OnePlus has become a mainstay of the Android landscape. The former upstart is now on par with Google and Samsung with the OnePlus 10 Pro. While that covers the high-end these days, the company continues to strive for mid-range perfection with the latest OnePlus 10T.
This mid-season update to the OnePlus 10 Series packs tons of specs and performance boosts to justify its release. However, let’s take a deeper dive into how it compares to the competition in this full review of the OnePlus 10T.
design
OnePlus has kept many of the elements in the look and feel consistent with the 10 Pro. You get a similar slab design with a slightly lower resolution screen. The touch panel size is the same 6.7 inches and still looks good.
The back panel is plastic instead of glass, but it doesn’t feel cheap; it has a grainy, textured feel that will remind some of the OnePlus One’s sandstone. The rear of the 10T also features the same camera array, with a new 50-megapixel sensor for the main shooter, 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel macro lens.
One thing that OnePlus fans will immediately miss is the alert slider. Yes, you read that right, the key differentiator for choosing your alert profile is gone. Having been present on every OR phone to date, including the 10 Pro, the company has dropped it on this model to make room for additional internals.
I personally find that negative and that you should try to integrate the slider button. Iconic hardware features are something a brand like OnePlus has been proud of over the years. This leaves the impression that the company is deaf to how its fans will inevitably react to the omission.
Performance
A key philosophy that’s still true is OnePlus’ commitment to performance. The 10T is packed with the latest technology to ensure you get an optimal device that can compete with any other Android phone. With the combination of Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 CPU, HyperBoost Gaming Engine and 3D cooling, the OnePlus 10T has standard gaming phone specs to handle any task.
Qualcomm’s new Mobile 8+ Gen1 offers 3.2 GHz peak CPU performance while being 30% more efficient. The on-chip 5G modem also supports speeds of up to 10Gbps, allowing carriers to keep up with those speeds.
Equally interesting is the 3D cooling system. With eight dissipation channels and 3D graphite, OnePlus has created its largest cooling chamber to date. This works in tandem with the HyperBoost Gaming Engine to deliver excellent gaming experiences. Frame rate jitter, touch response and graphics rendering have all been significantly improved on the 10T.
Our device added all of this with the full 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This adds up to an overall package that handled absolutely everything I could throw at it. From gaming to general news, I never felt the OnePlus 10T stutter or stumble. Along with RAM management, OnePlus was able to allow 35 apps open at the same time.
OxygenOS
The OnePlus 10T comes pre-installed with OxygenOS 12.1, and the company promises that OxygenOS 13 will follow later this year after it debuted on the OnePlus 10 Pro. The current iteration is packed with what I would call an amalgamation of many existing UI elements in Android.
The overall feel of 12.1 takes a big key from what Samsung recently did with OneUI. While that’s not a bad thing, it’s not my personal favorite. The extra layers of settings menus change to notification shade tiling, and other tweaks just add bloat to Android that I don’t think is necessary and frankly hide features.
Another “borrowed” element is the pull-down side panel. This is heavily influenced by many custom launchers like Action Launcher. Again, it’s not my cup of tea, but that extra space to house shortcuts and widgets might help.
Overall, despite the UI changes, Android feels relatively comfortable on the OnePlus 10T. All your apps are here and work as usual. OxygenOS might need a slight learning curve, but nothing outside the norm of phones not running the Google version of Android.
Battery life and charging
Performance and high-end specs can often lead to poor endurance. Fortunately, OnePlus does not fall victim to this problem. With a 4,800mAh battery, the OnePlus 10T had no trouble lasting me all day with normal usage. Can you play after hours or play YouTube half the day and kill it? Yes, but for the most part you shouldn’t have any trouble meeting your daily needs.
If you need to charge at your destination, OnePlus has traditionally supported some of the fastest top-ups on the market. The 10T can use the company’s proprietary SUPERVOOC protocol to deliver 125W of power. It’s worth noting that while the adapter technically outputs 160W, it’s capped at 125W in the US.
This allows the included charger and the OnePlus 10T to be recharged from 1-100% in just 20 minutes. The extra wattage can often lead to battery degradation, but OnePlus assures us that the included Battery Health technology can maintain 80% capacity for up to 1,600 charge cycles.
Diploma
OnePlus has always been a polarizing manufacturer in the Android space. They’ve followed that up with some of the OnePlus 10T’s hardware and software choices. This is still a fantastic device though, starting at $649 for the 8GB variant.
You get great performance, good battery life, and a big screen for the base price. The OnePlus 10T can be purchased from the company website now with orders shipping in September. But don’t forget that you can get early access during certain periods before the official sale dates.
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The OnePlus 10T is a mid-range Android phone with a plastic back panel that still offers good performance and specs updates, according to a review by AndroidGuys. The phone can handle gaming and general news without stuttering thanks to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 CPU, HyperBoost Gaming Engine and 3D cooling, while the OxygenOS 12.1 operating system offers an amalgamation of UI elements based on Android. Battery life is good with a 4,800mAh battery capable of lasting throughout the day, which can also be charged at up to 125W using OnePlus’s SUPERVOOC protocol. The OnePlus 10T costs $649.