePlus 7 Pro can choose a device that costs less. Even the size and dimension of the 7T will be more suited to most people than the 7 Pro. No, it’s not lightweight, but avoiding the use of the edge screen makes it ergonomically better.

OnePlus 7T gets a marginally bigger screen than its predecessor.

The 6.5-inch display packing 1080 pixels resolution would be sufficient in most cases and its brightness levels have been upped to support enhanced viewing.

The additional support of a 90Hz refresh rate can only be appreciated by those who get to use it extensively. 

Frosted glass finish isn’t slippery but attracts smudges.

In terms of looks, the 7T is identical to the OnePlus 7, except that, you get a smaller waterdrop notch with the former. For the back, you can choose between metallic and glass finish variant, available in blue and grey colour.

OnePlus 7T gets a smaller water drop notch.

The phone’s hardware performance gets a marginal upgrade with the Snapdragon 855 Plus, coupled with 8GB RAM and storage up to 256GB. This makes the 7T one of the few phones in the market (under Rs 40K) to come with the latest Snapdragon chipset.

Chin size of the 7T has been trimmed.

Asus ROG II is the other device to support it. Except for a few jitters with the initial version of Oxygen running on Android 10, the 7T delivers to command (for opening apps or gaming) without hiccups and the gesture support on the new software version has become easy to get used to.

In addition to the display, the 7T gets multiple cameras at the back. You get a 48-megapixel wide lens with aperture f/1.6, a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with f/2.2 aperture, and a 16-megapixel ultrawide lens with f/2.2 aperture. This unit is different from the one you get with the OnePlus 7 Pro.

Triple rear cameras take a lot of space on the 7T.

The overall imaging quality has improved with software updates, offering a decent amount of detail and colours in day and low light conditions.

Shot in mid-light.

Shot with no light support.

Shot of a dark alley

Ultra-wide shot in the night

The resulting images offer decent clarity and the colours are accurately reproduced. Even in low light, the camera managed to click some decent pictures.

So, considering all this, for Rs 37,999 and Rs 39,999 the OnePlus 7T makes a strong case to be your next smartphone upgrade. That is only if, you’ve got a phone that’s below the sixth generation OnePlus phone, or any other mid-range phone (in the Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 bracket).

What’s Bad?

The phone’s pricing now starts from Rs 37,999, but still OnePlus doesn’t feel the need to offer water or dust resistance. Durability is a big factor for buyers in the segment and we’re not impressed that the 7T doesn’t get any IP certification.

Just like every other device from the OnePlus 6 upwards, this one also doesn’t get a headphone jack. So, you can either use the Type-C wired headphones or get a Bluetooth headset.

No headphone jack on the 7T either.

The 90Hz display has its benefits, but it does affect the battery life of the phone. We managed to get over 14 hours on an average with the 3800mAh unit on the 7T, which is decent but not impressive.

The ultrawide cameras do capture wide-angle images, but it was hard to ignore the loss in detail of the images clicked. The colours were fine, but you expect better clarity from these sensors nowadays.

90Hz display consumes a lot of battery.

Also, it is worth mentioning that the initial versions of the Oxygen OS running on Android 10 have been buggy and it has taken a few updates to fix the glitches. It’s probably better that the brand releases new devices with stable versions from here on.

Should You Buy It?

The OnePlus 7T gets a host of new features, and upgraded hardware this year. For Rs 37,999 the phone packs a 90Hz display, powered by a Snapdragon 855 Plus and marginally faster-charging tech in tow.

Does the 7T offer enough for its price tag?

But that’s not all, the 7T also sports a triple rear camera setup which carries improved sensors, with the ability to shoot in telephoto, wide and ultrawide modes. This should have ideally been standard features on the OnePlus 7 and buyers will feel aggrieved they didn’t wait for the 7T this year.

If you’ve got the OnePlus 5T or the 6, the 7T is a worthy upgrade. For everyone else, we reckon you should wait for the OnePlus 8 in 2020, or maybe end up buying the 8T, which usually gets the better hardware deal.