29 Oct 2020
A lot of readers have been asking which is a good 5G smartphone that is good in specs and is not expensive. Well, there are plenty of choices out there but some of them may not work due to the supported bands or they might not be provisioned to work on the telcos in Singapore (or in any country).
In this review, we take a look at the new OnePlus 8T. The OnePlus 8T spots a dimension of 160.7 mm x 74.1 mm x 8.4 mm and weights 180 grams. It comes with a 6.55 inches 2400×1080 pixels 402ppi 120 hertz AMOLED screen which really fluid when compared to other phoens with 60 or 90 Hz refresh rate. There seems to be some rough edges on the screen when you try to go back to previous screen using hand gesture.
Speedwise, this guy is a speed demon as it is powered by the Snapdragon 865 and it is the first to ship with oxygenOS based on android 11. The intial feeling upon power up is the familiar Android interface which looks like my Pixel 3 XL. There is no bloatware which hogs memory.
The unit we review has a 12 GB LPDDR4X (there is a 8GB model available). There is also a 256 GB UFS 3.12 (there is a 128 GB model available).
The battery is a 4500mAh battery which can be charged up to 100 percent within 39 minutes using the warp charge 65. We did need not a charge for 1.5 days as we usually do some basic stuff on it like youtube, facebook etc.
At the rear, it has a 48 megapixel main camera using SONY IMX 586 sensor. There is also a 16 megapixel ultrawide angle lens, a 5 megapixel macro and a 2 megapixel macro lens.
As for video,you can take 4K or 1080p at 30 or 60 fps.slpw motion at 1080p at 240 fps or 720p at 480 fps The front camera is a ilSony imx 471 at 16 megapixel which can take 1080p video at 30 fps.
The most important part of the phone – connectivity. The 8T support 4×4 MIMO and support CAT 20 download and CAT 18 for upload. So, even if you are using on 4G+ network, the speed will be superb, reaching 200 Mbps with a 2 CA or 300 Mbps with 3CA is highly possible (depends on your operator).
In 5G , it supports both NSA and SA networks.It supports both the n1 and n78 bands which are used by the Singapore telcos sub6 band implementation.
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Benchmarks
From Geekbench, we can see that the results are very close to the OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro and it beats the Samsung S20 Ultra and S20+
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Speedtest results at Raffles Place shows that the speed can reach around 200 Mbps using the N1 band running on M1’s 5G trial network. Although we are a bit surprised, we expect the speeds to reach at least 500 Mbps when telcos here implement the SA network.
[nextpage title=”Photos taken using the OnePlus 8T”]
The OnePlus 8T takes very nice photos comparable to the Pixel 3 XL. In fact, other than being a big over saturated, details are preserved. Below, we present some comparison shots between the two.
In the video below, shots from the Google Pixel 3 XL is compared to the OnePlus 8T. Both excel in different ways. HDR performs slightly better on the OnePlus 8T (by observing the clouds).
Below are more pictures shot using the OnePlus 8T (Facebook)
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With the help of OIS, EIS and 60 fps recording, the jerkiness is reduced but it is still noticeable when panning and walking. You probably don’t even need to invest in a gimbal if you intend to use this phone for recording vlog.
We took a video at outside Marina Bay Sands during the evening time and present the two videos side by side for your comparison.
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OnePlus 8T is the first 5G smartphone we review this year. 5G aside, the OnePlus 8T has a superb Snapdragon 865 processsor which is the fastest among the Android phones released this year. The 120 Hz refresh rate is amazing smooth.
The main camera takes amazingly good shots and is comparable to the Pixel 3 XL. We can see that OnePlus 8T has definitely put in work to improve it’s night shoot mode. Video shooting in 4K/60 fps is also impressive with great stability. Seriously, if you are vlogger, you can save on a gimbal for stable shots while walking.
Wide angle lens usually pales in performance and the macro works well under good lighting. Digital zoom at 2X is still pretty ok but anything higher looks pixelated.
The OnePlus 8T comes with a Dual SIM slot. If you are already using a eSIM, sorry, you have to switch back to a Physical SIM. The 5G modem supports most of the common bands used (mainly European bands). Thus, you are pretty safe that the phone will be able to run on most 5G networks provided that it is provisioned to use the 5G network there. Supported sub 6 bands 5G NSA: N1, 3, 7, 28, 41, 78 and 5G SA: N41, 78. mmwave bands are not supported. Bands N1 and N78 are deployed by the three telcos Singtel, M1 and Starhub.
One thing I don’t like about the OnePlus (since our first 6 series phone test) is the missing VoLTE support for the 4 local telcos (and MVNO if they support). A simple *# code is available on the net to enable the option but it just wouldn’t work without more ‘hacking’ work done on the OnePlus 8T. We feel that OnePlus should seriously enable VoLTE for everyone as it is not the telcos that are locking the VoLTE function but the firmware. This can be verified as the same SIM card inserted into any Apple, Oppo, Samsung, Huawei, VoLTE works.
I like the Warp Charge 65. Although some discussions online suggested that this will degrade the battery life. Could that be the reason why some phones still insists on 18W charge only.
In Conclusion, the OnePlus 8T is considered a sub flagship phone which has all the bells and whistles to be a winner. Unfortunately, the fundamental thing like VoLTE isn’t fixed since the OnePlus 6 days. I hope OnePlus get it fixed for all it’s phones as soon as possible.
Price wise, the official 2 yrs warranty set is priced from S$899. an online store at Qoo10.sg is selling from a low of $779 (with 1 year warranty).
In the UK, OnePlus 8T 5G 8GB RAM 128GB Storage UK SIM-Free Smartphone with Quad Camera, 65W Warp Charge and Dual SIM – Lunar Silver – 2 Year Warrant costs £549.00
Pros :
- 120 Hz screen
- 5G NSA/NA bands
- Quad Camera system
- 65 W Warp Charge
Cons:
- No Telephoto
- No IP rating
- No VoLTE and VoWIFI support
Ratings
- Performance 10
- Design 10
- Features 7
- Usability 10
- Value for money 8
- Score : 9 / 10
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