OnePlus 8T Review: Better Than The OnePlus 8 For Less

When I first reviewed the OnePlus 8 back in April, it was one of my favourite phones for under S$1,000. It was absolutely gorgeous, had flagship specs and was priced more affordably than other flagship phones. Well, OnePlus has outdone themselves with the new OnePlus 8T, packing in new features and even better battery life while managing to cut the cost down by a bit.

There are still two variants available, 8GB of RAM + 128GB of storage or 12GB of RAM + 256GB of storage. I have with me the 12GB option, which will cost the same price as the OnePlus 8, at S$1,099. The 8GB version though, is cheaper at S$899 as compared to the OnePlus 8’s S$998.

Specs-wise, the insides are almost identical. The phone is still running on the Snapdragon 865, which is more than adequate for daily use, with the phone running extremely smoothly. But the display now supports 120Hz refresh rate compared to the 90Hz that was on the OnePlus 8.

It’s definitely smoother and more pleasant to scroll through long articles and blocks of text with the 8T. The teal green colour was previously called Glacial Green and the same colourway has now been renamed to Aquamarine Green, but don’t be fooled, they’re about the same colour. What’s different though, is that there’s a glossy glass back now instead of the satin finish on the 8.

It gives the phone a more premium feel and looks much nicer than the OnePlus 8’s satin back, which is saying a lot since I already liked it back then.

With the 8T, the cameras have shifted position from the middle of the phone to rest at the left side, and I feel it looks more in line with what other phones from 2020 look like. There’s still a 48MP main camera and 16MP wide-angle lens, but OnePlus has swapped out the dreadful macro lens that was on the OnePlus 8 for a 5MP macro lens which seems to be better.

Here’s a comparison of the macro shot on the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8T. The subject is different, of course, but it’s much better this time around. I still think that using the 2x zoom is a better option, but that’s a personal preference at this point. At least the macro photos are no longer unusable.

I tested out Night mode as well, and while it didn’t perform as well as some other phones on the market, it does lighten up the photo by a bit.

Battery life is even better. With an upsized 4,500mAh battery that supports 65W Warp Charge, it charges up even faster than the OnePlus 8 which only had 30W Warp Charge.

There are still some tradeoffs though, such as no wireless charging on the 8T. That being said, there’s still 5G capability on this phone, which is excellent.

All in all, I don’t see the need for anyone to purchase the OnePlus 8 now, since the 8T pretty much beats it in every aspect, even price. And the OnePlus 8T is definitely an excellent phone for people who want great performance, but aren’t willing to fork out close to S$2,000 for a phone.

The OnePlus 8T (starting from S$899) is available for purchase on Lazada or on Shopee.