OnePlus has sent over this special mystery package and I have a pretty good idea of one thing that’s inside of this but this package is huge so there’s probably quite a few things inside.
So without any further ado, here’s my unboxing and my first impressions of the OnePlus 7T Pro!
UNBOXING
Ok, so we get this big red box, this is the OnePlus 7T Pro Media Pack, which means that if you’re just buying the 7T Pro from the Store, you wouldn’t really be getting this unfortunately,as this is something that only the reviewers get.
Now when you compare the 7T Pro Media Pack to the one that we got just a few months ago with the 7 Pro, you can see how much bigger this one really is. It’s significantly larger and thicker as well and I think that it also looks better, with that full on red look.
So OnePlus logo on the front and nothing else really on the sides and the back.
Taking off the sleeve takes us to the actual box. Now I think that this one’s really cool, it’s got the ‘Never Settle’ logo on the front, but the front also slides away in this butterfly like style and the contents of the box are revealed.
An example of the drawing styles in the Media Pack that comes in this box
The first thing here is this black OnePlus sleeve which seems to contains the OnePlus 7 Pro booklet. This is essentially a guide made for reviewers, so that they get accustomed with all the new features that the OnePlus 7T Pro comes with, and they’ve actually changed the style significantly, from the one that the OnePlus 7 Pro used to come with. There’s no actual images of the phone itself, just drawings and graphics, which I do like! Whoever designed it should get a promotion! This is just a brilliant job and the whole booklet is made out the same cardboard like paper that the box is also made from. So it’s a much thicker and textured paper, than what we got before with the 7 Pro reviewers guide. Also inside the booklet we get a OnePlus branded cleaning cloth - which I don’t think I’ll ever open. This is way too precious to open. This has also had a design change as we now have this landscape cloth rather than the portrait style one that we had before.
Removing that and we get 2 compartments. I opened the one on the right first, since the one on the left seems to be the box for the 7T Pro. Inside of that we get 3 cases for the OnePlus 7 Pro. So we get a Sandstone case and 2 which from the outside look pretty much the same, but they’re actually quite different. They’re both part of the Karbon series of cases, but one is the Karbon Protective Case while the other is the Karbon Bumper case, which does offer more protection to the frame of the phone. I just love both, the feeling on the back is just incredible, but I prefer the Bumper One. It’s a bit weird to explain as it’s made from one piece of plastic, however, the back is more solid while the edge is made from rubber, but there’s no seam line or anything. It’s all just made from one block or at least merged together in a perfect manner.
The size difference between the OnePlus 7T Pro Box (Left) and the 7 Pro (Right)
Then finally we get to the actual OnePlus 7T Pro box. The first thing I noticed about this box is that it’s very tall. Comparing this to the OnePlus 7 Pro box, this is about 25% taller, however it’s also not as wide or as thick as the 7 Pro box. Now, I actually prefer this design, it’s much sleeker, not just in terms of the form factor but also in terms of the style of the box. We have a red box with the message “This is the OnePlus 7T Pro. It is the culmination of all our design and engineering efforts and crafted for those, who like us, always strive for the very best”.
On the sides we get the OnePlus 7T Pro branding, nothing on the top and bottom and on the back we get color (Haze Blue), the Capacity (256GB) as well as the RAM (8GB). Then on the bottom of this box we have ‘Never Settle’.
So once we have removed the phone what else do we get? Well, we get this very long booklet that says OnePlus on it, and inside that we get quite a few things; another card that says invitation on it, which has a message from Pete Lau, the Founder & CEO of OnePlus. We then get three OnePlus stickers, all different. We then get two manuals, one being a quick start guide that also shows you the layout of the phone, and the other one being the warranty and the safety guide.
There is also another cases in here too, a silicone case just like with the 7 Pro which is really nice to see OnePlus including this in the box, giving day 1 protection!
We then get another card with the sim eject tool, the charging cable which is the same iconic OnePlus red and white cable, definitely the best looking charging cable out there, and we finally get the Warp Charge 30T charger which actually looks identical to the 7 Pro charger, same design, same size, even the exact same specifications and the exact same model number, yet the 7T Pro can charge 23% faster than the 7 Pro could. It seems like the reason for this speed increase is actually some optimisations done in software or it could be thanks to the new processor which I’ll talk about just in a minute.
Ok, so that’s pretty much it when it comes to the MediaPack. The box was indeed bigger but we actually got less stuff than with the 7 Pro MediaPack, which also included the Bullet Wireless 2 Headphones as well as a OnePlus Car Charger. However, we did get 3 cases this time round, rather than just 2.
THE PHONE
Ok, so now let’s remove the plastic wrap from the 7T Pro and take a look at the actual phone!
Design wise, it looks pretty much identical to the 7 Pro from just a few months ago. We have the same exact bezel sizes, the same display, the same display resolution at 3120x1440, the same 516 PPI. It also has the same 90Hz refresh rate, as well as the same camera system, the same haptic engine and I’ll promise that this is the last time I’ll say “the same” in this article.
Holding these in my hand it’s pretty much impossible to tell which is which from the front.
But in that case, what’s different?
The new Haze Blue 7T Pro, the small black mark next to the camera is the Macro shot assistant
Well, 7 things really.
First off we do get a new colour called the Haze Blue which replaces the Nebula Blue that the 7 Pro came in. It’s a bit lighter than the Nebula Blue and it also reflects more light so it’s a bit shinier. Personally I like both.
Then the second change is the processor. We now have the Snapdragon 855+ compared to the 855 that the 7 Pro had. The GPU is now 15% faster which means slightly higher FPS in some more demanding games like Call of Duty mobile for example.
Thirdly there is a new addition next to the camera module, which is for the new Macro mode that this phone now has. Essentially you can get as close as 2.5cm from an object and it will still focus, where most phones will fail. Here’s an example of how close the 7T Pro can focus vs the iPhone 11 Pro that’s all blurry here so this is perfect for photographing insects or plants or just textures in general.
Then the fourth edition is that the battery is slightly larger at 4085mAh compared to 4000mAh, mostly for that 855+ chip which is essentially an overclocked 855 in the end.
Fifth. If you ever used the Reading Mode on the 7 Pro, on the 7T Pro now allows you to use it in Full Colour mode rather than just Black & White.
Sixth. The 7T Pro comes with Android 10 right out of the box. The 7 Pro will also be getting Android 10 soon, I don’t have it on my unit just yet, but it should be here by the end of the month.
And finally seventh we actually do get a faster fast charge with Warp Charge 30T, which like I said before is 23% faster than on the 7 Pro.
CONCLUSION
So in the end, the OnePlus 7T Pro is a very small upgrade over the 7 Pro that we got back at the end of May, just four and a bit months ago. However, I don’t think that that’s necessarily a bad thing.
The 7 Pro was already an amazing smartphone. Pretty much the best android phone overall, especially considering the price and the 7T Pro is now an even better version of that. Yes, it still doesn’t have a camera that’s as good as the Note 10’s or the iPhone 11 Pro’s, but it does have a very usable and good camera for the price which by the way OnePlus has improved a ton with software updates which they’ve been slamming in a few times a month.
If you add that to the insanely fast UI, with the near stock android experience, day two updates right after Pixel phones, that 90Hz refresh rate display, and no notch or display cutouts at all, all for $670 or £650 less than what the regular iPhone 11 costs! Well, you guys have what’s probably the best all round android phone of 2019!