Best smartphones
It seems barely a week goes past without a new Android handset being announced with ever flashier features. On the one hand that’s fantastic news for consumers, but on the other it makes finding the right model difficult. What size screen should you get, what about the storage and will the battery last you a full day? Thankfully we’re here to do all the hard work for you. We’ve tested all the best new models, and over the following pages we reveal our top Android picks.
1. OnePlus 7T
Price: £549 from fave.co/2qzeSMG
Following a flurry of teasers from OnePlus itself, the company took to the stage at an event in New Delhi, India to reveal the iterative upgrade to the current line-up, the OnePlus 7T. As with previous ‘T’ iteration smartphones, the OnePlus 7T sports upgraded internals, but there’s much more to it this time around.
Display
For us, it’s not the internals but the display of the OnePlus 7T that really steals the show – and it’s not just because of that buttery smooth 90Hz refresh rate on offer, although it does help.
The OnePlus 7T comes with an upgraded 6.5in Fluid AMOLED display – up from 6.41in on the OnePlus 7 – and ships with a new 20:9 aspect ratio too. It’s detailed, boasting a resolution of 2,400x1,080 (402ppi), and with a claimed 1000 nits max brightness, we’ve found that it’s more than bright enough to be used in sunny environments without issue.
You’ll also find HDR10 certification, another feature of the OnePlus 7T Pro, which provides improved contrast ratio when watching HDR content on Netflix and YouTube. Combine that with a new-generation display panel which OnePlus claims cuts blue light by 40 percent and you’ve got a comfortable mobile viewing experience.
But, of course, it’s the upgraded refresh rate of the OnePlus 7T that has everybody talking. The 90Hz refresh rate makes the 7T feel more responsive in use, even if you’re just swiping through Twitter or reading your favourite website (Tech Advisor) in Chrome. Everything seems smoother, and it provides a premium mobile experience when compared to most smartphones on the market at the moment.
The in-display fingerprint reader is back with the OnePlus 7T, and it’s faster than ever. That’s mainly due to enhanced algorithms powering the technology, but whatever the reason, the end result is that fingerprint scanning now takes less than a second and hardly ever rejects a registered fingerprint. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that it’s among the fastest and most responsive in-display fingerprint scanners we’ve seen to date.
Display tech-aside, the OnePlus 7T display is as near to bezel-less as you’ll get without ditching the frontfacing camera or implementing a pop-up solution like of the OnePlus 7 Pro. You’ve still got the waterdrop notch that houses the front-facing camera, but it’s around 30 percent smaller than that of the standard OnePlus 7 and less noticeable than other notched smartphones available in 2019.
Design
Alongside the new display, the OnePlus 7T has an enhanced design that sets it apart from the standard OnePlus 7, but this isn’t evident by looking at the front of the device. You see, it’s on the rear that you really notice a change – more specifically, the inclusion of a large circular central camera housing instead of the rounded rectangular housing of the older model.
The circular housing is polarizing; while we like the way that it hides the triple camera setup instead of highlighting it, others seem to think it’s a little too big. We don’t imagine it being a deal-breaker if you’re not a huge fan though, especially with the range of high-end features on offer from the 7T.
The phone is also covered in OnePlus’ anti-glare glass and sports the company’s fourth-gen frosted matte glass finish, providing a rather unique look. You might want a OnePlus 7T case, though.
The new Glacier Blue colour option is great at catching the light, but it’s not as reflective and in-your-face as the mirror-finish smartphones on the market. That subtlety is appreciated by us, and it also means that it’s not as much of a fingerprint magnet as its mirrored counterparts either.
It’s also impressively thin at only 8.1mm – down from 8.2mm of the standard OnePlus 7 – and feels relatively lightweight in the hand too, measuring in at 190g. Fans will also be glad to know that the much-adored Alert Slider is back too.
Cameras
As mentioned above, the OnePlus 7T features a triple rear-camera setup, up from the dual-camera setup of the standard OnePlus 7. The OnePlus 7T’s main sensor is actually the same as that of the OnePlus 7 Pro – it’s 48Mp, with an f/1.6 aperture, Optical Image Stabilization and a seven-element lens to provide a high-end mobile shooting experience.
As you’d expect with a camera boasting those specs, the performance is impressive – images are generally detailed, well-balanced and avoid unnatural contrast levels. There’s also pixel-binning tech at work to enhance the quality of images taken, although there is also a Pro mode that allows you to take full 48Mp RAW images if you desire.
Alongside the main sensor you’ve got an 117-degree ultra-wide 16Mp camera with a six-element lens to capture more in your shot, but much like the 12Mp 2x telephoto lens, there’s only Electronic Image Stabilization on offer across photo and video shooting modes. OnePlus claims that the wide-angle camera of the 7T can be used by third-party apps such as TikTok, but we imagine this will have to be added on a per-app basis and, of course, there aren’t any that support it pre-launch.
We’ve skimmed across the headline specs of the cameras because it’s the software that really helps you get the most out of them. First up, the OnePlus 7T can utilize the ultra-wide-angle sensor to provide a new macro shooting mode that can take photos of subjects only 2.5cm away from the lens, capturing minute details that would’ve been lost on a standard smartphone camera.
OnePlus’s Nightscape mode is also present in the 7T, but unlike smartphones before it, you’ve now got a choice between taking images using the main 48Mp sensor or the ultra-wide sensor, helping to capture more of the scene in dimly-lit conditions.
However, during testing we’ve found that there is a noticeable difference in the quality of images produced by the two sensors, with the f/2.2 aperture of the ultra-wide lens not quite up to the job – even with algorithms and post-processing tech to layer multiple images into a single low-light shot.
The 7T also offers enhanced performance in the Portrait mode, which now features two focal lengths – standard and telephoto – with easy switching between the two, making it easier to frame your shot. There’s also improved post-processing,
