The OnePlus Nord is kind of a big deal. Or, at least, that’s what OnePlus has been working hard to convey. The PR “hype machine” has been working over-time and the results are definitely showing. For better or worse, everybody seems to be discussing the Nord and a lot is actually riding on its success as a result.
Going off of the company’s own commercial message, the OnePlus Nord is intended to mark a new beginning, a bold start of a whole family of Nord devices. Another stab at the mid-range market and an attempt to break ground where the OnePlus X failed. And when the makers of the original “flagship killer” phone, the masters of guerilla marketing, the proverbial “underdogs” from a wilder, past Android realm start saying such things, people tend to listen and then expect nothing short of a market splash.
It’s frankly hard to think of a harder and tighter position to put one single phone in on today’s cutthroat mobile scene. And the most baffling bit is that OnePlus singlehandedly self-engineered the entire predicament. Sure, if anyone has the resources, market standing production and supply chain to pull-off a new “messiah” phone, it has to be the mighty BBK corporation. And in all fairness, the OnePlus Nord is a solid and well-rounded product. It’s important to get that on the record right away.
OnePlus Nord specs
Body: 158.3×73.3×8.2mm, 184g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back (Gorilla Glass 5), plastic frame; Colors: Blue Marble, Gray Onyx.
It’s just that “good” or even “great” was never going to be enough to stop this particular hype train. Now the OnePlus Nord finds itself in a rather unfortunate, even if entirely predictable situation. Ever since it has hit shelves, the reception has been universally lukewarm. A big chunk of that response has been coming off as emotional, more than anything else. You’ll get none of that on the following pages, since the Nord deserves an evaluation on equal grounds, just like any other device we take a deep dive into.
That being said, the Nord, or rather OnePlus, won’t be getting a pass on some of its polarizing decisions in recent devices. Objective things, like the persistent absence of a telephoto camera, which still has fans harking back to the OnePlus 7T and a broader debate on the changing nature of a “value” that the brand and the 2020 mobile industry, as a whole, are now offering.
Unboxing OnePlus Nord
Presentation is vital if you are building a proper brand image. Ever since its early viral-marketing days, OnePlus has been among the best in the entire Android realm at selling ideas and feeling. A lifestyle brand, if you will. At least in some sense. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the Nord has its own, distinctive twist on the OnePlus look. Teal or aquamarine, depending on how much light is present, are the new accent colors. At least, going by the sturdy, two-piece box on the OnePlus Nord, as well as the accompanying “welcome letter”. Like we said, OnePlus knows its way around designing a lifestyle brand.
The thick rubber USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable in the box is still colored in the familiar bright red. Aquamarine on the cable would have really shown some extra care and attention to detail. The 30W wall charger is the same as on other OnePlus phones.
Cost-effective is not the worst thing to be accused of, though, especially since we can’t outright say OnePlus was stingy with the accessory bundle. You also get a nice and thick, frosted-look silicone case in the box. Complete with a rather odd geometrical pattern on the back. The latter is probably meant to mimic a compass arrow, which is the original inspiration for the Nord name. The only notable omission, in our mind, is a USB Type-C to 3.5mm dongle, since the Nord lacks a 3.5mm jack.
Competition
There are plenty of Nord alternatives in the incredibly saturated midranger market, regardless whether you are keen on getting 5G connectivity.
Since the entire segment is all about delivering just the right value formula, it is really tough to suggest any “overall better” alternative to the Nord. It all depends on your personal priorities. The closest you can actually get to the Nord, while getting a quantifiably better experience in many respects is the OnePlus 7T. The 7T offers the coveted 12MP telephoto, stereo speakers, a sturdier aluminum build, and what is a comparable or better Snapdragon 855+ chipset. You do have to live with certain compromises, though. Chief among which – the older hardware without 5G and slightly weaker battery. Plus, despite its age, the OnePlus 7T still sells for slightly more than the OnePlus Nord.
If Oxygen OS is high up on your priorities list, you have to look at the OnePlus lineup. If, however, you are willing to concede to a simpler, but even cleaner AOSP experience, the new Google Pixel 4a comes to mind. You will definitely be sacrificing on raw hardware specs, compared to the Nord, though. In some cases, quite severely, since the Pixel 4a only has a single main camera. Sadly, the more-capable Pixel 4 and 4XL are out of budget. Not to mention the fact that Google appears to be discontinuing them on many markets.
Motorola deserves an honorable mention when discussing vanilla and close-to vanilla Android. Both the Moto G 5G Plus and the One Fusion+, competing in the same price segment as the Nord come with compromises, like LCD displays.
OnePlus 7T • Oppo Reno3 Pro • Xiaomi Mi Note 10 • Samsung Galaxy A71
It would be shortsighted not to look at the rest of the BBK Electronics collective lineup for alternatives to the Nord too. The Realme X3 SuperZoom stands out immediately, because of its actual periscope telephoto camera. But it is a bit older now, with its Snapdragon 855+ chipset and has an LCD panel. Making the list instead, will be the Oppo Reno3 Pro. Technically, not the latest in the Reno line, either, but arguably better value than its successors. The device turnover in Oppo’s ranks has been crazy lately.
In competitor Xiaomi’s ranks, we can instantly spot the Poco F2 Pro, which is a amazing value device, sporting an actual flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset. Technically, it costs about as much as the OnePlus Nord too, but it is far from globally available and kind of hard to get. Making the list in its place, we have the Xiaomi Mi Note 10. It bumps the chipset down to a mid-range Snapdragon 730G, but its amazingly-versatile camera setup more than makes up for that in the overall value calculation.
Last, but not least, as a more “name-brand” alternative, Samsung will more than readily sell you the Galaxy A71, for right around the same price as the Nord. OneUI, among other things, makes for a significantly different Android experience though. If 5G is high on your wish list, you can look at the Galaxy A51 5G instead.
The verdict
The OnePlus Nord is a solid 5G-enabled mid-range offer. One combining a well-balanced specs sheet, with the excellent, class-leading experience of Oxygen OS. Thanks to thoughtful engineering and a large infusion of familiar OnePlus DNA, the Nord manages to transcend the simple label of just another BBK Electronics rebranded device. BBK owns and ensures healthy technology sharing among its subsidiaries Oppo, vivo, Realme and OnePlus but after all is said and done, each company runs its own phone business in a different way.
The Nord was introduced with a lot of fanfare, alongside bold promises to usher in a new beginning for the Android midrange niche. A great PR move, on paper, but one that put the Nord under a lot of heat and with frankly unrealistic expectations. After all, it’s OnePlus and you can’t blame fans for extrapolating that, just like the original “flagship killer”, the new one should at least have the dedicated telephoto camera from the OnePlus 7T, a headphone jack, a metal frame. And that’s just the more reasonable demands and complaints being tossed around and severely scrutinized.
Despite OnePlus efforts to make the device stand out, the Nord is, at its core, only a midrange device. As such, it has to play by the same market rules as everybody else in the midrange. The 2020 smartphone scene doesn’t leave a lot of room for a “flagship” killer, in the original OnePlus One sense. Even the mighty and vast BBK can’t include true flagship specs in the Nord, while also preserving its EUR 400 MSPR while funding a massive advertising campaign.
What it can and has successfully done with the Nord, though, is to give it the proper OnePlus treatment, through and through. For many prospective buyers, that’s going to be enough of an added value to choose the Nord over a slightly better-spec’d, but less prominent and refined alternative.
Pros
Clean, functional design, infused with familiar OnePlus controls, like the Alert Slider.
Super bright, accurate and smooth 90Hz OLED display, with HDR10+ support and clever auto refresh rate management.
Optimal performance is extracted from the Snapdragon 765G chipset.
Excellent battery life even in 90Hz mode.
Competitive fast charging.
Oxygen OS with more features than ever. Still one of the snappiest Android experiences available.
Excellent main camera performance for the class.
Cons
Plastic frame; dual selfie cam means a large punch hole.
No 3.5mm audio jack, no microSD card slot and no notification LED.
Single bottom-firing speaker with unimpressive performance.
The 2x zoom is no match for a proper telephoto and the ultra-wide is barely satisfactory.
Up to this point, OnePlus has climbed its way up from the high-end budget phone to the fully-fledged flagship. The brand once called its phone the “Flagship Killer”, and the OnePlus 8 Pro has become the very thing that the company initially aimed to dethrone.
Surely, the smartphone landscape has changed over the past several years. There are now so many contenders in the sub-$500 and sub-$400 price that the company has shifted its focus to creating a more prestigious brand name. With this iteration, the company has presented itself with an updated all-CAPS “ONEPLUS” typeface and tweaked “1+” logo.
Now with the OnePlus 8 Pro, the company thinks it has what it takes to compete in the flagship category at the $1000 price mark. Well, technically – the OnePlus 8 Pro starts at $900. The OnePlus 7 Pro was a strong seller, but will OnePlus have just as much success in a higher price bracket?
The 8 Pro has an impressive spec sheet: high-end CPU, 10-bit high-end AMOLED screen, Warp Charge 30T, and for the first time from OnePlus: support for wireless charging and even reverse-wireless charging for sharing juice with an accessory or a to give some juice to a friend.
OnePlus 8 Pro specs:
Body: 165.3 x 74.35 x 8.5 mm; 199g; metal frame; “3D Corning” Gorilla Glass 5 back
That high-end display is of the 120Hz variety – and it’s a panel made by Samsung. OnePlus is promising near-perfect color accuracy, over 1 billion colors, and the brightest output of any display it has ever put in a smartphone. The smoothness of the still-higher refresh rate display is the company’s way of staying ahead of the trends – which could be an advantage in markets like the US where the company has a presence.
There’s a new camera system with the notable larger Sony IMX 689 sensor behind the quad-camera’s main lens. The ultrawide camera gets a larger sensor as well, but the telephoto camera remains pretty much the same as the OnePlus 7T. OnePlus has a new “Color filter camera” whose long-term usefulness remains to be seen.
OnePlus has further refined its Android skin, Oxygen OS with new icons, and its revamped its UI’s animations for the 120Hz experience. Oxygen OS offers a stock-Android like experience, close to that of a Google Pixel, and OnePlus is known for its speedy turnaround when it comes to firmware updates.
OnePlus is the only high-end Chinese brand available from three of the four major US carriers – and many American consumers might be clueless of the brand’s existence in a market where Apple, Samsung, and Google are the most known (and most advertised) brands.
Unboxing
We always praise OnePlus for its packaging. The high-quality cardboard materials, and soft-touch red finish make a very good first impression. Our review unit doesn’t have the new all-CAPS name on the side, but it does have the updated “1+” logo.
Taking the lid off the long red box, we’re greeted by the OnePlus 8 Pro in Ultramarine Blue with a pre-installed factory screen protector. A notice on the plastic wrapper recommends using official OnePlus screen protectors for best compatibility of the in-display fingerprint scanner.
The cardboard cradle that holds the 8 Pro in place is also a box where the phone’s documentation is held, along with a SIM tool, welcome letter, and quick start guide. The words “Never Settle” sit below the smartphone as you unbox it – reminding us of the company’s long-time motto. Beneath this phone cradle is an included clear case to show off that deep blue color, and the Warp Charge 30T adapter and cable.
Now that we’ve seen what’s inside the box, head to the next page where we’ll spend some time talking about the phone’s design, ergonomics, and build quality.
The competition
This is the first time OnePlus has ever made any of its devices this expensive. As such, we’ll try to pair it up against other flagships that are near or over a grand. In the US, the only way to purchase the 8 Pro is unlocked from OnePlus (the OnePlus 8 is sold directly from carriers) and that’s not a great strategy if it is trying to convince consumers that they should buy OnePlus over Samsung or Apple.
In any case, let’s look through alternative devices. Starting with the LG V60, both devices are priced similarly at $899, but the 8 Pro is more equipped with features than the V60. Both are about the same in video quality, but LG’s camera experience is certainly more polished and offers far more advanced video and audio controls.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max is the largest iPhone that Apple makes and the display on the 8 Pro is superior in almost every way. Of course, iOS is a completely different landscape with similar image quality – though the iPhone doesn’t use a high-resolution camera sensor. The iPhone’s ultrawide camera doesn’t have autofocus either.
Cameras and software aside, it would be difficult to convince an iOS user to switch to a OnePlus device, unless they are already looking outside of the iOS ecosystem from boredom or desire for something more exciting.
The Galaxy S20+ might be a worthy alternative for the 8 Pro, though it’s certainly more expensive. Ironically, Samsung’s flagship no longer has a dual-curved display while the 8 Pro has the curviest display yet. Samsung’s One UI Android skin can be an acquired taste for some who might prefer a more stock-Android appearance like that of a Google Pixel phone.
Though they are distant cousins, the Oppo Find X2 Pro and the 8 Pro have similar DNA (the two brands are sister companies, after all). Although its more expensive, the Oppo Find X2 Pro has a stronger emphasis on photography prowess with its periscope telephoto camera. There’s also the luxurious Vegan leather option, as well.
If you’re in the US, chances are you’ve never heard of Oppo before – since the company has no presence in the American market.
Another device you won’t find the US, the Huawei P40 Pro is the latest flagship from Huawei, also with an emphasis on photography and imaging. Still cursed with last year’s US-Huawei ban, the brand makes a compelling phone that can’t be used with Google Services – which could be a deal breaker for many consumers in Western markets.
Xiaomi’s latest flagship is in a similar situation as the 8 Pro: it has shed away its midrange, high-value image and presents itself as a proper flagship with a flagship price to match. The Mi 10 Pro 5G is certainly well-spec’d on paper and its 108MP camera rivals the 8 Pro‘s overall camera experience.
The OnePlus 8 Pro‘s predecessors are still worthy alternatives to the 8 Pro. Depending on the market, the 5G version of the OnePlus 7T Pro (McLaren Edition @ T-Mobile in the US) is just as expensive as the 8 Pro’s entry price, but if you’re looking for a much cheaper option, the OnePlus 7 Pro is a great smartphone that’s aged very well over the last year.
It can be found around half the price of the 8 Pro, which is a nice trade-off if 5G isn’t a priority. The 7 Pro was one of our favorite smartphones of 2019 around the office.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is now a fully featured flagship worth a pretty penny. This is certainly a departure from OnePlus‘ original image of high-performance for low cost. With every passing iteration, OnePlus continued to build on its previous device’s success and even if it did sometimes hype our expectations, it has consistently improved in many areas throughout the years.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is a solid smartphone packed with a well-improved camera and all the top features that you’d expect from a flagship like reverse wireless charging, stereo speakers, and a top-of-the-line display with 120Hz refresh rate. Top performance from the Snapdragon 865 and 5G connectivity are must-haves in this space, but where OnePlus is no longer competing is in the very space it began.
Pros:
Bright and beautiful smooth display
Premium design and build quality with IP rating and soft-touch finish
Great camera all-around
It has the fastest Snapdragon chipset on board
Oxygen OS is snappy and gets frequent updates
Loud stereo speakers
Warp Wireless charging is super-fast
Cons:
MEMC Motion smoothing feature is inconsistent
Warp wireless charger is expensive
Still no always-on display out of the box
No expandable memory
Not available directly from US carriers
Color filter camera is meh
Ultrawide camera’s low-light performance is not great
OnePlus is a perfect example of the notion: “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” and this is exactly what the company has done with the 8 Pro. It’s managed to become the very thing the company initially set out to defeat. It did call its phones “Flagship killers” for a while. These days, there is so much more competition in the category that OnePlus first started in, that it would rather compete at the flagship level with the big boys.
And they have succeeded in this endeavor. The OnePlus 8 Pro is a high-end smartphone worth considering. The company’s attention to detail in software, packaging, and design make their brand worth being a fan of.
Launching at €599, the OnePlus 8T is shaping up as an excellent premium mid-ranger with a slew of flagship features – a 120Hz Fluid AMOLED, the latest Snapdragon 865 chip, a promising quad-camera with improved low-light performance, stereo speakers, and probably OnePlus best achievement yet – a larger battery with blazing-fast Warp Charge at 65W.
At the company’s fall event this year, a Pro model was a notable absentee. This is because the company keeps the 8 Pro as its ongoing flagship device, and it won’t be getting a refresh until 2021.
The OnePlus 8 needed the update, so we won’t object to this strategic move. We doubt many OnePlus 8 owners are thinking of switching, but it makes the two current offerings that much more desirable for anyone in the market for a new phone.
If we compare it with the OnePlus 8, the 8T is getting a 120Hz OLED vs. 90Hz. At the same time, its main camera gets a brighter aperture for the main camera, an even wider ultra-wide lens, and an additional depth camera. Finally, you get a 4,500mAh battery with 65W charging vs. 4,300mAh and 30W charging. Okay, these are not the wildest upgrades we’ve seen, but for they are enough to make the cheaper OnePlus devices in the duo desirable again.
The €600 smartphone segment is already oversaturated, and it is the place where the flagship killers come to win big or die trying. With the OnePlus being the company that coined the term, its cheaper non-Pro models are burdened with the impossible task to defend the title. As long as they don’t kill the company’s own flagship, of course.
The OnePlus 8T is the first phone to come with the OxygenOS 11 based on Android 11 out of the box. Many of the recent OnePlus phones are getting the update, too, but being first is a title that only the 8T can claim.
Let’s take a closer look at the specs sheet. There aren’t many changes, but it is a flagship-like list, and we like what we are seeing.
OnePlus 8T specs:
Body: 160.7×74.1×8.4mm, 188g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass), glass back (Gorilla Glass), aluminum frame; Colors: Aquamarine Green, Lunar Silver.
The OnePlus 8T is not water-resistant, not unless you are getting the T-Mobile exclusive OnePlus 8T+ 5G model, which is the same phone but with IP68 certification. Don’t sigh just yet – the OnePlus 8T does comes with many, if not all, seals and protections the T-Mobile model has. It will most probably survive a water drop, too.
The bright red Never Settle box is already here, and the excitement is building up. The OnePlus 8T may not be among the more interesting updates this year, but c’mon – look at this sweet reviewers’ package!
And now that you’ve seen what we got, here is what you are getting if you choose to buy the OnePlus 8T.
Unboxing the OnePlus 8T
The OnePlus 8T comes packed in what’s already a signature long red box. Inside, you will find your new 8T, be it the glossy Aquamarine Green or the frosted Lunar Silver, and a transparent Never Settle case.
Digging deeper, you will also see the 65W Warp Charger and its thick and red USB-C-to-C cable. The charger also supports USB-PD, so you can use it to charge other devices such as laptops, consoles, tablets, and smartphones.
Finally, there is this paper compartment, where you’d find some paperwork and a bunch of OnePlus stickers.
Wrap-up
The OnePlus 8T has enough novelties to be worthy of the T insignia. We are impressed with the new 65W Warp Charge, and we love the new 120Hz screen. The Fluid AMOLED is 100% worthy of its name, and the new Oxygen 11 is truly a feast for the eyes. Once you see how smooth and fast it runs, you just can’t go back.
And that’s about it. The rest is pretty much OnePlus 8 material – same chipset, speakers, fingerprint scanner, camera. Indeed, even with the minor updates, the camera isn’t on par with the recent premium mid-rangers we’ve seen, let alone the flagship crop. It is a good setup, yes, but the quality hasn’t been improved that much since the Series 7, and the lossless zoom is probably the only thing that deserves praise.
The OnePlus 8T is a terrific deal – it is reasonably priced at €600, and there is a good chance many will choose an 8T (€600) instead of the 8 Pro (€780). But we don’t see many OnePlus 8 owners switching to the T. And that’s fine. The T series are mid-season updates that usually targets last-year buyers.
Alternatives
The recently launched Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is the biggest threat to the OnePlus 8T and vice versa. Both devices cost €600 and offer HRR screens, the latest Snapdragon 865 chips, UFS3.1 storage, high-end cameras, and large batteries. The Mi 10T Pro has a 144Hz display, but it’s an LCD unit. It also offers a higher-resolution main camera with 8K video capturing and better quality across the board. Meanwhile, the 8T has a 120Hz OLED and faster charging. MIUI or Oxygen? LCD or OLED? 33W or 65W? It’s up to you, but we can bet you will be happy with either.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is also a great alternative with an equally impressive 120Hz OLED, similar performance, and battery life. However, it is IP68-rated for dust and water resistance and offers better camera quality and a proper 3x tele camera. The FE may not be that fast to charge, but it also trumps the 8T with wireless charging and reverse charging options (both wired and wireless). The 4G Galaxy S20 FE is priced like the OnePlus 8T, while its 5G version is €100 more.
Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G • Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G
The verdict
The OnePlus 8T is one of these offers we usually call a smart choice. It is a premium mid-ranger at an attractive price that offers a superb pick of flagship features – the screen, the SoC, the charging. The camera may not seem like a winner – it is not disappointing, but it’s not ideal either.
OnePlus has just started offering IP68-rated designs, but this is reserved only for its Pro flagships for now. At least the 8T has some protection, which will give you some peace of mind.
Our only real issue is that OnePlus is forcing a 60fps cap on most of the games and all video players and services. Whether this is done for performance, or heat protection, or battery saving – it doesn’t matter – the user should have had more control over this high refresh rate feature.
Other than that, while not perfect, the OnePlus 8T is easily likable. It might even be love at first sight if you spent 10 minutes with its fluid Oxygen and fluid screen. We can’t recommend it to any OnePlus 8 user, but we can encourage everyone else looking for a €600 or so phone – it is definitely among our top three picks, along with the Mi 10T Pro and the Galaxy S20 FE.
Pros
Excellent 120Hz AMOLED display
Likable design
Incredibly fast charging, versatile bundled fast charger
Dependable battery life
Flagship-grade performance
Powerful speakers
Versatile camera, good day and night quality
Excellent UI performance
Cons
No water/dust resistance rating
No wireless charging
Most games locked to 60Hz
The camera processing could benefit from some improvements
The OnePlus 8 phones have been rendered and shown off several times already. As early as October last year, we saw images of a phone with a punch-hole display. A OnePlus phone was sighted in the wild and illustration of the Pro soon surfaced. We were told it would come with quad rear cams. Image renders and a 360-degree video of the OnePlus 8 Lite also appeared. Already confirmed is the 120Hz OLED screen technology (120Hz Fluid Display) that offers the 120Hz screen refresh rate.
No doubt new OnePlus phones will be coming. Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr, was caught holding a mysterious OnePlus phone. We’re just curious if all OnePlus variants will really come with 5G support and if it will be a Verizon or Amazon exclusive.
Sometime in April, OnePlus will reveal two Android phones–the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro. The two follow last year’s OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro. Both will be equipped with 5G connectivity so we can add them to our shortlist of 5G phones.
Expect the two to arrive with a newer design. The screen is improved with the 120Hz Fluid Display tech. The batteries and camera systems will also be improved.
The latest image renders and video have been shared by Jermaine Smit (Concept Creator). They look believable and most likely, the final design will look like these.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is expected to come with a 6.5-inch Fluid AMOLED display, ToF camera, 120 Hz refresh rate, 1440 x 3120-pixel resolution, HDR10+ DCI-P3, 88.3% screen-to-body ratio, 128GB or 256GB onboard storage, and a 32MP selfie camera under a punch-hole. The phone will run on Adreno 650 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, and 8GB or 12GB of RAM.
The eagerly-anticipated OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro are right around the corner now. After more than a few setbacks and uncertainties, OnePlus finally seems to have settled on announcement dates for the phones. You can tune in for the global event live stream on YouTube on April 14 at 3PM UTC. As per a new official Weibo post, the OnePlus 8 generation will make a debut in its home country on April 16. Understandably, with another live online event. This one scheduled for 7PM local time.
As for the OnePlus 8 Lite, which we now know could come under the OnePlus Z moniker, it is still expected a bit later than its flagship siblings. We can’t really speculate on what other potential devices OnePlus intends to show at its Chinese event either. We do, however, have teasers, suggesting the global April 14 event will see the OnePlus TV 55 Q1 Pro’s international market release.
Both the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro have been frequenting the rumor mill for quite some time now.
Official renders are already available and so are specs. The vanilla OnePlus 8 is expected to feature a 6.55-inch, FullHD+ Fluid AMOLED display, with a 90Hz refresh rate.
The OnePlus 8 Pro will bump that refresh rate up to 120Hz on a 6.78-inch QHD+ panel, as a headlining feature. As per the latest insider scoop on the camera department, the OnePlus 8 Pro will use the Sony IMX689 48MP, f/1.78 sensor for its main snapper, just like the Oppo Find X2 Pro. Alongside it will be Sony IMX586, 48MP f/2.2 ultrawide unit and an 8MP f/2.44 telephoto camera.
On the flip side, both phones are expected to pack the same flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset, complete with 5G connectivity. 8GB RAM plus 128GB storage and 12GB RAM with 256GB storage are the likely memory tiers.
The two phones are expected to stick to OnePlus 30W Warp Charge tech on 4,300 mAh and 4,510 mAh batteries, respectively. The Pro could also feature wireless and reverse wireless charging, although, rumors have been a mixed bag on that front. Same goes for official IP68 ingress protection rating.
With OnePlus moving to a two smartphone approach this year and delivering a Pro flagship with a bunch of the company and market firsts it was super easy to overlook the way more conservative OnePlus 7. The fact that it didn’t make it to all markets didn’t help either, but there’s no denying that this is the phone that much better reflects the company’s values. While the 7 Pro aims to beat competitors on features rather than, the regular 7 offers the no-nonsense aggressive pricing approach that made OnePlus what it is today.
Following the sharp increase in smartphone prices for tha past few years, a new “mainstream flagship” segment was born and quite a few companies are looking to take a piece of it. Phones with flagship chipsets that deliver the same core experience, while maintaining a far more reasonable price tag.
The questions then is, if the OnePlus 7 makes the right compromises to make the budget. Let’s have a look at its specs first.
OnePlus 7
Body: 157.7 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm, 182 grams, Gorilla Glass 6 front and Gorilla Glass 5 back, metal side frame.
Front camera: 16MP, f/2.0; 1/3.1″, 1.0µm; 1080p@30fps video recording.
Battery: 3,700 mAh, 20W fast charging.
Misc: Alert slider, stereo loudspeakers, NFC, under-display fingerprint reader, UFS 3.0 storage, USB-C 3.1 connector, available in Mirror Gray and Red.
Crucially, the OnePlus 7 costs the same as the OnePlus 6T did back when it launched. The initial look may lead you to believe that it doesn’t change that much either and the fact that OnePlus opted to retain the 6T as its affordable alternative points towards the same thing. Yet, a closer inspection reveals that upgrades go beyond a simple chipset switch.
Key improvements include a brighter screen, stereo loudspeakers and an upgraded in-display fingerprint reader. Plus you get the same main camera as the OnePlus 7 Pro and while you’ll be missing on the wide angle and telephoto action, this is the one used for a majority of your photos anyway.
We’ll now set to check if those upgrades are enough to keep the package relevant in 2019, or if OnePlus held back too much. Let’s have a look inside the box first.
Unboxing the OnePlus 7
The phone comes in a standard OnePlus package with the usual user manuals, a 20W fast charging brick, USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer and a transparent silicone case to keep the 7 safe until you get a better one, because chances are few will be happy with this one.
Unfortunately, the OnePlus 7 sticks to the company’s usual tradition of coming without a pair of headphones. Worse yet, unlike the 6T’s, this one has no USB-C to 3.5mm dongle either. If you want to use your 3.5mm headphones you’ll have to get one separately.
Design and build
The OnePlus 7 looks almost identical to its predecessor, the 6T. In fact, the only notable change are the color options. Now the phone comes in Mirror Gray and Red while last year’s model had a Mirror Black and Midnight Black from the start. The Mirror Gray option comes very close to the Xiaomi Mi 9’s Piano Black and there’s no matte glass option as it’s reserved for the OnePlus 7 Pro.
Compared to the 6T, the 7 is just 0.2mm taller and 3g lighter so even some cases from the 6T will fit on the 7, depending on how elastic they are.
So we are still getting the glass sandwich design (Gorilla Glass 6 on the front, 5 on the back) with a curved back and slightly rounded front glass to the sides. It’s smooth along the whole frame, which is made of aluminum, and button positioning is identical as well. We’ve got the volume rocker on the left, power button on the right and the iconic alert slider right above it.
The USB-C connector is at the bottom along with the main microphone and one of the two grilles. Only one of those is for a loudspeaker, though, the other likely holds the primary microphone.
The SIM card tray can be found close the volume key and when you pull it out, you will see red sealing against water and dust. Like all OnePlus phones, the 7 doesn’t have an official ingress protection rating, and while the company says it will survive an accidental splash or dip, you’ll be taking the full risk if it doesn’t.
Going to the front, we are greeted with nicely slim bezels, although their lack of symmetry might put you off. The top bezel isn’t as thin as the side ones and the chin is beefier than all the rest.
The notch is one of the least obtrusive ones we’ve dealt with although it’s still an unsightly cutout that will bother some. For day to day operations, however, it very rarely gets in the way. Then again the missing LED notification light is a hard pill to swallow in yet another generation of OnePlus phones.
The OnePlus 7 is a big phone and pretty slippery at that. It’s not quite as huge as the 7 Pro, but still there’s a limited number of operations you can do with one hand.
Our Mirror Gray phone attracted a lot of fingerprints, which are easy to spot in almost any lighting. Moreover, the camera bump is sticking out a bit more than we would like and it feels strangely sharp in a way. If you let the phone lie flat on its back, it would start to wobble when using the touchscreen.
On the upside the OnePlus 7 is solidly put together – it’s in no way feeling inferior to the more expensive 7 Pro.
Notched Optic AMOLED screen
On paper the OnePlus 7‘s screen is identical to one on last year’s 6T. It has an identical waterdrop-styled notch, measures 6.41″ in diagonal and has FHD+ (2340 x 1080px) resolution in 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
Our lab tests did show one difference, even if that has to do with the controller rather than the panel itself. The 6T and the 7 both have similar maximum brightness – 453 vs 443 nits, respectively. But while the 6T doesn’t offer an additional boost in brightness when the ambient sensor detects bright sunlight, the 7 can actually go up to 642 cd/m2 for short periods of time. It’s a nice feature to have and a very useful one too.
Display test
100% brightness
Black, cd/m2
White, cd/m2
Contrast ratio
OnePlus 7 Pro
0
436
∞
OnePlus 7 Pro (Max Auto)
0
616
∞
OnePlus 7
0
443
∞
OnePlus 7 (Max Auto)
0
642
∞
Samsung Galaxy S10
0
396
∞
Samsung Galaxy S10 (Max Auto)
0
820
∞
Xiaomi Mi 9
0
428
∞
Xiaomi Mi 9 (Max Auto)
0
620
∞
Black Shark 2
0
428
∞
Huawei P30
0
449
∞
Huawei P30 (Max Auto)
0
635
∞
Asus Zenfone 6 ZS630KL
0.353
424
1201
Asus Zenfone 6 ZS630KL (Max Auto)
0.399
455
1140
Color accuracy is also something the 7 should be proud of. The standard Vivid mode returned an average dE2000 of just 3.2, which isn’t too shabby. Whites err on the blue-ish side.
Switching over to the Natural mode, the display impressed us with an average dE2000 of 1.1and a maximum deviation of 2.8. So if color accuracy is of great importance, we suggest sticking to the Natural mode.
There’s also an advanced mode that lets you choose between AMOLED Wide Gamut, sRGB or DCI-P3 color spaces with manual control over color temperature.
Battery life
The OnePlus 6T already had great battery life but the OnePlus 7 was able to build on that by adding a respectable amount of minutes in the screen on tests. A 3,700 mAh unit may be only average by current standards, but it’s all about real life performance and the OnePlus 7 really delivers there. We were pretty impressed by the web browsing and video playback times, but the standby draw was very low too.
It all adds up to a total score of 102h easily overtaking some high-end flagships. Interestingly, though, it’s still not enough to dethrone the Asus Zenfone 6 in this price segment, which scored a whopping 112h.
Aside from the great battery life, the OnePlus 7 also has a fast battery charging using the proprietary OnePlus wall charger and USB-A to USB-C cable capping at 20W. A 30-minute charging session got us from a dead battery to 55% – just like last year’s OnePlus 6T. The 20W charging standard is no longer the fastest around, but it’s still up there, particularly in this price segment.
Loudspeaker
OnePlus has finally added a second speaker to its phones, although it’s the more space-efficient hybrid systems, where the earpiece doubles as one and you get a downwards-facing second speaker. Still the different direction along with the fact that the dedicated loudspeaker is somewhat more powerful makes them sound roughly equal.
They deliver very good loudness and reasonably rich sound although vocals get lost with some tracks. Still, as far as smartphone speakers go the OnePlus 7 has it better than most.
Speakerphone test
Voice, dB
Pink noise/ Music, dB
Ringing phone, dB
Overall score
OnePlus 7
68.1
73.1
82.2
Very Good
OnePlus 6T
67.2
72.5
84.5
Very Good
Black Shark 2
67.7
73.6
82.9
Very Good
Sony Xperia 1
69.8
74.5
81.0
Very Good
Xiaomi Mi 9
70.1
74.2
81.6
Very Good
Asus Zenfone 6
77.0
75.9
81.2
Excellent
Samsung Galaxy S10
82.2
74.9
85.5
Excellent
OnePlus 7 Pro
79.6
77.7
87.2
Excellent
Audio quality
An important thing to mention before we begin here is that the OnePlus 7 doesn’t ship with a USB-C to 3.5mm audio adapter in the box. So to complete the test we used a passive adapter we had laying around. This means the results are only going to be representative if you also purchase a passive adapter – an active adapter or headphones with built-in DAC would yield a different result. With that out of the way let’s see how the OnePlus 7 did.
The phone posted perfect scores for clarity with an active external amplifier and was very close to perfect with headphones too. The only reading to be damaged was stereo crosstalk and that too took a far smaller hit compared to most phones out there.
Volume levels on the OnePlus 7 weren’t quite so impressive – with the phone being below average in both parts of the test. This might prove problematic if you need to drive high-impedance headphones to high loudness, or not matter at all if that’s not your use case.
Test
Frequency response
Noise level
Dynamic range
THD
IMD + Noise
Stereo crosstalk
OnePlus 7
+0.03, -0.01
-91.0
91.9
0.0016
0.0085
-91.5
OnePlus 7 (headphones)
+0.10, -0.06
-90.5
91.4
0.0023
0.094
-70.6
Asus Zenfone 6
+0.03, -0.01
-85.8
86.8
0.0012
0.014
-76.2
Asus Zenfone 6 (headphones)
+0.05, -0.01
-81.1
82.7
0.0068
0.059
-52.0
OnePlus 7 Pro
+0.03, -0.01
-93.0
92.6
0.0023
0.021
-89.6
OnePlus 7 Pro (headphones)
+0.10, -0.05
-92.0
91.4
0.0034
0.106
-74.8
Xiaomi Mi 9
+0.02, -0.01
-93.9
93.1
0.0015
0.0066
-91.9
Xiaomi Mi 9 (headphones)
+0.05, -0.04
-92.6
93.5
0.0026
0.072
-58.7
OxygenOS based on Android 9.0 Pie
The OxygenOS is designed to look like stock Android distribution with just a couple of custom features to add to the overall experience. OnePlus has made a couple of other under-the-hood changes over the years and has made this one of the better performing platforms on the market, even if in typical Chinese maker fashion it’s a bit more aggressive with handling background tasks.
A large part of what makes OxygenOS feel so fast is the absence of certain animations that you otherwise have to wait for while navigating the UI.
Another big advantage of OnePlus phones over the rest is the especially strong modding community, if we can call it that. There are tons of supported third-party ROMs and mods for OnePlus handsets and the best part is that the OEM doesn’t care if your phone is rooted or with a different ROM. This won’t void your warranty and thus attracts plenty of Android enthusiasts year after year.
But when it comes to features, the OxygenOS is closer to stock Android than other OEM’s iterations like One UI from Samsung or Huawei’s EMUI. Some may call it “barebones” and they might be right.
The added features include screen-off gestures like launching the flashlight or the camera by drawing a letter on a locked screen, OnePlus‘ unique gesture-based navigation and the alert slider, but little else.
We found that the gesture for the flashlight works a lot better than on the last year’s OnePlus 6T. There were no accidental triggers and the gesture worked almost every time. The alert slider options haven’t changed, however. There are two modes – Vibration and Silent. The names of the modes are pretty much self-explanatory.
Kudos to OnePlus for offering three navigation options. You can either go with the good old software buttons or choose the new gestures from Google or OnePlus.
The first of the gesture options is the well-known pill navigation that you find on almost all stock Android phones. Then there’s OnePlus‘ take, where swipe from the center-bottom brings you back to the home screen, swiping from the bottom near the left or right edge works as a back button while swipe and hold opens up the recent apps. A quick side-swipe from the bottom-center to the right will quickly switch between your previous and current app. It takes a little time getting used to but also works very well.
For another year, OnePlus refuses to introduce a proper always-on screen feature. In its place, the OnePlus 7 offers Ambient display. It will light up when you receive a notification, tap it once or twice or when you move it ever so slightly. Either of those will trigger the ambient display showing the clock, notifications and the fingerprint reader area.
And while we are on the fingerprint scanner topic, we must say that the upgrade is more than welcome. OnePlus says the 7 and the 7 Pro are equipped with the latest generation optic in-display fingerprint readers, which are bigger in size too and you can tell.
The scanner works incredibly fast in all conditions and it’s hands-down one of the fastest under-screen implementations we’ve ever tried. It may struggle with dusty or sweaty fingers, but the face unlock is particularly fast alternative and can serve as a reliable backup. Perhaps the fact that there’s no unlocking animation adds to the overall sense of speediness.
There’s also this thing called Quick Launch. You can launch an app or an action of your choice by just holding down the fingerprint area once the phone unlocks and a couple of shortcuts pop up.
Going through the general settings menu shows the usual options. The Display sub-menu offers the usual settings like night mode, reading mode (black and white scheme for more comfortable reading), hiding the notch option and customization of the status bar.
The Battery section offers all the usual Android Pie settings like Battery optimization and the Adaptive battery feature. And, of course, all the information regarding battery usage you’d want.
The Utilities sub-menu is where you will find some useful features that may apply to your use case, including gaming mode. It’s been a growing trend these days with gaming modes that aim to improve the phone’s performance during gameplay and also let in fewer distractions while gaming. You can set up how your notifications appear and how to answer the phone – via the loudspeakers or the earpiece.
OnePlus has been marketing one particular gaming feature called Fnatic mode. It takes the DND mode to another level allowing notifications only for low battery, alarms and timers. Calls and other notifications won’t go through and interestingly, missed calls may not be recorded in the call logs.
The system also prioritizes the game over other apps running in the background to improve performance while the Network enhancement will disable your second SIM slot to minimize interference and latency, which are essential for competitive online gaming.
The cool thing about the Gaming mode is that you can set it to run automatically on other apps as well, like in YouTube or Netflix so you can watch your shows and videos uninterrupted.
Performance
The OnePlus 7 packs the top of the line Snapdragon 855 chipset – the latest and greatest from Qualcomm. We’ve seen how the SoC performs in other phones as the OnePlus 7 wasn’t the first one to get it. The 7nm chip holds an octa-core CPU with a 1+3+4 core configuration – 1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485, 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 and 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 485. And an Adreno 640 GPU to take care of graphically-intensive tasks.
The handset ships with either 6GB or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM paired with 128GB or 256GB internal storage, respectively. What’s interesting here is that just like its Pro sibling, the OnePlus 7 boasts the newest UFS 3.0 flash storage. Loading times are significantly reduced, read and write speeds are twice as fast compared to the previous generation UFS 2.1.
A 48MP main camera with a 5MP depth sensor
The 5MP secondary unit on the OnePlus 7 may sound like a downgrade when you compare it to the 20MP unit on the previous two OnePlus models but in reality they are both limited to depth sensing functionality so it hardly makes much difference. Sadly, there are no ultra wide-angle or telephoto lenses here either as those are reserved for the 7 Pro.
You do get the same main sensor as the more premium phone though – 48MP, 1/2″-type with 0.8µm pixels and OIS. The only difference is in the aperture size – f/1.7 compared to the f/1.6 on the 7 Pro.
On the front, we’ve got the familiar 16MP unit with f/2.0 aperture and 1.0µm pixels – the same unit in the OnePlus 6T and the 7 Pro.
Camera UI
The camera menu is pretty straightforward. Swiping left and right cycles the camera modes and an upwards swipe brings out the additional modes like the Pro mode, Time-lapse, Panorama and Slow motion. There’s also the settings menu where you can rearange the camera modes and select which is the default one.
The settings menu also gives you control over the video and photo resolutions and the rest of the usual features. Oh and to shoot in 48MP mode, you have to go in the Pro mode and select the 48MP JPG icon on the top of the viewfinder, near the notch. Not that you’d want to do that very often as shooting in their native resolution isn’t what Quad-Bayer sensors are all about.
Daylight samples
The 7 is capable of taking great photos with wide dynamic range, a good amount of detail, no noise and we didn’t notice any sharpening artifacts along the edges of the buildings, for example. Contrast is nice as it makes the colors pop out more.
As we already said, we expect little difference compared with the 7 Pro since they both share the same 48MP primary sensor, but we did find a slight difference in color rendering. The 7 tends to take pictures with a bit colder white balance while the 7 Pro’s photos are somewhat warmer. That aside, the too snappers perform identically in good light.
We did an impromptu shootout with Zenfone 6, which is one of the OnePlus 7‘s direct rivals and also shares its 48MP camera sensor. The two were very close with the OnePlus 7 having a slight edge in resolved detail and contrast.
Low-light samples
The OnePlus 7 has a slightly slower lens than the 7 Pro, which makes a slight difference when the light start to fade, but you’d have to be looking really closely to spot it. In fact the slight differences in color rendering are more notable than the minimal edge in resolved detail of the 7 Pro. Interestingly enough this time the OnePlus 7 is the one to produce the warmer tones.
Neither is particularly great when it comes to resolved detail, but the OnePlus 7 is actually coming off better here as it’s the much more affordable phone and as such carries far lower expectations.
On the upside the noise is kept at reasonable levels and the dynamic range is excellent – in most cases, neon signs and other sources of light remain well-preserved.
Turning on Night mode improves the photos significantly, helping the OnePlus 7 achieve much better exposure, significantly improving the detail levels, while also restoring the punchiness of the colors.
With the launch of the 7 Pro this year, this takes off some of the pressure for the OP7 to punch above its class. Still, we’re happy to say that it offers excellent image quality considering its price range in a wide range of scenarios.
Portraits
Portraits are plenty good with natural skin tones and plenty of detail. The OnePlus 7 also simulates the bokeh effect quite well and has one of the best edge detection algorithms we’ve seen. Even with a more complex background, the phone did pretty well.
In fact, to our surprise, the OnePlus 7 often makes better portraits because it uses the main camera while the 7 Pro allows you to shoot only with the telephoto lens. In most situations, the telephoto gives you a better perspective but if there’s not enough light the tiny sensor of the telephoto camera means things go South really fast. Also, there’s a bit more detail coming from the main 48MP sensor so there’s that.
We hope the 7 Pro receives an update allowing you to shoot with the main camera when needed, so it gets the best of both worlds.
Selfies
Disappointingly the front camera lacks autofocus, but at least its sweet spot is set so it works at a comfortable arm’s length. You don’t have to go to the extreme to get the sharpest possible selfie. Pictures offer good colors and dynamic range as long as the portrait mode isn’t active. As with most selfie cams, image-stacking is disabled while taking portrait photos and results are mediocre at best.
Video recording
The OnePlus 7 supports 4K recording at 30fps and 60fps while 1080p videos can go up to 240fps for slow motion purposes or you can also switch to 720p@480fps for taking slo-mos further.
The quality of the videos is decent – colors are accurate if slightly dull, contrast is good and there’s no noticeable noise. Dynamic range is also more than satisfactory with just a little loss of detail in the dark parts of the scene. Still, it appears to be a bit soft compared to most of its rivals. Overall it’s competitive but needs a bit more detail to be considered as one of the best in its class.
And here are two videos shot in 1080p and 2160p at 30 fps to see how the EIS works. It is doing a great job really and on most occasions, it will totally be worth the slight reduction in viewing angle.
Again, you can head to our video compare tool to best see how the OnePlus 7 stack up against the competition.
Competition
The OnePlus 7 may have thought it would have it easy, leaving the 7 Pro to fight with the big guys, while it faces far inferior competition with its lower price tag. Yet, its relatively late arrival meant some of the H1 flagships already got their first price cuts, while those from value-oriented brands have managed to expand their market presence.
One of the most obvious alternatives to the OnePlus 7 is the newly released Asus Zenfone 6. It has that top-notch chipset, while costing a lot less than most of its rivals, including the OnePlus 7. It has the same primary camera, but also an ultrawide module and produces the best selfies in the class thanks to its clever flip-camera mechanism. It also has a stock-looking Android just like the OxygenOS, leaving OLED panel as the OnePlus 7‘s only advantage. Then again the Zenfone doesn’t have a notch, so even that isn’t exactly clear-cut.
Then there’s the Huawei P30, which has fallen down in price to below what the OnePlus 7 charges. With the Chinese giant’s issues with the US authorities seemingly on the way to being resolved, the P30 seems like a huge upgrade in terms of camera, while offering an audio jack and a memory card slot (sort of). The OLED screen on the P30 is smaller though and the Kirin 980 is a step behind the Snapdragon 855 in the GPU department. And then there’s the choice between the feature-rich but somewhat less streamlined EMUI and the stock looks of the OnePlus 7 UI.
Another affordable Snapdragon 855-powered solution would be the Mi 9. It brings a triple rear cam with ultrawide, regular and telephoto modules, an OLED screen of very similar size to the OnePlus 7‘s at the very tempting €400 price point.
The verdict
So the OnePlus 7 faces some properly tough competition and at a lower price to boot. It’s not without it chances though, with it being the only one to offer the particular combination of stock-feeling Android, OLED screen, amazing UD fingerprint scanner and UFS 3.0 storage. The mod-friendly approach of the maker could also win a few fans over.
OnePlus 7‘s camera is one of the better in the price range, but sadly with virtually all of its competitors offering at least one of the extra focal lengths (ultra wide or telephoto) it really lacks in versatility.
Stereo loudspeakers make for an even stronger case, although two of the three nearest rivals come with a dedicated audio jack and memory expansion. But there’s no escaping the fact that all of a sudden, the OnePlus phone lost at its own game – being able to match the performance of rivals while undercutting their prices.
It appears then that unless OnePlus considers a prompt price cut, its market success might be very reliant on the loyalty of its fan base and the number of people looking for the exact feature set we listed above.
Pros
Great OLED screen
Top notch under-display fingerprint performance
Decently sounding stereo speakers with very good loudness
Excellent battery life
Excellent main camera
Bloat-free, stock-looking and snappy Android experience utilizing the rare UFS 3.0 storage
20W charging speed is better than most in the class
If you’ve finally tired of watching the selfie camera on your brand new OnePlus 7 Pro pop up and down again, you’ll be pleased to note that there are a ton of ways that you can personalize and change the handset to your taste. Whether it’s enabling the system-wide dark theme, altering the temperature of the display, setting up Zen Mode or even changing the resolution of the Fluid AMOLED display, check out our list of essential tips and tricks for the OnePlus 7 Pro (and OnePlus 7) after the break.
Oneplus 7 Pro Unboxing
Oneplus 7 Pro Review
Dark Mode
If the shiny whiteness of OxygenOS is too bright for you, why not switch over to using the built-in, system-wide dark mode on your new phone. Besides being easier on the eyes, Dark Mode also helps with battery life on AMOLED displays.
Open Settings
Navigate to Display Settings
Scroll down to Theme and select Dark
Zen Mode
If you are spending too much time on your phone and desperately need a time out, activating Zen Mode will disable everything on your phone apart from phone calls, emergency calls, and the camera app for 20-minutes. You can chill out and regain some semblance of equilibrium without a smartphone display in your face, at least for a short time. Word of warning: Once Zen Mode is activated, it can’t be stopped.
Pull down your notification shade to open up Quick Settings
Click Edit and scroll down until you see the Zen Mode tile
Tap-and-hold the Zen Mode tile to drag it to your Quick Settings panel
Exit the editing mode
Pull down the notification shade to access Quick Settings again
Tap on the Zen Mode tile
Tap Let’s Go
Press Start to confirm Zen Mode activation
Display Temperature
Some of us prefer saturated colors, others a more natural hue. Whatever your preference, you can choose between the display showing warmer or coolers in a matter of seconds.
Open Settings
Select Display Settings
Tap on Screen Calibration
Choose between Vivid and Natural or click on Advanced for more options, including the ability to manually adjustthe temperature slider
Display Resolution
The OnePlus 7 Pro is the first OnePlus smartphone to launch boasting a better than Full HD+ display thanks to its QHD+ resolution. If you are trying to make the most of your battery life, switching down to FHD+ resolution can result in slightly improved usage. You can also select the Auto Switch option that will automatically change the phone’s resolution as required.
Open Settings
Scroll down to Display Settings
Tap on Resolution
Choose between Auto Switch, QHD+ or FHD+ Resolution
Accent Color
The standard theme is perfectly fine, but you can add a touch of personality to proceedings by changing the Accent color on your brand new handset, without needing to install a third-party launcher.
Open Settings
Scroll down to Accent Color
Select one of the stock colors or click on the palette icon to create your perfect shade
Customize the Alert Slider
OnePlus is known for including an Alert Slider on its handsets, allowing you to switch between Silent, Vibrate, and Sound On modes without needing to unlock the phone. The Alert Slider can also mute the sound from content that is playing.
Open Settings
Select Buttons & Gestures
Tap on Alert Slider
Tap on Silent
Choose whether the Alert Slider controls media volume
DC Dimming
DC Dimming is a new method of adjusting the screen brightness by changing the circuit power of the display, reducing flickers at low brightness levels and increasing power efficiency slightly.
Open Settings
Scroll down and select Utilities
Tap on OnePlus Laboratory
Select DC Dimming and tap the Activate toggle
Navigation Bar
Everyone has their personal preferences when it comes to navigating their smartphone, whether it’s by way of the on-screen buttons, gestures, or somewhere in-between. You’ve got the whole gamut of options available to you on your new OnePlus 7 or 7 Pro.
Open Settings
Tap on Buttons & Gestures
Select Navigation Bar & Gestures
Toggle between Back, Home, and Recents, Swiping up on the Home Button or using Gestures entirely
Battery Saver
As good as the battery life is on the OnePlus 7 Pro with its 4,000mAh battery, sometimes you need a little bit more, which means you’ll be looking to toggle the Battery Saver option.
Open Settings
Select Battery
Tap on Battery Saver
Toggle Battery Saver on
Customize Gaming Mode
When you are in the middle of an intense gaming session, the last thing you need is the display suddenly dimming or being interrupted by a flood of notifications. Gaming mode brings the ability to route calls directly to the loudspeaker, block notifications, disable notifications for third-party apps, disable automatic brightness, as well as enhancing haptic feedback for supported games. You’ll need to activate Gaming Mode to turn on Fnatic Mode.
Open Settings
Select Utilities
Tap on Gaming Mode
Toggle the appropriate options
Fnatic Mode
If Gaming Mode isn’t quite robust enough for your needs, Fnatic Mode (not a typo) will ensure that you get the absolute best gaming experience possible by blocking all notifications and calls, focusing performance on gameplay, and prioritizing the primary SIM card to achieve low-latency, and disabling the secondary SIM.
Pull down the Quick Settings panel
Activate Gaming Mode
From the resulting pop-up, toggle Fnatic Mode on or off
Click OK
Icon Pack
We all have our personal preferences when it comes to app icons; some of us prefer square icons, while others prefer round ones. It’s easy enough to change the icon pack on the phone by choosing one of the stock options or your favorite third-party design from the Play Store.
Long-press an empty area on the Home Screen
Select Home Settings
Click on Icon Pack
Choose between the default OnePlus icon theme, Square, Circle, or a Third-party design
Display Refresh Rate
The OnePlus 7 Pro features a Fluid AMOLED display that offers the choice between a 90Hz and a 60Hz refresh rate. Toggling the 90Hz refresh rate will result in a smooth viewing experience with slightly increased battery usage.
Open Settings
Tap on Display
Select Screen Refresh Rate
Toggle the 60Hz or 90Hz options
Customize status bar
The status bar can get a little crowded at times, but you can make it a little roomier by customizing how the battery percentage is displayed. You can choose whether to show a battery bar or circle to reflect battery life, or you can hide the icon. You can also choose to disable the battery percentage, thereby removing an additional element from the status bar. You can also choose to show the network speed and the format that the time is displayed.
Open Settings
Select Display
Scroll down and tap on Status Bar
Toggle the Battery Style to choose the style of the battery icon or to hide it
Toggle the Battery Percentage on or off
Choose to display the Network Speed
Choose your preferred TimeFormat
Change Fingerprint animation
If the fingerprint animation doesn’t quite suit your preferences, you’ll be glad to find out that there are a couple of different animations to choose between. You’ll need to have previously enrolled your fingerprint before you can change the effect.
Open Settings
Tap on Security & Privacy
Select Fingerprint
Enter your Pin Code/Pattern/Password
Tap on Fingerprint Animation Effect
Choose between Cosmo, Ripple, Stripe or No Animation
When it comes to offering consumers the most bang for the buck, the OnePlus 6T has proven itself in being untouchable. Few are the phones as compelling as the 6T, which blends high-end specs and excellent performance with affordable cost. Well, that’s until now with the release of the Honor View 20! Huawei’s sub-brand has taken nearly everything found with flagship Huawei smartphones and put it in a phone with a refreshingly new design slapped with an aggressive price point – a formula to give the OnePlus 6T a run for its money. Knowing all of that, who’s going to come out on top?
Design
Put them side by side, and we’d bet that most people would take fancy in the Honor View 20’s design. That’s attributed primarily to the gleaming V-shaped effect on the back of the phone courtesy of the nanolithography technique that Honor has employed, resulting in a hypnotic, irresistible look. The OnePlus 6T continues to feel like a premium smartphone, but its glass-meets-metal construction doesn’t have nearly the same level of pop and style that accompanies the Honor View 20.
Supplementing that too is how the Honor View 20 manages to package in a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and an IR blaster. Yes, the OnePlus 6T’s in-screen fingerprint sensor is neat and forward thinking, but we don’t mind having the finger print sensor on the rear of the Honor View 20. We’ll happily trade that for a headphone jack any day of the week, seeing that it’s still a valuable thing to have in a smartphone for many people!
Front View
6.2 x 2.94 x 0.32 inches
157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm
6.53 oz (185 g) OnePlus 6T
6.18 x 2.97 x 0.32 inches
156.9 x 75.4 x 8.1 mm
6.35 oz (180 g) Honor View20
Side View
6.2 x 2.94 x 0.32 inches
157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm
6.53 oz (185 g) OnePlus 6T
6.18 x 2.97 x 0.32 inches
156.9 x 75.4 x 8.1 mm
6.35 oz (180 g) Honor View20
Display
Most people would agree that the two phones have gorgeous, high-resolution displays that command attention. It’s a 6.4-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED display for the OnePlus 6T, while the Honor View 20 sizes up nicely with its 6.4-inch 1080 x 2310 IPS LCD panel.
An aspect we have to consider is how both phones attempt to achieve that all-screen look. We’re basically faced with the OnePlus 6T’s teardrop notch and the Honor View 20’s hole-punch display cutout. In all honesty, there isn’t as much of a disparity here – so we’re content with their respective implementations. We’ll gladly take either over the traditional notches we’ve been getting for the last year.
Display measurements and quality
Interface and functionality
Right away, there’s a clear and defined philosophy with each of the two interfaces. On one hand, we absolutely adore the simplicity and cleanliness of OxygenOS with the OnePlus 6T. It’s no wonder why so many people rave about OnePlus’ interface, since it doesn’t attempt to inundate or overwhelm users with an abundance of redundant features. Power users will still appreciate the experience here, seeing that the core Android features are at their disposal – like side-by-side multitasking.
The OnePlus 6T comes with the familiar OnePlus OxygenOS interface
Magic UI 2.0.1 on the Honor View20
On the flip side, the Honor View 20’s Magic UI doesn’t look as polished on the surface, but it certainly makes it up with its enhanced extended desktop experience. You can attach the phone to an external display, connect a mouse and keyboard, and convert it to a desktop PC of sorts with this mode. Not everyone may end up using this feature, but it’s nonetheless useful and adds to the overall experience. At the core, though, we’ll still give it to the OnePlus 6T for presenting us with the more favorable day-to-day experience.
Processor and Performance
Battling it out for supremacy, the OnePlus 6T is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, while the Honor View 20 leverages the Kirin 980 chipset. Even though the synthetic benchmarks nearly have the two smartphones matching one another, the OnePlus 6T continues to exhibit the more fluid responses with navigation. We can easily notice how instantaneous it is with its actions, like scrolling, which we feel weighs more in the greater scheme of things than those traditional synthetic tests.
Neither phone offers expandable storage, but you can sleep knowing that they’re offered with generous capacities. Starting off with 128GB of storage, there’s also the option of having 256GB of storage as well if you’re the kind to be liberal when it comes to snapping photos, downloading movies, and recording video in 4K resolution.
Performance benchmarks
Camera
Now this is where things really get juicy, given how these two cameras are highly respected. On the OnePlus 6T you have a dual camera on the back: a 16-megapixel main shooter with an f/1.7 lens, a 25mm focal distance and optical image stabilization (OIS), as well as a secondary, 20-megapixel camera used to acquire depth information for bokeh effects. The Honor View 20 features a 48MP 1/2-inch Sony IMX586 stacked CMOS image sensor, with a nearby 3D camera that emits infrared light to measure the distance from the phone to the subject – enabling it to deliver the same portrait and aperture effects found on other dual-camera phones. However, the View20 does not have optical image stabilization. Additionally, both phones are well equipped in the selfie camera department, seeing that the OnePlus 6T sizes up with a 16MP snapper, while the Honor View 20 ups it to a 25MP camera.
Image Quality
For this comparison, we captured samples using the 12MP stills option and AI camera mode set to on with the Honor View 20. As for the OnePlus 6T, the only option we enabled was Auto HDR mode. Under ideal lighting conditions, it’s sometimes difficult to gauge who’s delivering the better shots. At times, one seems to offer better dynamic range, but then in another scene, it’s the other way around. Details capture, too, is for the most part identical between the two.
If you love taking selfies, you won’t be disappointed by either phone because they capture a ton of fine details. We’re talking about skin imperfections, like wrinkles, that are clearly defined with the two. However, we do notice that even with the Auto HDR more set to on with the OnePlus 6T, it tends to be more under exposed. It’s not terrible and doesn’t diminish the overall quality, but the Honor View 20 does a better job of evenly exposing the entire shot.
OnePlus 6T vs Honor View 20
Things become more interesting under low light, which tends to be the main differentiator with most phones. Under the automatic settings, they both do a pretty decent job of minimizing noise – with the slight edge going to the Honor View 20 because shadows are boosted a smidgen more to draw out details. Even though they both have their respective night modes, the Honor View 20 yet again shows its superiority in brightening up the scenery.
Video Quality
Recording video at 4K UHD resolution at 30 FPS, both handle ideal lighting conditions by delivering punchy colors and strong details. The only noticeable difference between the two is in how the OnePlus 6T’s stabilization pales in comparison to the Honor View 20’s EIS. Besides that, the two seem to offer tight exposure adjustment and auto-focus.
Neither are particularly great under extreme low-light situations, given how noisy looking their footages appear. It’s quite distracting, especially when details become muddy. However, the Honor View 20 seems to have a very subtle advantage with exposure. It’s just barely brighter than the OnePlus 6T, but that’s the only defining quality we can pick up from comparing the two.
OnePlus 6T vs Honor View 20
Multimedia
Watching video is a treat on both smartphones, more so when there are no distracting notches to deal with. Their respective implementations allow video to be viewed without any major obstructions, so to that end, we’re happy that clips can be enjoyed using the full real estate.
Adding to its multimedia package, we absolutely appreciate how the Honor View 20 features a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The convenience of being able to plug in a pair of headphones is invaluable, whereas with the OnePlus 6T, it of course requires the aid of an adapter. Furthermore, the IR blaster of the Honor View 20 doubles the phone as a universal remote – allowing us to quickly control a myriad of home entertainment gadgets.
Call Quality
For the most part, conducting phone conversations won’t be an issue with either smartphone. They’re ideal for casual conversations, exhibiting clear voices and very little distortion in the process.
Battery life
It’s a longevity battle between the OnePlus 6T and Honor Views 20, which respectively feature battery cells of 3700 mAh and 4000 mAh. In our experience, the Honor View 20 seems to have a little bit more juice in the tank by the day’s end. Both are more than adequate in getting us through a full day’s worth of normal usage, but like we said, there’s just still more leftover charge with the Honor View 20.
Over on the recharging side, it’s the OnePlus 6T that effortlessly beats the Honor View 20 with its speedy clocked time of 85 minutes – versus the longer 120 minutes required by the Honor View 20 to be completely full.
Battery recharge
Conclusion
Before we wrap things up, it’s worth noting that the Honor View 20 isn’t commercially available for purchase in the US – so the OnePlus 6T definitely has an advantage in this area by being readily accessible to US consumers. You also get proper 4G LTE support in the US thanks in part to LTE Advanced connectivity with a Category 16 LTE modem on the OnePlus 6T. All in all, it simply means that you won’t have as much of a problem using the OnePlus 6T on your carrier here in the US.
Now comes the defining quality of both devices: the price. The edge still goes to the OnePlus 6T with its starting price of $550 in the US or 550 euro in Europe, but the price gap is next to negligible. Currently, the Honor View 20 can be had for about 570 euro in European markets where it’s being sold. While our sentiments about the OnePlus 6T don’t change at all, being one of the best bang for the buck smartphone deals around, there are still compelling reasons for the Honor View 20. You’re paying only a bit more for the convenience of a 3.5mm headphone jack and an IR blaster, longer battery life, an extended desktop experience mode, slightly better performing cameras, and the more attractive design.
All of those things do add up in giving the Honor View 20 an equally compelling package. The OnePlus 6T, on the other hand, is still the better pick if you prefer a cleaner, smoother software experience out of the box.
In November, OnePlus launched the OnePlus 5T—a mid-cycle refresh to the OnePlus 5. Unlike 2016’s OnePlus 3T, the OnePlus 5T doesn’t feature a bump in the specifications as it has the same system-on-chip, RAM, and storage configurations. Instead, the OnePlus 5T is a redesign of the OnePlus 5 with a bigger and more modern 6-inch 18:9 Full HD+ (2160×1080) AMOLED display. The new phone also features a different secondary rear camera, but keeps the rest of the specifications same. It has now gone on sale in supported markets, and has broken sales records. OnePlus is looking to continue this momentum by building on the hype of the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie. To that end, the company announced the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi has already been released in Europe, and today is the official release date of the movie in India. OnePlus has tied the movie’s release with the release of the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition in India via Amazon and its own online store. Technically, the device is the same as the normal OnePlus 5T, with no changes in specifications. However, OnePlus has given it a brand new color: Sandstone White. It also ships with a new theme, and comes with 10 new Star Wars: The Last Jedi themed wallpapers to boot. So without any further delay, let’s take a closer look.
OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition: Hardware
The company has previously released limited edition devices in the form of the OnePlus 3T Colette Edition as well as the Midnight Black Limited Edition. OnePlus also made a Castelbajac Edition of the OnePlus 5 in extremely limited quantities. Now, OnePlus is back with another Limited Edition. This time, though, the scale of the limited edition is much bigger than limited edition devices released in the past. That’s because OnePlus has gone ahead and launched the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition in India as well as in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.
The OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition comes in special packaging with a relatively huge box. The box is primarily colored black with red accents. Inside, OnePlus has included a Star Wars case with the device. The case is a decent quality TPU case with a design that will be welcomed by Star Warsfans. However, it does make the device fairly bulky, which doesn’t help its ergonomics.
Moving on to the device itself, the Star Wars Edition of the OnePlus 5T comes in a Sandstone White color. OnePlus originally used Sandstone in the OnePlus One, which featured a plastic construction and came in Black and White colors. The OnePlus 2 retained the Sandstone back even as it moved to an aluminum frame. However, with the OnePlus 3, the OEM completely retired the Sandstone finish in favor of smooth anodized aluminum.
With the OnePlus 3T, OnePlus started to experiment with more colors by releasing a darker Gunmetal color along with a Soft Gold color. Later, they released a limited edition Midnight Black color which was offered as a standard color with the OnePlus 5 and is now the default color with the OnePlus 5T. One thing that these colors have in common is that they all use the sand-blasted anodized aluminum finish which is smooth and slippery, resulting in less grip. Fans of the original Sandstone finish have had to do with official cases, skins, and the like, as OnePlus seemingly moved on from the iconic sandpaper-like finish.
This changes now as Sandstone makes a comeback with the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition. The white back of the device necessitates a coating to be applied on top of the aluminum, because it’s impossible to make white anodized aluminum. Therefore, the Star Wars Edition variant feels more similar to the OnePlus One instead of the standard OnePlus 5T. Although it’s still an aluminum unibody, the cold feel of metal is suppressed, and instead we get a surface which offers a surprisingly high amount of grip.
Although users may be disappointed to hear that the Star Wars Edition of the OnePlus 5T doesn’t feel like a metal device, the good thing is that the Sandstone finish is worth the trade-off in the sand-blasted aluminum feel. For users who had to use a case with previous OnePlus devices just to get a good amount of grip, the Sandstone finish negates the need for a case in that respect. It also completely hides the antenna bands, which is a plus.
For me, personally speaking, the sandstone finish doesn’t feel like a downgrade from the smooth metal finish of current OnePlus phones. This is because grip is important—and materials like aluminium and glass aren’t known for providing it. Plastic is still the best way to go if users need a high amount of grip, and the coating applied to the OnePlus 5T’s aluminum unibody is the best of both worlds as it gives both the structural rigidity of a metal unibody construction and the grip of a plastic-feeling device.
The buttons and ports are laid in the exact same layout as on the standard variant. The front of the device is dominated by the 6-inch display which has small bezels, whereas the back contains the red Star Wars logo at the bottom. On the left hand side, we have the alert slider, which is colored in red. The volume rocker sits below the alert slider, and is colored in black.
On the right hand side, we have the SIM tray, which interestingly has a black color. The power button is also colored the same, and sits below the SIM tray. The top side of the device is completely clean, whereas the bottom features the USB Type-C port, a single speaker, the microphone, and the 3.5mm headphone jack. OnePlus has previously explained their decision to keep the headphone jack, and on this topic, we can’t agree more. For a device targeted towards enthusiasts, the 3.5mm headphone jack should be a staple, and its presence here is welcome.
According to OnePlus, the design philosophy of the Star Wars Edition can be summed up in the color scheme, which is a mixture of black, white, and red colors, which matches several elements of the Star Wars franchise. The front of the device remains black while the sides and the back switch over to the Sandstone White color. The red alert slider completes the color scheme.
OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition: Software
The design is the star of the show as a differentiating factor for the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition. However, it’s not the only thing which is different. The underlying software is still the same as the standard Midnight Black variant—OxygenOS 4.7 on top of Android 7.1 Nougat, with the promise of an Android Oreo update in early 2018. By default, though, owners of the Star Wars Edition variant will get to experience the ‘Star Wars’ software theme, which is pretty similar to the Dark theme on existing OnePlus phones. The only difference is the red accent color which permeates the user interface. OnePlus has also included ten exclusive Star Wars-themed wallpapers.
OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition: Specifications
The specifications of the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition are exactly the same as the standard variant. That means it’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip, which is still Qualcomm’s flagship SoC until the Snapdragon 845 starts shipping on devices next quarter. The Kryo 280 cores are paired with the Adreno 540 GPU.
The device has a 6-inch Full HD+ (2160×1080) 18:9 AMOLED display with 403 PPI. The display has a bigger screen area than its predecessor, and is a newer panel as well. It still features a PenTile matrix, so the effective color resolution is lower than Full HD, and the subpixel density will be lower than that of RGB matrix displays. However, display sharpness is still adequate due to subpixel anti-aliasing.
The display is equipped with sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adaptive screen color modes, as well as a color temperature slider. It also has Sunlight Display for better visibility in daylight conditions. In our opinion, the display is excellent even considering the fact that it doesn’t have WQHD+ (2880×1440) resolution. The brightness is marginally higher than the display of the OnePlus 3T. Since the AMOLED display is supplied by Samsung, color shift is minor and is visible only at extreme angles. Thanks to the presence of sRGB and DCI-P3 color modes, consumers who prefer color accurate displays won’t have any problem with the display of the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition.
Moving on to the camera system, the rear camera configuration is one of the areas where the OnePlus 5T differentiates itself from its predecessor. Although the primary camera is still the same, a 16MP Sony IMX398 sensor with 1.1 micron pixels and a f/1.7 aperture, the secondary telephoto lens of the OnePlus 5 has been swapped in favor of a 20MP IMX376K sensor dedicated to low-light, with 1.0 micron pixels, f/1.7 aperture and the same 27mm field-of-view as the primary camera. This means that the secondary camera can no longer do 2x optical zoom—although it’s worth noting that even the OnePlus 5 could only do 1.6x optical zoom with the remaining zoom being achieved by digital interpolation.
The purpose of the 20MP secondary camera is interesting. It uses Intelligent Pixel technology and will only take photos if light levels are below 10 lux. The term ‘Intelligent Pixel’ refers to pixel binning, which is something we’ve seen before. It combines 4 pixels into one to achieve a brighter photograph, but if light levels are above 10 lux, the primary 16MP camera will take over. The camera UI doesn’t tell the user which camera will be used to take a particular photo, so users have only one way to know information: by checking the EXIF details of a photo.
OnePlus 5T
Specifications
Dimensions
156.1mm x 75mm x 7.3mm
Weight
5.7 ounces (162g)
Software
OxygenOS 4.7 based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat (Oreo Open Beta in December 2017, OTA in Early 2018)
The OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition is a OnePlus 5T with a new color and a new software theme. That, in itself, makes it a great device. Considering the Star Wars Edition solely on its own merits, it can be recommended to Star Wars fans as well as OnePlus fans. Even if many consumers aren’t fans of Star Wars, the device is still worth purchasing because the color scheme looks and feels great. Star Wars fans will love the Star Wars theme, wallpapers, and logo on the back, but even users who don’t will still get the benefits of a high amount of grip thanks to the Sandstone White finish.
As such, the device is a good proposition for users who simply want something different than a black slate device. The Star Wars Edition stands out with its different color scheme: white back and sides, Star Wars logo, and the prominent red alert slider. For many consumers, that’s exactly what they want.
The OnePlus 5T is the ‘T’ successor to the excellent OnePlus 5 from earlier this year. While the handset sports largely the same specifications as the 5, OnePlus have made some key design improvements and added some noteworthy new features.
With the 5 no longer available, the 5T is the only choice for many consumers with a budget of $500. If you have already purchased the OnePlus 5T, you have surely made a wise decision. And if you are on the fence about the device, you should pull the trigger because you are not going to find a better device than it in this price range. And after you have purchased the device, make sure to go through our list of the best tips and tricks for the OnePlus 5T to make the most out of the handset.
#20 Lift up to View Notifications
With face unlock on the OnePlus 5T being so fast, it can be a bit difficult to view your unread notifications from the lock screen on the handset. To make things easier, OnePlus includes a handy Lift up Display option on the 5T. As the name suggests, as soon as you pick up your 5T, its display would wake up in a low-power monochrome mode and subtly display your unread notifications.
You can jump into the app showing an unread notification directly from this mode by double tapping on its notification.
#19 Customize the Notification LED
Despite minimal top and bottom bezels, OnePlus has still managed to include a notification LED on the 5T. If you are someone who is fond of the notification LED, you will be glad to know that you can further customize them from Settings -> LED notification settings. The customization options are pretty limited though and if you want even greater control, try using a third-party app like Light Flow.
#18 Tweak the Display
The 6-inch Full HD+ display on the OnePlus 5T might not be as densely packed with pixels as the Galaxy S8 but it is still a beautiful display nonetheless. To allow users to tweak the display to their liking, OnePlus also offers an option in OxygenOS on the 5T to change its color calibration to DCI-P3, sRGB, Adaptive mode and custom color.
You can tweak the color calibration on your OnePlus 5T from Settings -> Display -> Color calibration.
#17 Watch Videos in Full Screen
Unlike the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T comes with an 18:9 FHD+ 6-inch AMOLED display at the front. The new aspect ratio means that 16:9 content like videos will show up with black bars on the left and right edges. You can, however, zoom into videos to view them in full screen by double-tapping on it. In YouTube though, you will have to pinch-to-zoom to make sure the video occupies the full screen.
#16 Customise the Alert Slider
The Alert Slider on the OnePlus 5T and previous OnePlus phones remains one of my favorite features on OnePlus phones. The slider can be used to quickly toggle the phone to Do Not Disturb, Silent or Normal mode. However, if you want, you can customise the slider’s functionality according to your liking.
#15 Display More Content On-Screen
Another Nougat feature that is also present on the OnePlus 5T. You can take full advantage of the OnePlus 5T’s 18:9 aspect ratio display by displaying more content on it. This can be done by adjusting the display density. A lower screen density will lead to more content being displayed on the screen of your OnePlus 5 and vice versa. This is different from adjusting the font size on the handset since it also scales the UI elements appropriately.
You can tweak the display density on the OnePlus 5 by going to Settings -> Display -> Display Density and moving the slider around according to your preference.
#14 Reading Mode
Similar to the OnePlus 5, there is also a reading mode on the OnePlus 5T. Meant to be used when you are reading articles, the feature will turn the 5T’s display into grayscale, tweak the brightness and contrast levels and adjusts the color temperature to help reduce eyestrain — similar to what Amazon’s Kindle does.
By default, Reading Mode is automatically enabled for Amazon’s Kindle Android app. You can, however, add more apps to this list if you use your phone for reading a lot of articles or books. This can be done from Settings -> Display -> Reading Mode. From here, tap the Add apps for Reading Mode option and select the apps for which you’d like Reading Mode to be automatically enabled. If you want, you can also enable Reading Mode manually from here.
#13 USB OTG Support
Did you know that the OnePlus 5T supports USB OTG? This means that you can easily connect pen drives, external hard disks and other USB devices to it. Just make sure to enable the feature first from Settings -> Advanced -> OTG Storage.
#12 Switch Bluetooth Audio Codec
While the OnePlus 5T comes with a headphone jack, it also offers excellent Bluetooth streaming support with support for aptX HD and SBC. Depending on the codec supported by your Bluetooth headphones, you can select the appropriate streaming codec from Settings -> Advanced -> Bluetooth Audio Codec.
#11 Dark Theme and Accent Color
Want to further enjoy the 5.9-inch AMOLED display of the OnePlus 5T? Switch to the dark theme. That way, the OLED display of the 5T would be really able to show off its insane contrast ratio and vividness. Additionally, you can also change the system accent color according to your liking for that perfect combination. You can find the relevant theme related settings on your OnePlus 5T under Settings -> Display -> Theme or Accent color.
#10 Switch Between Open Apps
More of a Nougat tip than just the 5T but nonetheless still a handy one. You can quickly switch between the last two used apps by double tapping the Recent apps button. For example, if you are using Chrome and Twitter, you can jump between them by simply double pressing the Recent apps button.
#9 Parallel Apps
Want to run two instances of a messaging app like Messenger on your OnePlus 5T? Or two copies of WhatsApp for the two SIM cards that you are using with the phone? You can do that easily using the Parallel Apps feature on your OnePlus 5T. Simply head over to Settings -> Apps -> Parallel Apps where a list of apps compatible with the Parallel Apps functionality would be shown. Enable the toggle for the app for which you want two copies of after which a second icon of the same app would show up in the app drawer of your 5T.
#8 Quickly Take a Screenshot
Find it too tedious to take a screenshot on the OnePlus 5T by pressing the Volume down + Power button? There is a handy gesture included in the device that makes the process easier. Simply do a quick three-finger swipe down gesture on the screen to take a screenshot. The gesture is disabled by default so enable it by going to Settings -> Gesture and enabling the Three-finger screenshot option.
#7 Gestures!
Want to quickly mute an incoming call or an alarm on your OnePlus 5T? Flip the phone. You can also double tap the display to wake the device or draw an ‘O’ when the display is off to launch the camera. These gestures are customizable as well so you can set them to launch an app of your choice as well.
All gesture related options on the OnePlus 5T are located under Settings -> Gestures. You can also enable the gesture to expand the notifications shade by swiping down on the fingerprint scanner from here.
#6 OnePlus Slate Font
Apart from Roboto, the OnePlus 5T also comes with another system font called OnePlus Slate. Developed by OnePlus themselves, the font does seem to be slightly easier to read and it also helps in refreshing the UI. To change system fonts on your OnePlus 5T, head over to Settings -> Font.
#5 App Locker
The rear located fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus 5T can be used to unlock locked apps as well besides just unlocking the device. For this, OnePlus has built a native app locking functionality in OxygenOS on the 5T. Before you jump over to lock apps, make sure that you have the fingerprint scanner already set up on our 5T. Then head over to Settings -> Security & fingerprint -> App Locker. Enter the pattern/PIN for verification purposes and proceed to select the apps that you’d like to protect. Now, whenever you open any such selected app, you will first have to verify your identity using the fingerprint scanner.
#4 Pro Camera Mode
Want to get the most out of the primary 16MP f1/.7 shooter of the OnePlus 5T? Use the Pro mode in the camera app. This will allow you to tweak and play around with the various camera aspects like the ISO levels, shutter speed, white balance and more. To access the Pro mode on the Camera app of the OnePlus 5T, tap the 3-dot vertical button on the top-left corner of the display and select the Pro mode option.
However, if you are taking a picture of a poorly lit scene or in low-light, stick to Auto mode as the camera app would then make use of the secondary 20MP sensor and use Pixel binning to capture significantly better photos.
#3 Use the Dash Charger
Dash Charging is one of the key features of the OnePlus 5T. While plenty of Android devices come with fast charging, Dash Charging is in a league of its own. The technology does not suffer from any kind of cons of other fast charging techs out there like the device heating up or the charging speed is slowed down when the device is being used. Charging the OnePlus 5T using the supplied Dash Charger for only 30 minutes will provide the device with a 5o percent increase in battery capacity. If you use any other charger and USB cable apart from the one supplied by OnePlus, you will not be able to enjoy the benefits of Dash Charging.
Dash Charge is easily one of the most underrated features of the OnePlus 5T and once you get used to it, there’s no going back.
#2 Face Unlock
Apart from a fingerprint scanner, the OnePlus 5T also comes with face unlock which makes use of the 16MP selfie shooter at the front. Before you dismiss this feature as being useless, I will highly recommend you to give it a try. OnePlus’ implementation is blazing fast and once you start using Face Unlock on your 5T, there is no going back. You will end up completely forgetting that the handset even features a fingerprint scanner.
#1 Join the Beta Program
OnePlus is usually pretty quick to roll out updates to its devices for fixing major bugs and adding new features. However, if you want to live on the cutting edge, you can join the OxygenOS beta program from the company so that you receive upcoming beta releases of OxygenOS on your device. While the beta releases might contain a few bugs, they also usually contain plenty of new features which can take a few months to make their way to the stable build of the OS.
Give your eyes a treat with the reading mode on your OnePlus 5/5T!
One of the best things about the OnePlus devices besides their value for money hardware is their closer to Stock Android version of OxygenOS. While the experience of their exclusive OS is pretty much like the stock Android, they add a lot of additional features without ruining the overall feel of the OS and some of these features are exclusive to the OnePlus devices and are really useful.
One such feature of the OnePlus’s OxygenOS is the reading mode, which is somewhat similar to the one in Amazon’s Kindle device. This feature was added to the OxygenOS 4.5 and it is also available for the OnePlus 5 and the OnePlus 5T devices.
While there are a lot of apps available in the Google Play Store for enabling reading mode on your device, having a native option that does it is always good and the reading mode in the OxygenOS is as accurate as the popular third party apps.
What reading mode basically does is it adjusts the color produced by your device’s display to be more pleasant to the eyes. It does it by filtering the blue light emitted from your screen and turning it into a monochromatic like which does not affect your eyes as much as blue light does, especially when you are reading an e-book or just browsing through the web at night.
Research also suggests that enabling reading mode when you are using your device in a dark environment might actually help you sleep better as it impacts your circadian rhythm in a positive way. With so much blue light filtering and the reduction of colors emitted by your device, you could also significantly save your battery life.
The reading mode in OxygenOS is also capable of switching back and forth to the normal mode when you watch a video or use your camera, which a lot of third party apps fail to do. Well, enough about the greatness of the reading mode, here is how to enable it on your OnePlus 5 or OnePlus 5T.
How to enable the reading mode on the OnePlus 5/5T
Step 1:
Open the settings app on your device.
Step 2:
Now scroll down and then select the Display submenu.
Step 3:
Tap on the Reading mode option.
You can also toggle reading mode from your Quick settings by clicking on the edit button and then dragging and dropping the reading mode toggle from the list of all available quick settings toggle.
Step 4:
Now just the toggle the Turn on Reading mode toggle under the activate manually section to enable the reading mode on your OnePlus 5/5T.
The reading mode will now be enabled on your device and the colour will be shifted to monochromatic grayscale kind of look. However, if you want the reading mode to be enabled only when you are using certain apps like your Ebook reader or your browser app, then just follow the below steps.
Step 5:
Just tap the ‘Add apps for Reading Mode’ option from within the Reading Mode settings.
Step 6:
All you have to do now is to scroll down the list of apps installed on your device and then select the ones you want reading mode to enabled by default.
Magic UI 2.0.1 on the Honor View20
