OnePlus 7T long-term review

Introduction

It's been a very different year for OnePlus, and the 7T is definitely the most intriguing device it's launched so far. The company that used to only release two phones per year before has dramatically changed its strategy by outing no less than six handsets in 2019. And the OnePlus 7T is the least "T" of any phone we've seen so far from the Chinese company. It feels much more like a full-on revamp of the OnePlus 7 that itself seemed to be more of a OnePlus 6TT.

Confused? Well, that's understandable. Things used to be simple, and now they're not. Additionally, phone names are starting to make less and less sense the more words get tacked onto them, and expect next year to be riddled with 5G everywhere. The OnePlus 7T is not 5G, it's just the logical successor to the OnePlus 6T and the entire lineage of 'flagship killers' from this company, whereas the Pro models are more extreme in some spec choices and thus end up being slotted, price-wise, somewhere that is in between 'flagship killer' territory and the most premium phones.

So the OnePlus 7T is truer to the OnePlus ethos, even if it's still the most expensive phone in this range ever - more so than the 7, the 6T, 6, 5T, 5, etc. - you get the point. The price is higher but the truth is there hasn't really been a 'flagship killer' like this before - and that's for one specific reason that has to do with the screen. The high refresh rate trend will probably become very mainstream in 2020, but until then, only a select few devices are graced with the tech that instantly makes things feel much smoother.

OnePlus phones have traditionally been among the smoothest and fastest out there, so with that addition it was a very exciting ride for us to use the 7T extensively for a long period of time as our one and only smartphone. Our thoughts on what it's like to live with day after day follow, so if you're ready, let's take a deep dive into what the OnePlus 7T is made of.

Design, handling

Let's literally start with what the OnePlus 7T is made of, and that's unsurprisingly a glass + metal sandwich. A metal frame, glass on both the front and the back. Pretty standard so far. Still no wireless charging under the rear sheet, by the way, and still no IP-rated water and dust resistance, although the SIM card tray does have a rubber seal, so there's probably some ingress protection built-in. OnePlus was just too cheap to actually go through the standard testing procedure.

That said, we haven't risked it and decided to keep our unit as far away from water as possible. It did get hit by the occasional rain and unsurprisingly survived without a hitch. On the topic of resilience, we did drop it once or twice from around 50-70cm onto wood flooring and it survived just fine, sans any scratches or dents, but you should obviously not try this at home. And given how it managed to fail a classic bend test, you might want to be careful about pocket placement too.

The 7T feels thin because of how the glass curves into the frame, and that makes handling it a breeze. That and the fact that it's about as narrow as the 6T even if the screen is larger (the difference is due to the taller aspect ratio). The camera hump is gigantic both in radius as well as in thickness, which as usual makes us wonder why the company didn't decide to fit a larger battery and simply make the entire phone thicker.

There's a strange upside to the huge camera hump though, you can easily rest your index finger on its lower side - not touching the lenses but the raised part of the bump. This is great when you're on a call but it also works well in normal use to counteract the fact that the phone is unmistakably top heavy. Aside from this top heaviness that may prove annoying from time to time, the ergonomics of the 7T are just right. It's a joy to handle and use.

While it's slippery as you'd expect from all that glass, the frame being so small somehow helps with making it not feel like it wants to jump out of your hands at all times. The back glass itself does catch fingerprints, although less than more shiny presentations we've seen in other devices. The blue hue is different from the one employed in the previous generation of OnePlus phones, but very subtly so. It's pleasant but not necessarily head-turning on the street because it's devoid of any bombastic, instantly eye-catching traits.

The 7T's bottom end doesn't have the symmetrical grilles on either side of the USB-C port, with one of them basically being fake and only housing a mic. Instead, there's a grille on one side and the SIM tray on the other. This ruins any semblance of symmetry, but in fairness, how much are you actually going to be looking at that? Speaking of lack of things, the 3.5mm headphone jack is still gone, don't go searching for it. There's also no USB-C to 3.5mm adapter in the box, so hopefully you have one already or have made peace with the concept of Bluetooth headphones.

Display

Like its predecessors in the 'flagship killer' line (so the OnePlus 7 Pro doesn't count here), the 7T has a notch, of the 'waterdrop' variety, although it's among the smallest we've ever seen. It's very easy to get used to as it's not intrusive at all, and especially because it's centered and there are no icons there in the status bar anyway that would need to be awkwardly moved around. You can 'hide' the notch in software but we got used to it in less than a day and decided to keep it 'visible' for it didn't bother us at all.

The bottom screen bezel is still a bit larger than the others, but (continuing the trend described above) it's the smallest yet on a OnePlus 'flagship killer'. At this point it's getting rather hard to even notice, in day to day use, and without a magnifying glass, that it's even there at all. The 7T definitely doesn't have the Pro models' almost bezel-less look, but it's not far off and you do save some cash by choosing it.

The AMOLED screen itself is very high quality, which is commendable. The quality of panels OnePlus uses has constantly improved over the years, and this is among the best yet. Our lab tests show that its max brightness is 525 nits in manual mode and goes up to a whopping 743 nits when auto mode is enabled, which is very close to the level of recent flagship Samsungs. Still not matching those, but close enough that you won't really be able to tell a difference.

The numbers match the subjective experience we've had with it in day to day use. There was never a point where we felt like the screen was too dark to be usable, even in the brightest of sunny days. The panel gets darker than most too, which is a great bonus for people who like to use their phones in dark environments.

Additionally, the Night mode blue light filter has been revamped and now has two sliders - one for the color temperature of the effect as before, the other for lightness. Turn that one all the way towards the Darkest end of the scale and your screen will become dimmer than before, even if it was at minimum brightness to begin with. This is a very neat new customization option that should probably find its way into more Android skins.

Night mode settings

OnePlus software still doesn't have an always-on display, and it's still a huge mystery as to why that is. Most phones out there with OLED panels employ something like this in one form or another, and OnePlus' only official explanation talks about a negative impact on battery life, but at this point that should really be up to the user to decide. The Ambient display OnePlus does have is useful but you will need to touch the screen or pick the phone up for it to show itself.

You get the time and date, as well as upcoming alarm info and notification icons on it, upcoming events, and there's even now playing information for music and videos as a nice bonus (and we've peeked at this a lot, we have to admit). Weirdly enough, while you can customize the way the clock looks, that setting is not in the Ambient display section in Display settings, but in the Customization menu. Sure, it makes sense on some level, but it was confusing at first, because we expected every setting that's associated with the Ambient display to be in the same place.

Ambient display settings

What is unique about the brand's UI is that whenever a new notification comes in, you can read it for a short while on the lockscreen before it fades away. And that's without the screen turning on - the notification text appears inverted on the black screen. In comparison, a Samsung might only show you an icon for the notification, while an iPhone would light up the entire screen.

The 7T's screen has 2400x1080 resolution, which makes for an extra tall 20:9 aspect ratio, that's getting very close to Sony's preferred 21:9. The added tallness works well for apps that display content as a vertical scrollable list - think Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, that sort of thing. There's simply less scrolling required. On the other hand, 16:9 videos now have even bigger black bars on the sides, and 'pinching to zoom' them to fit the screen means even more top and bottom content is cropped out. And if you capture photos in the sensor's natural 4:3 aspect ratio, viewing those shots on the handset's screen gets a bit ridiculous with the giant black bars. At least pinching to zoom is a breeze, but maybe we need wide camera sensors now that displays are getting like this?

The Display settings let you pick between a few screen calibration modes. Of Vivid, Natural, and Advanced, we went with the latter one, which, when selected, also gives you the option to calibrate to the sRGB color space, Display P3, or just use the entire color gamut of the AMOLED panel. Additionally, here you can also customize the white point to suit your heart's content.

Display settings

90Hz

The OnePlus 7T's screen may be very high-quality, but you're probably all here for this particular aspect of it, to find out how it behaves in day to day use. The 7T is the first OnePlus 'flagship killer' to go with a 90Hz refresh rate, and it only took a few months for this feature to trickle down to this range from the OnePlus 7 Pro, which is praiseworthy.

Look, there are no two ways around this - having a 90Hz refresh rate just makes everything seem much smoother than at 60Hz. Animations, touches, scrolling, interactions, transitions - everything. OnePlus already made some of the fastest and smoothest phones out there, even at 60Hz, but with 90Hz that's just taken to an entirely new level. It's impossible to show this effect with pictures, or even video, so you'll have to trust us.

Screen refresh rate setting

Here's the one thing you need to remember: using a 90Hz display on a phone for weeks on end and then going back to 60Hz feels painful, even if the rest of the hardware is still high-end. It's just one of those small things that definitely improves the user experience in immeasurable (but definitely obvious) ways. Now, that said, 90Hz is clearly not a must for anyone. You can live without it, and if you haven't touched a phone with a 90Hz display (or more), you won't know what you're missing - which might be a good thing, to be honest.

Next year we expect most upper-midrange and premium handsets to employ high refresh rate panels, so this is going to become less of a differentiating feature for OnePlus devices, although the implementation matters too, not just the hardware - remember how the Pixel 4 only allowed 90Hz above a specific brightness level threshold?

On that note, the 7T's battery life is affected by turning 90Hz mode on, but not by a lot. And we'd argue that since the 90Hz refresh rate is one of its key selling points, it makes no sense to buy this phone and then just use 60Hz to add an hour or two of battery life. But obviously to each their own.

Fingerprint sensor

Unsurprisingly, the OnePlus 7T employs an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, and unsurprisingly, it's still one of the best out there. It's fast, it's accurate, and it very very rarely errors out on the first try. We're not sure if the tip of enrolling your fingers in a pitch black room still makes performance better, but it probably doesn't hurt to try that just to be on the safe side. You can't enroll the same finger multiple times as you can with ultrasonic sensors (found in Samsung devices), but honestly that's not necessary.

This scanner performs so close to a very good capacitive one that, even if it's not strictly on par, it won't feel any slower in day to day use, unless you have another phone around that you can do direct comparisons with. On the other hand, that does not have the cool factor of unlocking just by placing your finger on the screen glass.

OnePlus has a few different unlocking animations for the sensor area, which are tucked in the Customization section in Settings, and you can also have a quick menu of apps available right after you unlock if you want to, in order to immediately jump to your most used apps, for example.

Biometric authentication settings

Face unlock is present and still the fastest on the market, but as before it only uses the front-facing camera, so it's way less secure than the fingerprint sensor or a face unlock solution akin to Apple's or Google's on the Pixel 4 series. You gain some convenience by using this on the 7T, but lose a lot of security, keep that in mind.

Software

OxygenOS has always been one of the lightest Android skins around, and its newest version is no different. The software isn't actually 'stock Android' or anything close to it, but it definitely feels like that because of how much attention is paid to small details, like not changing the looks and design language, for example, just sometimes subtly expanding upon it.

Subtlety is a key feature of OxygenOS 10, that on the face of it seems to just be Google's Android 10. But it's not, it comes with a bunch of helpful customization options on top, while adhering strictly to most of Google's general philosophy for the new OS version that launched this year.

The launcher has swiping from the bottom to get to the app drawer and from the top to see the notification shade, and it's also got the Shelf feature to the left of your leftmost home screen. It's still up for debate whether this is really all that useful for anyone, but the good news is you can turn it off if you don't like it. And if you do enjoy it, you can add things to it, like a quick memo function, a toolbox area with useful stuff, your most recently used app and recent contacts, a dashboard of data, storage, and battery use, a wallet for loyalty cards, and a parking location service (that helps you not forget where you can find your car).

Launcher and Shelf, Quick Settings

You can also customize things like the number of columns and rows in your home screens, icon shapes and all that, but overall in use this launcher feels as smooth as Google's. And the beauty of it is that you can just leave everything be, with the default settings, and then it 'just works'. Or, if you like to tinker, you can customize it quite a lot actually. That seems to sort of be OxygenOS' general mantra.

Dark mode

Dark mode is in and it's fully AMOLED black, at least in Settings, and you can still customize the accent color to your heart's content (this has been a staple in OxygenOS before but is now a part of stock Android too). As this is Android 10, once you enable the dark theme, a lot of apps will adhere to it immediately - and these now include Google apps such as Gmail and the Play Store as well. As time goes by we hope more developers will support this automatic switching.

Oddly enough the dark mode toggle isn't in Display settings, and that's because OnePlus made a new Customization section in Settings where it put everything related to that. It's a logical system on some level, but you may still be confused the first time you hunt for the dark theme in Display settings and don't find it there.

Customization settings

On the other hand, this is much more than just a simple on/off toggle for a dark theme. You can actually pick between three themes, with "Vibrant tints" and "Illuminating light" alongside the "Nuanced dark" shown here. Then, you can proceed to alter the theme's tone, icon shape, and font (alongside the aforementioned accent color).

Gestures

Google has changed up gesture navigation again in Android 10, and OnePlus has adapted its system too. The two are not identical, though. Google's forces a 'pill' bar on the bottom of the screen on you, and the back gesture from the sides has a lot of complications related to app navigation drawers.

OnePlus added Google's system to OxygenOS 10, but made it better in two key ways. First, you can disable the pill bar and thus reclaim some wasted screen real estate. Second, the company was 'inspired' by Huawei and Xiaomi in dealing with the Back gesture, and so it works as such if the swipe is triggered in the bottom 75% of the left of right sides. If it's above that, then it will trigger the app navigation drawer, if there is one. This solution makes a million times more sense than Google's convoluted mess that results in zero predictability in use.

Gesture navigation settings

In effect, compared to OnePlus' previous gesture navigation system, the only change here is how the Back gesture is handled. You now swipe from the left or right sides, as described above, whereas before you needed to swipe up from the left or right side of the bottom. The new system seems more natural to use as there is a greater distinction between the Home and Back gestures. This back gesture is also easier to use on screens that are getting taller and taller by the day - and as the 7T has among the tallest in the business, it's a blessing that there's no more need to reach the bottom of the display to perform what is certainly the most used navigation gesture.

Settings

OnePlus has peppered OxygenOS with small useful additions on top of stock Android, and these are pretty much everywhere. Reading mode gives you a choice between a monochrome mode and a Chromatic effect that apparently will yield a more comfortable color experience. The Video enhancer does that to colors when playing videos, Dolby Atmos is baked in to automatically optimize the sound you hear based on three presets. Earphone mode has some very useful settings for things related to, well, using earphones - such as auto playing music, auto-answering calls, speaking who's calling, sounding the notification ringtone in your ears, that type of thing.

Settings

You can reach Google Assistant if you're using gesture navigation by swiping from either the left or right bottom corner diagonally, but you can also set it so that it listens to you once you've pressed the power button for 0.5s (in which case seeing the power menu will take a 3s long press). Quick gestures are built in too, and all optional - things like flip for mute, taking a screenshot with three fingers, double tapping to wake the screen, and controlling music and other stuff by drawing things on the screen while it's off.

Added benefits in OxygenOS

Parallel Apps lets you use multiple accounts on apps that themselves don't allow this in one instance, while App locker will encrypt the apps you select. Scheduled power on/off is self descriptive, and in the Labs section you'll find the DC dimming feature. When you turn this on the screen will be dimmed by directly manipulating voltage, and not by using pulse width modulation (PWM) as usual. PWM flickers and although you're not supposed to see this, some people are really sensitive to its effects even if invisible.

Finally, RAM boost learns from how you use your phone, and utilizes the memory accordingly, so the apps you use the most will always be kept in RAM more than the ones you only occasionally open. It predicts what apps you are going to use and what data should load inside them, thus speeding up your day to day experience.

More subtle goodies

This list is full of things that otherwise aren't in stock Android, but the beauty of OxygenOS is that it doesn't feel bloated at all, even with all of these features packed in. The additions themselves all feel like they may be reasonably useful to someone, and not just like gimmicks thrown together to create an endless Settings menu. Oh, and here's the thing - you can ignore each and every one of these things and simply use the OnePlus 7T as if they weren't there, just with the defaults. They're good enough for most people. And for those who are into tinkering, this skin provides a good enough experience too. It doesn't go crazy with the customizations, but offers just enough.

In Android 10 notifications got slightly altered again, nothing outwardly big this time, but you do get a very neat new feature, and that is a seek bar in media-related expanded notifications. So you can seek through that song or video without the need to jump back into the app. The Quick Settings area still looks very similar to Pie, with similar functionality, and overall Android 10 is going to take a very very short time to adjust to for anyone who's used a stock or stock-like build of Pie before, OxygenOS included.

Seek bar in media notifications

Updates

While it's great that the OnePlus 7T launched with Android 10 on board from day one, at a time when we see plenty of other devices running Android 9 Pie from the get-go, the update situation is anything but phenomenal when it comes to security patches. The 7T has already received a bunch of hotfix updates from OnePlus, but it's still stuck on the October 1, 2019 security patch level. That's two months old at this point, and that is rather unacceptable.

The current software

OnePlus has recently been making strides in delivering big Android updates sooner than before to its older devices, which is commendable, but we wish it would also focus on getting the monthly security updates out on an actual month-by-month basis. Especially as it is pushing out updates left and right to fix things, which means it's engaged in testing anyway. Might as well add the security patches and give its customers some additional peace of mind.

Obviously since it's already running the latest version of Android, it's very hard to speculate as to when the OnePlus 7T will receive Android 11. If Google's usual timeline doesn't change, the final version of that should be out in August or September next year. And if what OnePlus did for the 6T this year repeats, then expect the 7T to run Android 11 by the end of 2020.

Performance, smoothness

Historically, at least over the past couple of years or so, OnePlus phones have always been performance champs, feeling very fast no matter what. That holds true of the 7T as well, not that anyone would be surprised. Subjectively, it feels like the fastest phone on the market right now, and that's an assessment you won't be able to get from cold, dry benchmarking numbers. It flies no matter what you throw at it, and it never gets uncomfortably hot even in very demanding use cases.

We've had no stutters or lags whatsoever, not even of the 'micro' variety. With the latest software version at the time of writing (that's OxygenOS 10.0.6), we've seen no bugs either (although a bunch were present in earlier iterations of the skin). The 7T is fast and feels very clean in use, with no unnecessary cruft. That's how the software looks, that's how it performs.

Smoothness is helped tremendously by the 90Hz refresh rate of the display. Even without this, OnePlus phones have been among the smoothest feeling in the business, but now the 7T really takes the crown (alongside the 7T Pro and the 7 Pro, in fairness). It's the smoothest handset we've ever used for a long-term review, by a long shot. If that's what primarily matters to you in a smartphone, then this is the one for you right now.

Battery life

Battery life hasn't been record-breaking for us on the 7T, but we were expecting that based on two very obvious factors: the 3,800 mAh cell which is on the small side compared to what we're used to getting these days, and the 90Hz refresh rate of the display. Note that we've had this enabled at all times while using the phone - not forced 90Hz, but the option in Display settings that automatically switches to 60Hz when it's appropriate (there are no 90fps videos on YouTube for example).

So with that in mind, and with our normal use case for long-term reviews, we've always achieved more than 5 hours of screen on time in a 12-16 hour day off the charger. Sometimes not much more, and then a few other times we've broken past 6 hours.

Battery life samples

Again, that is perfectly decent battery life, but nothing to shout about in awe. It's probably time for OnePlus to up its battery capacity game next year, because most of its competitors have at least matched, if not surpassed it by now. The use case for the long-term reviews involves mostly Wi-Fi connectivity, with an hour or two on 4G data, Bluetooth always on and an hour or so of music streaming, an hour or two of phone calls, around half an hour of GPS navigation, and location always on (with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning too).

Camera

The OnePlus 7T ups its camera game significantly compared to the OnePlus 7 and 6T before that, now sporting three actually useful rear shooters, going with the setup that's starting to become the norm in the mobile world (somebody please tell Google): normal, ultrawide, telephoto.

The 7T has each of these, although the zoom cam isn't as zoomy as the one in the Pro model. It still achieves 2x, which is nothing to scoff at. Since that has a 51mm focal length and the ultrawide sits at 17mm, in some ways you can say that the 7T has a 3x range between its shooters, which is neat and allows you a lot of flexibility when it comes to framing your shots.

The main camera is still the same 48 MP as before, but the aperture is slightly brighter. This shooter produces daytime images with good dynamic range and accurate color reproduction (with the slightest hint of an added 'pop'). The level of detail isn't the best we've seen, but still passable. Noise reduction is rather aggressive, though. Fine textures are sometimes prone to get a bit smeared when you look in up close.

Daytime samples from the main sensor

Daytime zoom shots from the new 2x 12MP telephoto lens have good dynamic range and accurate colors like their counterparts from the main cam. While in most cases you get a similar look to the shots captured by these two snappers, sometimes things do tend to look different, in colors but also in dynamic range (depending on whether HDR fired or not). This issue is less present than with other devices, though. The zoom lens is good to have, but nothing to write home about, especially as pixel peeping can reveal artifacts left and right from antialiasing and interpolation.

Daytime samples from the telephoto cam

For daytime shots, the ultrawide delivers that coveted greater field-of-view, even if you'll have to live with noise, lack of details, as well as the expected distortion around the edges.

Daytime samples from the ultrawide

When the light goes down the main 48 MP camera shoots pictures that come out good, if not amazing, or among the best we've ever seen. The 7T can hold its own even at night, but really can't compete for the podium of best low-light smartphone cameras out there at this point. Noise reduction is understandably more aggressive than during the daytime, and details are softer. Dynamic range remains good, though, color rendition too.

Nighttime samples from the main sensor

The new Nightscape mode helps restore highlights and bring up shadow details, controlling the dynamic range even better and just enhancing the overall exposure. That said, if you're trying to use it in conditions that are pitch dark, results won't be great, and definitely not on par with what Huawei's, Google's, and Apple's can achieve.

Nightscape shots from the main sensor

Nightscape also works on the ultrawide cam, so let's get to that. First, though, some samples sans Nightscape taken with that camera at night. As you may have expected, these aren't great. They're usually darker than what comes out of the main sensor, and mushier as well. Quality-wise they sort of remind us where the main cameras of a few years past used to be at when shooting in low-light conditions.

Nighttime samples from the ultrawide

Nightscape does help make things more usable if you're going with the ultrawide, but as a general rule you should probably only pick this snapper if you have to, considering the necessary framing. The main sensor has a lot more to work with in order to create better overall shots.

Nightscape shots from the ultrawide

You can capture 2x images at night too, although there's no Nightscape available for this one. With some artificial light around, snaps can turn out decent, at least for social media use. But the moment the ambient light levels really go down, so does the quality, and you're left with soft and blurry images that are almost (if not entirely) unusable. So the rule of thumb at night is - only switch from the main sensor if you really have to.

Nighttime zoom samples

Selfies are very detailed during daytime, if a bit soft. Color accuracy is good, including for skin tones, but sometimes harsh highlight transitions can be expected. Overall though, few people would complain about this selfie shooter.

Daytime selfies (Portrait Mode on the last one)

At night things understandably become worse, so as light levels go down around you, you should probably consider using the screen flash feature, which will light up the display really bright before capturing a shot. This will at least make your face visible in the picture. Portrait mode for selfies is available, but not perfect since it only has one camera to work with. Still, for a single-cam implementation it's pretty good.

Nighttime selfie samples, Portrait Mode off/on

Note that, as usual, all the camera samples we took for this long-term review use the default settings, since that's how most people are going to end up using it anyway.

Camera app

The camera app itself is unsurprisingly similar to OnePlus' previous efforts in this space, with the swipey viewfinder and weirdly placed Settings icon (you need to swipe up the black area that hosts the shutter button in order to reach more options, among which that is one). The fact that you simply can't access camera settings when you just quickly double tap the power button to access the app is still quirky and annoying and present. You'll need to unlock the screen first.

That said, the shortcut does work very reliably, and actually that's the best way to describe the entire camera app experience. We've had zero crashes or lags or hangs, and have taken many hundreds of pictures with it during this long-term review process. It's fast although switching between rear shooters isn't instant, but we're sort of used to that from other phones. That switching could be faster, though, perhaps a future software update will do something about it.

One neat trick that the OnePlus camera app has up its sleeve compared to others is that you can personalize the shooting modes you see under the viewfinder, and their order as well. So no more digging for stuff that you use often - you can just set it so it's there, just one or two swipes away at all times.

Conclusion

It's pretty clear why the OnePlus 7T is such a huge upgrade compared to the 7, and that has everything to do with the competition. The 'flagship killer' space is more crowded now than ever, and companies like Xiaomi and Realme are definitely thinking of capturing more of it at the expense of OnePlus. As a sort of "6TT", the OnePlus 7 did little to convince prospective customers that it's the choice to go with over cheaper competitors, so we're assuming that resulted in less than stellar sales.

With that in mind, the 7T is here to break the mold once more, and bring a 90Hz screen to a never before seen price point - for OnePlus, at least, because sister brand Realme is really making strides there too with the X2 Pro. It had to happen, so that OnePlus' 'flagship killer' line wouldn't get stranded in a no-man's land where it's more expensive than some of its competitors but doesn't really bring much more to the table.

That's also why we assume the company decided to fit it with a proper triple rear camera system, with added framing flexibility for everyone. These decisions have instantly made the 7T much more appealing than the 7 from the get-go, despite the higher introductory price.

This phone delivers the best of OnePlus at a price that doesn't break the bank even if it's far from a cheap device. Unless you really like curved screens and value 3x optical zoom over 2x very much, the 7T should probably be the default OnePlus option for most people over the more expensive 7T Pro.

In fact, with a few caveats, this is probably the default Android phone to buy (and recommend) to most people. It isn't really the best at anything, except speed and smoothness of the entire user experience, but the full package it delivers is outstanding. It has good battery life, an excellent screen in all respects (aside from resolution, one could argue), good (if not chart-topping) cameras, a modern and easy to handle design, and the latest software on board, with perhaps the lightest skin around.

Those caveats? If cameras are the most important thing for you in a phone, get one of our proposals in our Cameraphone buyer's guide. If you can't live without wireless charging, a headphone jack, or an IP rating, this one isn't for you. Are you sure you really, really can't, though? Anyway, this is the one phone of 2019 that gets the least in your way, no matter what you're trying to do. The OnePlus 7T is one of our favorite devices of the year. It delivers a no-compromise user experience and hardly any frustrations, and that makes the experience of using it pretty much a joy, day in and day out.

Since the phone is the piece of tech you use the most throughout your day (admit it, it is), this is important. This should be important to everyone. Yes, you can endlessly debate spec sheets and this and that, but in the end everyone deserves a phone that just feels great to use, even if it's not the best at everything. The OnePlus 7T is the best phone at being amazing to use, it's the fastest and smoothest around, and while these aspects are matched by its Pro sibling, the 7T's lower price should help seal the deal for most people.

OnePlus isn't straight-up competing on price with other handsets anymore, and a lot of people seem to be really irked by this. There are cheaper 'flagship killers' out there. That's fine, competition is doing its thing, and if you want cheaper, you can get cheaper. OnePlus is now less about low prices because it has switched its focus to something else - delivering the best overall Android experience. And it is really successful at that.

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