Following up on the OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus has finally announced the OnePlus 10T. It’s a follow-up to the OnePlus 10 Pro & a cheaper model of what turned out to be a well-received phone. For folks who didn’t like the Oppo-fication of OnePlus, there is no reprieve here from that yet.
OnePlus is going to launch the OnePlus 10T, a phone that looks like the 10 Pro and will go on sale alongside it for a lower price globally. Apart from the rumors, OnePlus takes further steps, including ditching the alert sider and keeping the divisive OxygenOS 12 software. But if those things don’t bother you, the 10T is an interesting choice in a market not devoid of handsets to choose from.
The 10T upgrades in certain areas with Qualcomm’s latest high-end Snapdragon processor and the addition of even faster charging, but loses the Hasselblad camera branding, telephoto lens, and wireless charging found on the 10 Pro.
Here is everything you need to know about the OnePlus 10T.
How much does the OnePlus 10T cost?
The OnePlus 10T costs from $649/£629/€699 £799 for the moonstone black model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.
A jade green version with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage will cost $749/£729/€799.
This makes it a decent saving on the $899/£799/€899 OnePlus 10 Pro and undercuts rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S22. It’s a smidge more than the Google Pixel 6.
OnePlus 10T performance and specs
The OnePlus 10T is a very powerful phone thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. This latest top-end Android chipset is even more powerful than the non-Plus version in the OnePlus 10 Pro.
As mentioned above the phone will come in either 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB RAM. OnePlus says that that top RAM model supports 30 apps running simultaneously, but we can’t envision a use case where that’d ever be useful. You should probably just use the storage space or price to decide which phone is for you.
Still, the phone is great for gaming, with enough power to crank those graphics and frame rate all the way up. The big screen makes it doubly useful for a quick game of Apex or PUBG.
The software here is OxygenOS, OnePlus’s fork of Android, with a few extra features like a Zen Mode to reduce distraction and a swipe-down dashboard for some extra functions.
OnePlus has promised that OxygenOS 13, based on the as-yet-unreleased Android 13, is coming towards the end of 2022, with some design and function tweaks. It’ll be coming to the 10 Pro first, but the 10T will get it soon after.
One annoying software issue here is that OxygenOS is designed around the phones having an alert slider to change ring status. And it’s not as convenient to do it in the software as it is on other phones. You have to bring up the volume slider, rather than pressing the same button as it is on nearly every other mobile device ever made. (just above the on-screen volume bar), it’s a different option lower down. This took us quite a while to figure out.
Here are the full specs of the OnePlus 10T:
- Android 12 with Oxygen OS 12.1
- 6.7in FHD+ 2412×1080 AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
- 8/12/16GB RAM (DDR4)
- 128/256GB internal storage (UFS 3.1)
- 50Mp, f/1.8 main camera, PDAF, OIS
- 8Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide
- 2Mp, depth
- 16Mp, f/2.4 selfie camera
- Fingerprint scanner (in-screen)
- Wi-Fi 6
- Bluetooth 5.3
- GPS
- NFC
- 5G
- Dual-nano SIM
- USB-C
- 4800mAh non-removable battery
- 150W wired charging
- 163mm × 75.37mm × 8.75mm
- 203.5g
Design:
OnePlus has settled on a very distinctive design with the OnePlus 10-series, and the 10T is derivative of that. It’s a device that looks a lot like a 10 Pro with a few changes. As you can see from the photo above. The OnePlus 10T is your typical big-slab smartphone with a full-screen display that only has a hole punch. A distinctive camera bump at the rear promises substantial photography credentials. It looks a little more like an Oppo phone than previous OnePlus iterations, and the absence of an alert slider just rubs that in. It comes in either Moonstone Black or Jade Green.
As for materials, it is all plastic and glass. It’s covered in the slightly older Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides — not quite the Victus we’re used to in modern flagships, but a sign of small changes made to hit a lower price point while keeping a baseline of good enough quality. You also get a plastic frame instead of metal like OnePlus used on the 10 Pro, further reminding you of the 10T’s lower price.
Display:
The display on OnePlus 10T is a 6.7-inch FHD+ 120Hz HDR10+ panel – OnePlus can always be relied upon to use great-looking screens on its phones.
The screen’s massive size could make it annoying for people with small hands, though – even with average-sized mitts, we had to employ both hands to use the device.
Another change that might upset people is the use of a flat-edge display instead of a curved-edge one, which means the phone isn’t as comfortable to hold in your hand. Finally, the front-facing camera has been moved from the top-left of the display to the top-center, but that’s not really a big deal.
There’s an in-screen fingerprint scanner here, but we found it curiously temperamental – it often took several attempts to unlock the device.
Cameras:
In regard to cameras, the OnePlus 10T has a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 main camera with an 8MP ultrawide lens and a 2MP macro shooter with a hole-punch 16MP selfie camera. While OnePlus sometimes struggles with its camera prowess, the company really doubled down on its camera ambitions with the OnePlus 10 Pro. We found the 10 Pro to have a reasonably good camera system, partly thanks to the tuning by Hasselblad.
The problem here is that the OnePlus 10T does not have a Hasselblad-tuned camera. T-branded phones are sometimes lesser versions of their non-T models, and the camera is one place where corners are cut to keep costs scant. We can look to the OnePlus Nord 2 or 8T for what OnePlus can accomplish on its own. They’re capable camera phones, though they lack the refinement offered by OnePlus devices with the Hasselblad partnership.
That’s really what the camera experience on the OnePlus 10T comes down to. The main camera sensor can take good shots, but they don’t look quite as good as what you’ll find from the 10 Pro. The 8MP wide-angle lens is also just fine, and the 2MP macro camera is really just there for looks.
Some of the Hasselblad camera modes have been dropped, mainly since this is the first numbered OnePlus phone in a while that doesn’t make the most of the partnership with the camera brand. However, these were all quite niche modes so that’s no big deal.
Regardless this isn’t a camera phone, so don’t buy it if you’re a big mobile photography fan.
Battery Life:
When companies make smartphones, they’ve often got to decide between battery capacity and fast charging – the bigger the battery is, the less space there is for charging tech. And OnePlus has clearly decided on fast charging with the 10T.
The OnePlus 10T has 150W charging, a super-fast speed that barely any phones hit right now. OnePlus estimates that, at this speed, the phone will power from empty to full in just 19 minutes – that’s incredibly quick. In the US, charging is a touch slower at 125W, we should point out.
Why are we using OnePlus’ estimate, instead of our charging tests? Well, that’s because this fast charging needs to be enabled with a software update that hadn’t been pushed to phones during our testing – that’s something we need to use for our full review. It’s worth pointing out that the phone only powers at 80W by default – you’ll need to enable the full speed in the settings menu. This is to preserve battery health. The sacrifice for this fast charging speed is that the battery life is really poor. The capacity is 4,800mAh which is actually pretty big, but for whatever reason, the phone really struggles to hold up. On an average day, the phone would more or less be drained by the time we went to bed – that’s not great for battery anxiety, and means heavy use could ensure it needs a second charge later in the day.
Verdict as of yet:
We can’t help but feel disappointed by the OnePlus 10T. Sure, its specs list brings some upgrades. But the things that actually impact the user experience the most are effecting by the downgrades.
Despite having a processor that returns quicker benchmark scores. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset in day-to-day use feels identical to the non-Plus version used in the 10 Pro. It’s the same for charging as well because they both take almost the same time. Despite 150W charging being a lot quicker than the 10 Pro’s 80W charging.
Camera quality is not something to write magnificent about. This is especially disappointing after OnePlus made good progress here with the 10 Pro. There’s also no alert slider, the design isn’t quite as premium as we’d like. And the absence of wireless charging is a considerable annoyance. Folks who really want a OnePlus smartphone in 2022 are better off getting the OnePlus 10 Pro. And if you’re OK with going beyond the OnePlus family. There are even better options from Google, Samsung, and other upcoming smartphones this year.
The blazing performance of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and 125W charging are both outstanding — especially for a phone that costs $649. But beyond that, the Oneplus 10T leaves much that we desire it to have.
