OnePlus the phone available with great screen, good battery backup and amazing software performance. We can say best phone of 2020. The OnePlus 8T costs start from ₹42,999 depending on storage capacity. It has a great 120Hz screen, good build, attractive design, the very best of performance, good battery life, 5G, dual-sim and a good set of cameras. But it is the ultra-fast charging that is the real gamechanger. A full charge in 37 minutes means you don’t have to worry about battery life and could even turn it off overnight.

The 8T has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor as its predecessor and 8 or 12GB of RAM, depending on how much storage you choose. It is 5G-enabled and supports two sim cards at once.

The 8T has a new battery design and charging system. Instead of having one battery inside the phone it has two that work together. For recharging that means both can charge at the same time for a higher rate of charging.

The batteries last just under 33 hours between charges, which is about the same as its predecessor, making it from 7am on day one until around 4pm on day two with the screen set to 120Hz. During the test the phone was on 5G for two hours with the rest of the time spent on WIFI. You’ll get longer with 5G and the 120Hz screen mode turned off.

The new Warp Charge 65 system will fully charge the phone in just 37 minutes (two minutes faster than OnePlus states), which beats practically everything else. That’s a full charge in 28 minutes quicker than the phone’s predecessor, which was already very fast charging. It hits 50% in 14 minutes.

If charged via a third-party USB-C charger, rather than the included 65W charger and cable, the phone will charge at up to rates of 27W, which is still faster than most competitors that are limited to 18-24W. To keep everything safe the phone has 11 temperature sensors plus one in the charger to make sure nothing overheats while charging at the fastest rates, although the phone stays surprisingly cool. There’s no wireless charging available.

The OnePlus charger can also charge other devices at 45W. It supports the latest USB Power Delivery Programmable Power Supply (PPS) standard, which is required by some tablets, computers and smartphones for fast charging, including those from Samsung. PPS-enabled chargers are rare and expensive, so it is very good to see one included here and removes the need for yet another charger for other devices.

The 8T is one of the first smartphones to ship with the very latest version of Android 11, here showing the upgraded media controls. OxygenOS 11 is the firm’s customized version of Android 11, here making a slight departure in design from previous iterations of OxygenOS.

The OnePlus camera app is simple and has plenty of features including a new automatic night mode. The 8T has the same main 48-megapixel camera and 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera as its predecessor plus a new 5-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel monochrome camera. There’s no telephoto zoom camera, however.

The main and ultra-wide angle cameras perform very similarly to the OnePlus 8, producing excellent standard photos in good to medium light, with automatic HDR where needed handling high-contrast scenes well. New is an automatic Nightscape mode that kicks in when shooting in low light for better photos.

OnePlus offers software support for at least three years from release, including two years of Android version updates and then a further year of security updates on a bi-monthly schedule. Updates to new versions of Android are fairly fast post-release by Google too.

Specifications of OnePlus 8T

Screen Size: 6.55in 120Hz FHD+ AMOLED (402ppi)

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865

RAM: 8 or 12GB of RAM

Storage: 128 or 256GB (UFS 3.1)

Operating system: OxygenOS 11 based on Android 11

Camera: four rear cameras: 48MP, 16MP ultra-wide, 5MP macro, 2MP monochrome; 16MP front-facing camera

Connectivity: 5G, dual sim, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.1 (aptX/HD. LDAC, AAC) and location

Water resistance: no official rating

Dimensions: 160.7 x 74.1 x 8.4mm

Weight: 188g

Pros: great screen, top performance, good battery life, incredibly fast charging, good camera, great software, alert slider, top-notch build, 5G, dual-sim, superfast in-screen fingerprint scanner.

Cons: no headphone socket, no telephoto camera, no formal IP rating, only three years software updates, no wireless charging.

Conclusion

The OnePlus 8T is yet another top-spec, very well-priced, excellent phone from the Chinese smartphone brand.