OnePlus 10T buyer’s guide: Everything you need to know

OnePlus has finally announced its second flagship phone for 2022. It’s not the standard OnePlus 10 nor the rumored OnePlus 10 Ultra. Instead, the company has launched the OnePlus 10T, which brings a handful of upgrades over the OnePlus 10 Pro. However, it has a few shortcomings and removes some classic features we’ve become used to seeing on OnePlus flagships.

The phone also marks the return of the T-Series after it skipped the OnePlus 9T last year. The firm did announce the OnePlus 9RT in 2021. However, it wasn’t a full-fledged flagship and never made it to North America or even most international markets where OnePlus sells its phones.

The OnePlus 10T is a performance beast. It packs the latest Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor which is an upgrade over the OnePlus 10 Pro‘s standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. It also boasts 150W fast charging that’s almost double that of the 10 Pro but matches the charging speed of the cheaper OnePlus 10R. Other key performance-centric features include a 120Hz display, updated antenna and connectivity systems, and RAM topping out at 16GB, up from 12GB on the 10 Pro.

Also see: A guide to all Snapdragon processors out there

All-in-all, OnePlus wants you to think of the 10T as a performance all-rounder rather than an elite device. That means you’ll have to make do with the compromises it makes on the camera system, battery size, and hardware elements like the Alert Slider.

The OnePlus 10T will be available in the United States, UK, Canada, Europe, and many other regions. Check the availability section below for more details.

There’s no denying that the OnePlus 10T has some attractive features. Its processor alone puts it in the same league as some of the most powerful Android phones on the scene. It doesn’t hurt to get ultra-fast charging, either. But compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro and other Android competitors, the OnePlus 10T seems a little lackluster, at least on paper.

For starters, it’s missing some key flagship ingredients like a telephoto shooter, an IP67 or IP68 rating for water and dust protection (only IP54), and wireless charging. Those are some compromises you’ll have to live with since the company probably made them to keep the phone affordable. Think of the OnePlus 10T as a souped-up OnePlus 10R with a processor and design upgrade tossed into the mix.

That said, the 10R left a lot to be desired and its software was one of those things. The OnePlus 10T comes with the same Oxygen OS version 12.1 out of the box. We’ve previously observed that the software is an inconsistent mix of elements from Oppo’s Color OS and the original Oxygen OS. Yes, the phone will get Oxygen OS 13 at some point and while it promises to appeal to legacy fans, we haven’t seen it in action, so it’s hard to tell if it’ll be any better than Oxygen OS 12.

Another missing feature on the OnePlus 10T is the Hasselblad camera branding. OnePlus says it wanted to “offer an ultimate performance flagship smartphone at the device’s chosen price point” hence it cut Hasselblad’s color processing software out of the picture.

The sound quality of the phone is also unimpressive. In our review, we found the stereo speakers to be extremely unbalanced, making content viewing very annoying.

Knowing all of the above, it’s hard to straight-up recommend the OnePlus 10T. It’s a phone that delivers in terms of gaming and performance but doesn’t offer enough value to general smartphone buyers even with its $649 starting price point. You can read our OnePlus 10T review for more details.

In the specs table below, we break down what you can expect from the OnePlus 10T. Overall, there are a lot of specs that make the phone weaker than the OnePlus 10 Pro.

The OnePlus 10T features 150W wired charging speeds, the same as the OnePlus 10R. The charging wattage is a major step up on paper over the 10 Pro’s 80W or 65W speeds. We can vouch for the company’s claim that it can top up the phone’s battery in 19 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, 10 minutes of charging can get you a promised 67% charge, which OnePlus says should last you for a day.

If you’re in North America — where most outlets are rated at either 110 or 120 volts — the phone will be capped at 125W charging. According to OnePlus, this shouldn’t make much of a difference in your experience, though. With 125W charging, the 10T promises to go from 1-100% in 20 minutes and provide a day’s worth of power with 10 minutes of charging.

Related reading: 100W, 150W, 240W? Wired charging power has become meaningless

The good news is that all OnePlus 10T models come with a 160W power adapter and a USB-C cable in the box. So if you’re in the US and traveling to a country like the UK, you’ll be able to charge your phone at 150W speed.

If you’re worried about battery degradation with fast charging, OnePlus assures that the 10T can retain at least 80% of its original capacity after 1,600 charge cycles. That’s equivalent to almost four years of usage.

The cameras inside the OnePlus 10T are the same ones you’ll find on the OnePlus 10R. You get a 50MP primary shooter, an 8MP ultrawide sensor, and a 2MP macro lens. Up front is a 16MP selfie snapper.

In our OnePlus 10R review, we noted the phone has a tendency to shift the white balance toward warmer tones. The color profile isn’t bad, but not the most accurate in the market. The long-standing OnePlus problem of crushed shadows was also a concerning factor. We’re having a very similar experience with our OnePlus 10T review unit.

That said, the 50MP main sensor on the 10R did a decent job of daylight and low-light images. The OnePlus 10T offers a similar experience with a slight hint of oversaturation and some inconsistency in colors and HDR performance. You can see some camera samples below.

The 8MP ultrawide sensor on the OnePlus 10R was bad, though, and things aren’t different on the 10T. There’s a noticeable color difference between the main and the ultrawide camera on the OnePlus 10T. You’ll also notice significant lens distortion and shots from the ultrawide shooter mostly turn out blurry.

The 2MP macro camera on the OnePlus 10R was even worse with poor colors and a lack of details. The 10T is no better. Our reviewer notes that the camera simply exists to bump up the spec sheet and the phone could easily do without it. Given sufficient lighting, you may get some decent results, though.

If you’re hoping to pick up a good camera phone, the OnePlus 10T might not be the best deal you can get and you might be better off with another camera phone.

As mentioned above, the OnePlus 10T features a 4,800mAh battery. This is a bit less than the 5,000mAh capacity of the OnePlus 10 Pro. The phone comes with upgraded 150W charging, though.

In comparison, the 150W charging variant of the OnePlus 10R features an even smaller 4,500mAh battery. Our reviewer Dhruv says he could get through an entire workday without worrying about the battery life of the phone. He also noted that the battery optimization was very good once Android’s Adaptive Battery tuning kicked in.

Since the OnePlus 10T has a bigger battery than the OnePlus 10R, we think the experience would be the same, if not a bit better. That means the phone should easily last you a day and then some on a single charge. It also tops up to a respectable charge in just 10 minutes, which is a bonus for those of you who are always out and about. Of course, there are tons of other phones out there with great batteries worth a look too.

The OnePlus 10T brings the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 on board. The chipset offers minor CPU and GPU improvements over the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that powers the OnePlus 10 Pro. Dhruv also says that the overall performance improvement on the 10T is marginal compared to the 10 Pro.

That said, you should notice gains in gaming compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. The phone offers dramatically improved sustained performance with cooler temperatures and consistent frame rates.

So that one big hardware upgrade the OnePlus 10T hangs on brings slightly improved performance and efficiency compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. That said, Qualcomm’s top silicon did just fine in everyday use on the OnePlus 10 Pro. Our reviewers could open large apps, multitask with ease, and use all of the phone’s features to their heart’s content without running into any hiccups. Given that the OnePlus 10T comes with a better SoC, we don’t expect any performance issues on the phone.

The OnePlus 10T ships with Android 12-based Oxygen OS 12.1 on board. OnePlus promises three major Android updates on the phone and four years of security patches. That means the device should get updates till Android 15. It’s not the longest update promise on the market, with Samsung offering four years of Android updates on its latest crop of devices. However, it isn’t a bad deal, provided OnePlus sticks to timely updates and doesn’t drag them out as it does currently.

Oxygen OS 12.1 borrows a lot from Oppo’s Color OS, and it doesn’t do a great job of it either. There’s been a lot of backlash about Oxygen OS and Color OS sharing a codebase. So much so that OnePlus walked back its plans of creating a new unified OS merging the two operating systems and promised a return to its roots with a “close to stock” Oxygen OS 13.

Will OnePlus once again manage to appeal to its old enthusiast base? We’ll have to wait and see. There’s no word on when Oxygen OS 13 will hit the OnePlus 10T beyond the company saying it’ll land later this year, but it would be good to see a more structured approach to the software than its current inconsistent state.

On paper, the OnePlus 10T makes a lot of cuts compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. While it includes the updated Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, it misses out on a premium build, wireless charging, the alert slider, and Hasselblad camera.

The display resolution of the phone is also lower at FHD+ (2,412 x 1,080 pixels), resulting in a slightly lower pixel density.

The 10T also has a smaller 4,800mAh battery compared to the 5,000mAh battery of the OnePlus 10 Pro. And while 150W charging seems leaps ahead compared to the 10 Pro, it’s not as drastic a change as it was when OnePlus phones switched to 80W charging. You’ll barely gain a few minutes on the previous model, not enough to be a deciding factor for a purchase decision.

Also read: The best battery phones you can buy right now

Moreover, the OnePlus 10 Pro features a higher resolution 50MP ultrawide camera and an 8MP telephoto sensor, both of which are substituted for sub-par 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro sensors on the 10T.

With the price of the base OnePlus 10 Pro model coming down to $799, there’s not much difference between it and the 16GB OnePlus 10T variant that costs $749. Add $50 to the price and the OnePlus 10 Pro makes for a better phone overall.

Check out a few OnePlus 10T alternatives you should consider below.

• OnePlus 10 Pro ($799): With its reduced price, the OnePlus 10 Pro is a good alternative to the 10T. At just $50 more than the top-of-the-line 10T model, you get better cameras, a higher resolution display, a bigger battery, wireless charging, an alert slider, and pretty fast charging. That’s a deal worth taking if you’re after a OnePlus flagship.
• Samsung Galaxy S22 ($799): The Samsung Galaxy S22 is the best all-rounder flagship you can buy right now. Not only does Samsung do software updates much better and longer than OnePlus, but the S22 also brings a more versatile camera setup, an IP68 rating, and wireless charging.
• Google Pixel 6 ($580): The Google Pixel 6 promises a commendable dual camera system married with Google’s software brilliance. It also gets Google’s own Tensor chip which powers some cool AI features on the device. Add to that an IP68 rating, wireless charging, and an affordable price tag, and you’ve got one of the best OnePlus 10T alternatives out there.

• OnePlus 10T (8GB/128GB): $649/CAD 849/£799 / Rs 49,999 / €699
• OnePlus 10T (12GB/256GB): Rs 54,999
• OnePlus 10T (16GB/256GB): $749/CAD 999/£899 / Rs 55,999 / €799

The OnePlus 10T will be available in 40 countries across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. It’ll go on pre-order sale in North America starting September 1 across Amazon, the OnePlus store, and Best Buy.

If you’re in the UK, you can pre-order the OnePlus 10T on August 3 from OnePlus.com and August 11 from Amazon. Open sales for the phone will start on August 25.

The 12GB RAM variant of the phone will be an India exclusive.

The device will be available in Moonstone Black and Jade Green colorways.