 120Hz, 65W, a Snapdragon 865 processor, 4500mAh, Oxygen OS 11 and 4 cameras. Like almost every other phone manufacturer, OnePlus likes to use big numbers to advertise its phones and its latest device, the OnePlus 8T, is no different. This is the successor to the OnePlus 8 released earlier this year. It's got an all-unique design, 120Hz display and super quick 65W fast charging. And those are big numbers, which is kind of OnePlus's speciality. Each new device brings with it a faster display, more cameras and even quicker fast charging. But numbers never really tell the full story of whether the device actually does the job that you need it to do. So, what's the real story with the $749 OnePlus 8T? Now, $749 gets you 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage. But there is a step-down model which I've been using that comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but it's not being sold in the US. Both versions come with sub-6GHz 5G, although there's no millimeter wave support here. There's also no official IP rating for unlocked models, though OnePlus has confirmed the T-Mobile carrier version has an IP68 rating. Like usual, OnePlus says it's a good choice for a phone that should survive being used in the rain, even if it's not officially certified. Other than that, those specs put the OnePlus 8T firmly in line with most other flagships released this year, and I haven't encountered any performance hiccups during my time with the phone. A lot of how speedy the OnePlus 8T feels to use comes down to its 120Hz display. And whether you're scrolling through Twitter or flipping between apps, everything feels lovely and smooth. 120Hz is a whole 30 extra hertz compared to the 90Hz display we had on the OnePlus 8. And look, I'm not going to sit here and claim that it's not technically a bigger number. I just don't think it makes as substantial a difference as the jump from 60Hz to 90Hz. Much more important is that the 1080p screen looks vibrant and crisp, and although its default color settings tends a little warmer than I'd like, it's easily fixed in the settings. And it's also, thank the Lord, a flat display. Does it make the overall phone look ever so slightly less premium? Sure, maybe. But is it more useful for basically everything you want a phone screen to do? Obviously, yes. The OnePlus 8T has stereo speakers, one downward facing and one for the phone's earpiece, and it's great to see stereo speakers returning after they were missing from the Nord. Their quality is about on par from what you'd see on similar setups elsewhere. 65 is the most eye-catching number on the OnePlus 8T's spec sheet because it describes its fast charging speed. 65 watts is among the fastest fast charging you'll find in a phone right now, and OnePlus is making big claims about its Warp Charge 65 technology included with the 8. Not least the fact that you're supposed to get a day's power in 15 minutes. But I have a confession to make, and that's that I just rarely get too excited about fast charging announcements like these. I mean, call me old-fashioned, but I just like to charge my phone overnight. But 65 watts does seem very fast though, so it seems like a shame not to put it through its paces. So what if instead of charging my phone overnight, I plug it into charge first thing in the morning? My morning routine takes me roughly 25 minutes, which is a lot. But I'm not going to do that. It takes me roughly 25 minutes, which charges the 8T's 4500 mAh battery to 81% from zero. Now obviously the amount of charge you'll get will depend on how much you had going in, but that's a rough idea. And of course everyone's routine is slightly different, but after 37 minutes the phone was completely charged. Now the OnePlus 8T does end up feeling a little bit warm for the touch when you fast charge it, but it was nothing unusual. And OnePlus says it has a whole bunch of temperature sensors to catch any heat problems before they crop up. So yes, 65 watt fast charging definitely means you can, if you want to, stop charging your phone overnight. I was averaging about 50% of battery at the end of the day, so which is I guess about what you get out of 15 minutes. So a day's worth of charging in 15 minutes, yeah, well done OnePlus, you nailed it. But you didn't include wireless charging, which really is a shame, especially since it was on the OnePlus 8 Pro. And that's a shame because increasingly wireless charging is about not only being able to charge your phone, but being able to use your phone to charge other devices like wireless earbuds. And it's just a shame that OnePlus isn't embracing the feature more. Now OnePlus is getting onto the Android 11 train early, choo choo, and is actually claiming that the OnePlus 8T is going to be one of the first phones to ship with Android 11 pre-installed. And that means you get access to all the Android 11 features like its redesigned conversation notification settings, media controls, power button menu, all that good stuff. And from OnePlus' perspective, it's made a couple of tweaks of its own with OxygenOS 11, like a redesigned settings menu, but these are pretty minor overall. I continue to like what OnePlus does with Android though, everything feels clean and out of the way. So there are four cameras on the back of the OnePlus 8T, and they're contained within this kind of generic looking rectangular camera bump. That's one more rear camera than the OnePlus 8, but you're hardly getting 25% more camera performance here. The first three are similar to the OnePlus 8, a 48 megapixel main camera, a 16 megapixel ultra wide, and a kind of useless five megapixel macro. But the extra sensor is a new two megapixel monochrome sensor? It's for black and white photography. It's super weird. I can't quite work it out. Personally, I would have loved a new telephoto sensor like we saw on the OnePlus 8 Pro, but hey, I consider myself a pretty cultured guy. Let's give black and white photography a shot, shall we? Sensor is super weird, and honestly, I just can't quite wrap my head around it. For starters, the setting to actually take black and white photographs is buried right at the end of the camera app's list of filters. And even then, it's only a two megapixel sensor, so the photo is actually being taken by the main camera, with the monochrome sensor kind of gathering some extra data. If you put your finger over the monochrome sensor, it complains and refuses to take the photo in black and white, but the framing stays the same. And the black and white photos do look nice, but it's hardly the most useful addition, especially since OnePlus tells me the phone doesn't use this extra sensor for anything other than black and white photography. So here are two photos. One was taken using the monochrome mode, and the other was taken in the monochrome mode, but with my finger over the monochrome sensor. And then I just applied one of Google Photos stock black and white filters afterwards. I'm just struggling to see a significant difference in picture quality here. And beyond the monochrome sensor, the OnePlus 8T's cameras provide similar performance to what we saw on the OnePlus 8. In daylight, you get nice neutral colors with plenty of detail, but things can get a little softer looking when you switch the ultra wide. The camera does handle skin tones well, and there doesn't seem to be any significant smoothing or loss of detail here, but in low light, things can end up looking a little warm and yellow, even when the phone's night mode enables automatically. And this mode does a nice job of boosting detail, so long as you don't have any fast moving subjects. Finally, there's a low resolution macro sensor on the phone, but the macro shots I got were just underwhelming. Over on the video side of things, there are a couple of new features to play with. Now one of them is video portrait mode, which you're seeing right now. Now if it's working, you should see all of the background around me look nice and blurry whilst I'm actually in focus. Apologies if it's a little bit windy, but this should give you some idea of how good the microphone is on this phone. There's also a super steady mode, which tries to smooth out movement while you're filming, and a video night scape mode for filming at night. All three are okay, but they have their compromises. Non-work via the phone's selfie camera, and all top out at 1080p rather than 4K. So ultimately, the OnePlus 8T's cameras probably shouldn't be the deciding factor for whether you buy this phone or not. They're not bad enough to warn you off a purchase, but they're not good enough for you to pick it up specifically for them. And sure, there are four cameras, but I'd wager that most people will probably only end up using two of them. OnePlus has a lot of impressive specs up its sleeve for the OnePlus 8T. 65W fast charging, a 120Hz refresh rate, four cameras! But take these specs off a piece of paper and put them in the real world, and the reality is sometimes a little different. Its 65W fast charging is genuinely very impressive, but a 120Hz display compared to the OnePlus 8's 90Hz screen just doesn't feel like as big of an improvement as the numbers suggest. And two of the 8T's four cameras feel a little bit gimmicky. Macro shots look pretty soft, and the monochrome camera just feels unnecessary. So in the end, the OnePlus 8T ends up feeling like an incremental upgrade compared to the 8, which itself was an incremental upgrade compared to the 7T. It's just a shame that we haven't seen the OnePlus 8 Pro's more premium features like a telephoto camera and wireless charging trickle down to this level. If you're using a OnePlus 7 or earlier, then you're likely to really feel these improvements. But if you're using a more modern device, you're probably safe on holding off upgrading for another year or so. OnePlus has played a numbers game with the OnePlus 8T. It just all adds up to a device that occasionally feels a little bit familiar. Yeah, so this sensor is super weird. This sensor is super weird. So this sensor is super weird. That's my best French accent. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.