OnePlus 7T Pro review

A triple camera you'd like

The triple camera from the OnePlus 7 Pro is also on the 7T Pro. It is an identical setup with the same sensors, lenses, and features, except that the ultra wide-angle camera can now do closeup shots thanks to a slightly upgraded camera module.

The primary camera on the OnePlus 7T Pro (the middle one at the back) has a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor (Quad-Bayer filter) with 0.8µm individual pixels which net to 1.6µm sized pixels when you account for the 4-to-1 pixel binning. The snapper has a 26mm f/1.6 lens, there is optical stabilization, and laser-assisted autofocus is available in addition to phase-detection AF.

At the top of the camera module sits a 16MP sensor behind a 13mm f/2.2 lens for ultrawide pictures, and there is a distortion correction option (on by default) in settings. The camera supports laser-autofocus in addition to phase-detection, and it can now also shoot macro photos from up to 4cm distance. We guess moving the laser autofocus module slightly to the side helps in that respect. There is no optical stabilization for this shooter, but it doesn't need it as much with such a short focal length.

The bottom shooter is an 8MP imager behind 78mm f/2.4 for 3x optical zoom over the main camera. Optical stabilization is available, as well as PDAF.

As it turns out, the OnePlus 7T Pro, just like the 7 Pro, uses a 13MP Samsung S5K3M5 sensor with a 57mm lens instead of a 76mm one. The 3x zoom over the main camera isn't achieved optically but isn't a digital one either - it's lossless as it is an 8MP crop from the 13MP picture, which otherwise offers a 2.2x magnification natively. While OnePlus delivers the targeted focal length, professional photographers might notice the lack of the pronounced telephoto perspective compression.

One place you can notice there is something more happening behind the scenes is when shooting in Portrait Mode. You can use regular (main camera) and zoomed (tele camera) views. And if you shoot in zoomed Portrait, you will notice the magnification is quite different, and the output image is 12MP.

But let's be honest - we only got a more in-depth look into this because the original 7 Pro was found guilty of this. We may have never noticed anything out of the ordinary otherwise. So, as far as 3x zoom is concerned - it's there, it's lossless, and you will get a 3x zoom compared to the main camera. OnePlus did not lie, but it used very unusual tricks to achieve its goal.

Camera app

The camera app interface remains mostly unchanged from the OnePlus 6T's. The HDR mode is set to come on automatically by default, and it works very well as you can see the expanded dynamic range in the viewfinder before you've even taken the photo.

You can swipe left or right to switch between camera modes (incl. Nightscape), and you can swipe from the lower cluster towards the top of the phone to see all the available modes. You can add more camera modes to the carousel in the settings.

Camera app

The UI can tell you when it thinks you should use a different shooting mode. For example, when shooting buildings or wide scenery, the camera can suggest that you switch to the ultrawide-angle camera. The other case we noticed was a suggestion to enable the Nightscape mode when we were shooting out at night.

Image quality

The photos from the main camera are saved in 12MP - the way it was meant to be with a 48MP Quad-Bayer snapper. And the ones coming from the OnePlus 7T Pro camera have an exemplary level of resolved detail, top-notch contrast, just the right sharpness, and very good dynamic range.

The foliage is not ideal - sometimes the grass or leaves get smeared. Other times in scenes with greenery - this may affect white balance and produce a barely noticeable greenish tint over buildings and such.

Still, the OnePlus 7T Pro captures flagship-grade photos with its primary camera and we'd rate them as excellent.

OnePlus 7T Pro 12MP photos

The 8MP zoomed photos are equally spectacular - the resolved detail is brilliant, as is the sharpness and dynamic range. The colors are mostly true to life, but in scenes, with predominant skies, the algorithm may over-saturate the blue hues.

OnePlus 7T Pro 8MP 3x zoom photos

The 16MP ultrawide pictures are among the better ones we've seen, with enough detail, low noise, and fitting quite much in the frame. The dynamic range is improved with Auto HDR, the colors stay mostly accurate, and the contrast is excellent.

OnePlus 7T Pro 16MP ultrawide photos

There is automatic distortion correction applied to the photos taken with the ultrawide camera. You can opt-out of it, and you'll get sharper corners at the expense of bent buildings.

OnePlus 7T Pro 16MP ultrawide photos without distortion correction

Now here is something the 7T Pro can do, but the 7 Pro can't - closeup macro images. Those are taken with the ultrawide camera and look pretty good, but the resolved detail is quite poor. Still, those would do just fine no matter the occasion and look great if downscaled to 8MP or less.

OnePlus 7T Pro 16MP macro photos

The OnePlus 7T Pro shoots excellent pictures at night. The main camera enjoys OIS, and bright aperture, and the images come bright enough, with lots of detail and low noise. The exposure is correct, as well as the white balance, and we are happy with the photos we took.

Thanks to the OIS, the phone can drop the shutter speed down to 1/4s and get a nice shot even in the darkest occasions.

OnePlus 7T Pro 12MP low-light photos

Nightscape is available, and it allows even more light in the photos, and this the detailed is improved, especially in the shadows. Nightscapes can make even the darkest places look bright and capture detail our eyes did not saw at all. And it takes about 2-3 seconds for the whole thing!

OnePlus 7T Pro 12MP Nightscape photos

The ultrawide night photos are awful, there is no dancing around that. Not that anybody expected them to be good though - they are dark, blurry, and noisy. There is no ultrawide camera that's capable at night so that we won't hold this performance against the OnePlus 7T Pro either.

OnePlus 7T Pro 16MP ultrawide low-light photos

Nightscape works with the ultrawide camera, too. The pictures are well-lit, but still noisy and with unimpressive detail. Again, if you need to fit a lot at night in your frame - ultrawide Nightscape is your only option.

OnePlus 7T Pro 16MP ultrawide Nightscape photos

Finally, the 3x photos are shot with the proper camera, and if there is not enough light, those will come almost black. But when there is some light available, you can use the 3x zoom camera, and it will deliver mostly good photos, noisy - yes, but excellent, nevertheless.

OnePlus 7T Pro 8MP 3x zoom low-light photos

You can head off to our photo compare tool to do some more pixel peeping and compare the OnePlus 7T Pro performance to every other smartphone we've tested.

OnePlus 7T Pro against the Galaxy Note10+ and iPhone 11 Pro Max in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

The OnePlus 7T Pro shoots regular or zoomed portraits. As we mentioned at the beginning of the camera chapter, the zoomed portraits use the default focal length - 57mm, and thus they are 2.2x zoomed compared to the main camera.

Anyway, no matter which zoom you choose, the portraits are excellent - the subject separation is great, there is more than enough detail (in good light) and the blur is very convincing.

OnePlus 7T Pro portraits

And here are some zoomed portraits.

OnePlus 7T Pro zoomed portraits

Selfies

The 16MP selfies taken with the pop-up camera are a bit softer than we'd have liked them but excel in contrast, colors, and dynamic range thanks to the Auto HDR.

OnePlus 7T Pro 16MP selfies

The portrait selfies are as good as the regular selfies, but the subject separation isn't perfect, and some clipped ear or hair are occasional.

OnePlus 7T Pro 16MP portrait selfies

Video recording

The video camera supports up to 4K video at 60 fps, 1080p at up to 240 fps, and 720p at up to 960 fps (up from 480fps on 7 Pro).

All three cameras can shoot in 1080p@30fps - the main, the tele, and the ultrawide. You get the same 1-tree/2-tree/3-tree switch, as you see in the still camera. And the videos coming from the three snappers are somewhat similar in quality - not that sharp but still with enough detail, excellent contrast and dynamic range, and low noise.

There is a reason for the lack of sharpness in all 30fps options - there is always-on electronic stabilization, which lowers and field of view a bit and upscales the cropped footage up to the needed resolution, be it 1080p or 4K.

All other modes - 1080p@60fps, 4K@30fps, and 4K@60fps - offer 1x and 2x zoom switch BUT are shot only with the main camera.

The 4K videos at 30fps are also a bit soft, while those at 4K at 60fps and 1080p at 60fps are very sharp. That's because the 60fps clips aren't affected by the EIS. Still, no matter the option, the OnePlus 7T Pro delivers excellent videos with high-quality stereo sound.

EIS is available on all 30fps modes, and it is always-on. At 60fps you rely only on the optical stabilization.

OnePlus also offers a Super Stable mode, which uses the ultrawide camera, captures at 1080p at 30fps, and provides even more stabilized picture, action camera-like. Yes, this reviewer got a coworker to run for the Super Stable test.

Here's a glimpse of how the OnePlus 7T Pro compares to other smartphones in our Video compare tool.

2160p: OnePlus 7T Pro against the Galaxy Note10+ and the iPhone 11 Pro Max in our Video compare tool