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.

Can the OnePlus 10T bring back the forgotten glory days of OnePlus? Here’s everything you need to know about the phone.

OnePlus 10T at a glance

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.

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.

Is the OnePlus 10T worth buying?

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.

Think of the OnePlus 10T as a souped-up OnePlus 10R

For starters, it’s missing some key flagship ingredients like a telephoto shooter, an IP67 or IP68 rating for water and dust protection (IP54 rating only for the US model), 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.

it's hard to straight-up recommend the OnePlus 10T.

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.