Technically, OnePlus didn’t go anyplace. Especially in Europe and India, it’s been very a lot current over the previous few years, placing out midrange units that carry out higher than their worth factors point out. But within the US, it appears like the corporate hasn’t fairly had the identical profile lately.

That’s altering with the OnePlus 10T, a $649 cellphone centered on delivering excessive efficiency. It’s a well-defined area of interest, and the cellphone follows via on its guarantees. It isn’t the whole lot for everybody, and that makes it good.

If there’s one standout on the 10T’s spec sheet to learn about, it’s the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor. It’s a extremely succesful chipset — the perfect you could find in an Android cellphone in 2022. And the 10T has it for lower than $700. That tells you numerous about what this cellphone’s entire deal is. There’s additionally very quick wired charging on board — 125W within the US, and it solely stops there as a result of our energy shops aren’t designed to deal with larger voltages.

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What’s lacking from the 10T is equally telling: there’s no wi-fi charging and no Hasselblad branding on the digital camera system, just like the flagship 10 Pro presents. There’s an enormous, fast-refresh price OLED display that anybody can respect, however for added niceties like wi-fi charging, you’ll must look elsewhere. The 10T is a cellphone for individuals who care about getting the perfect efficiency they will with out spending $1,000. If that’s you, you then’ll be very completely happy to listen to that OnePlus is certainly again.

To accompany that top-shelf Qualcomm processor, the bottom mannequin OnePlus 10T consists of 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage — with no microSD card slot for enlargement. There’s additionally a 16GB RAM / 256GB storage model for $749, each of which will likely be bought in North America. Those are extraordinarily aggressive specs, particularly for the worth the place 6GB of RAM is a extra widespread place to begin. I examined the 16GB model, and it handles intensive duties like a $1,000 cellphone would.

I can faucet and scroll seamlessly via digital 3D dwelling excursions on Zillow’s cell web site (who amongst us doesn’t window store for a brand new home for funsies?). I performed Diablo Immortal for half-hour with out encountering any main issues, aside from, like, an indignant fire-breathing monster that I needed to seven-sided strike into submission. The framerate is a bit of shaky at instances as I transfer into a brand new space, but it surely’s delicate — not a distracting sudden drop that breaks your circulate.

With Genshin Impact, gameplay could be very easy, and dropped frames are uncommon. It’s certainly one of two video games that OnePlus says it’s optimized the 10T for with a framerate stabilizing expertise (the opposite is PUBG Mobile), and it appears to work very nicely.

The 10T’s quick wired charging does the whole lot it guarantees, too. The cellphone ships with a charging brick and USB-C to USB-C cable, and the AC adapter is heavy sufficient to let you realize it means enterprise while you decide it up. Charging speeds are nothing wanting spectacular: blink, and also you’ll miss the cellphone charging as much as 30 p.c in beneath 5 minutes.

Within 10 minutes, I noticed a 60 p.c cost and a full cost inside 20 minutes. That kind of velocity can form of change how you concentrate on your cellphone’s battery life: for those who don’t thoughts carrying the charger, then you may simply add a number of extra hours of use with even only a few minutes at an influence outlet. You don’t need to be valuable about how a lot time you spend gaming or streaming video, even for those who spend most of your day away from an influence supply.

Beyond that, battery life is sweet. The 4,800mAh cell constantly lasted via a day of reasonable use with about 60 p.c cost left within the tank. I examined it largely on mobile knowledge with excessive efficiency mode enabled — and why wouldn’t you with a cellphone like this? — utilizing the quickest display refresh price mode (on by default). That’s a day of reasonable use; for those who plan to do a good quantity of gaming, which is a key use case for this machine, you then’ll want that fast, late-afternoon recharge to keep away from single-digit battery hell.

The 10T carries an IP54 water resistance ranking irrespective of the place on this planet you purchase it. That’s been a degree of confusion on earlier OnePlus units that may typically have an implied IP ranking as a result of the identical cellphone at T-Mobile has one, however the unlocked model doesn’t. IP54 it’s, which protects towards mud intrusion and water spray — not full immersion. That’s nicely wanting the IP68 waterproof scores on most flagship units, but it surely’s a bit of insurance coverage towards unintended splashes and higher than nothing.

One factor you gained’t discover on the 10T: OnePlus’ signature alert slider. The firm’s rationalization is that so as to give the cellphone’s chipset and warmth dissipation system sufficient house, it needed to reduce the slider. It’s additionally going to nice lengths to emphasize that simply because this cellphone doesn’t have an alert slider doesn’t imply that it’s gone perpetually. Still, it’s a fan favourite, and leaving it out is little question an unpopular transfer among the many OnePlus devoted. For what it’s price, I obtained by simply high-quality with out it as I used the cellphone.

With a high-powered chipset and quick charging, OnePlus has taken care to incorporate a critical heat-dissipation system on the 10T. OnePlus says that it incorporates the biggest vapor chamber in any of its units up to now. There’s 3D graphite and copper foil, and I don’t fairly perceive what all meaning, however I can say this: it really works pretty nicely. The cellphone heats up, for positive — quarter-hour into downloading the 15GB Genshin Impact (with the animated loading display on), and it’s heat to the contact however not alarmingly heat.

Same goes after 20 minutes of Diablo Immortal: the cellphone is noticeably heat, but it surely stays snug to make use of. The solely time I seen the cellphone getting very heat was after I left it on a gentle floor like a sofa cushion whereas performing some intensive process, like downloading huge sport information. That’s extra on me, although; the cooling system actually can’t do its factor when it’s being smothered.

The OnePlus 10T presents a spacious 6.7-inch OLED with 1080p decision and a prime refresh price of 120Hz. The panel itself is flat, although the machine’s edges are curved. It’s additionally not an LTPO show, which suggests it will probably’t drop all the way down to extraordinarily low refresh charges, however the display will adapt routinely between 60, 90, and 120Hz to reduce the drain on the battery. It’s additionally not the brightest display I’ve come throughout, however its peak brightness of 950 nits is sweet sufficient to maintain it seen in direct daylight.

In the display is an excellent in-display fingerprint reader for biometric unlocking — after utilizing the Pixel 6A’s a lot much less responsive reader for a number of weeks, this one feels lightning quick. On a tool whose entire premise is constructed on velocity, it feels proper at dwelling.

Companies like Google and Samsung have elevated the variety of years that they’re committing to supporting units with software program updates, and OnePlus has adopted go well with. It’s not providing fairly as lengthy assist — some Pixel and Galaxy units rise up to 5 years of safety updates — but it surely’s promising three OS model upgrades and 4 years of safety updates for the 10T. That’s not wonderful, but it surely’s good, and the 10T ought to have the ability to sustain nicely 4 years from now when it will get its final safety patches.

Grid View

The digital camera system on the 10T appears like a little bit of an afterthought, and that’s truly high-quality. It has the entire {hardware} I’d hope for from a premium midrange cellphone: a 50-megapixel foremost digital camera with stabilization, an satisfactory 8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 16-megapixel selfie digital camera. There’s a 2-megapixel macro digital camera on the again panel that’s nigh ineffective, with its very low decision and stuck focus. If you want questioning whether or not your photograph goes to be in focus, you then’ll have a good time with it. Otherwise, OnePlus may have accomplished us all a favor and included a close-focusing ultrawide as a substitute, but it surely didn’t.

The Hasselblad branding is conspicuously lacking, and in a bunch press briefing, OnePlus spokesperson Spenser Blank defined that the corporate needed to place it in a different way from the higher-priced 10 Pro. Fair sufficient – utilizing that Hasselblad emblem most likely doesn’t come low cost, and the Hasselblad integration hasn’t precisely improved OnePlus’ cameras by leaps and bounds anyhow. Not a lot of a loss there.

All that is to say that the cameras on the 10T are simply common: photographs in good mild look good and are acceptable in low mild. It typically takes the digital camera a number of photographs to get to the fitting reply, but it surely will get there ultimately. For one, publicity can drift round a bit of — I took three photographs of my husband and son that look a bit of too overexposed, after which lastly, a fourth with the fitting publicity and pores and skin tones. It retains shutter speeds excessive sufficient to get a good variety of sharp photographs with shifting topics in reasonable lighting. In very low mild, there’s a succesful evening mode to convey out some good shade and element in static topics. Exposure is a bit of squirrely in video recording, too, however in any other case, clips look good as much as the 4K/60p max.

The OnePlus 10T isn’t a cellphone that tries to be the whole lot for everybody, and I feel that’s nice. It’s neatly priced, and within the US, there’s not a complete lot else obtainable on the similar worth level. It’s a bit of pricier than the $599 Pixel 6 with the identical 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage configuration, however the display is greater (if that’s one thing you’re into) with a smoother 120Hz refresh price. If the extraordinarily quick charging appeals to you, then that’s a mix of options you undoubtedly gained’t get from the Pixel 6.

The 10T isn’t an all-around class chief, and regardless of what OnePlus’ advertising would possibly say, I don’t suppose it actually units out to be one. In this worth vary – which is a tick under the $849 Samsung Galaxy S22 – the Pixel 6 remains to be the perfect guess for most individuals. It presents a greater holistic function set, together with a greater digital camera, extra sturdy IP68 waterproofing, and extra frequent software program updates for an extended lifespan. OnePlus made a cellphone that’s good for the cash within the 10T, even when it’s not good for most individuals. In the US market, there’s room at that desk.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge