OnePlus 7T Pro vs. OnePlus 7T

Lowlight images

Moving on to the low light images now, both phones are capable of capturing good quality low light images from the primary rear camera. The images have a good amount of detail in them, and the colors and white balance generally look quite accurate. There is some noise in the images, but it's not too distracting, and we prefer OnePlus' level of noise reduction, which isn't too overbearing and still maintains a good level of detail while reducing some of the noise. The Quad Bayer sensor definitely helps in reducing some of the noise.

OnePlus 7T lowlight samples

OnePlus 7T Pro lowlight samples

Switching on Nightscape helps bring out more detail in the shadows while also bringing down the bright highlights. The images do look a bit artificial at times as the processing tends to get a bit ahead of itself at times, but generally, the results are quite pleasing as long as you don't zoom in too close. And when the light levels are really low, Nightscape helps in producing a usable image, which otherwise wouldn't be possible. It's not the best night mode around, but it works reasonably well and it keeps improving regularly.

OnePlus 7T Nightscape samples

OnePlus 7T Pro Nightscape samples

As for the ultra-wide lens, the images captured without Nightscape aren't particularly good. The detail, colors, and noise levels are below par, and things get worse as the light levels fall.

OnePlus 7T ultra-wide lowlight samples

OnePlus 7T Pro ultra-wide lowlight samples

Fortunately, the Nightscape feature does work with this lens as well and it's a lot more impactful with this lens as the images captured without it are generally unusable.

OnePlus 7T ultra-wide Nightscape samples

OnePlus 7T Pro ultra-wide Nightscape samples

Lastly, there are the respective telephoto lenses. Their differences are less important in lowlight as neither camera uses their telephoto camera when the light levels fall below a certain threshold and revert to using the primary camera instead. They still maintain their respective 2x and 3x zoom levels, which means the 7T Pro is digitally zooming in a lot further than the 7T.

OnePlus 7T 2x lowlight samples

OnePlus 7T Pro 3x lowlight samples

Fortunately, the 48-megapixel sensor has enough headroom to accommodate such requests, so the results aren't too unflattering. Neither phone captures particularly good-looking telephoto images in low light. There's also no Nightscape available in this mode to make things better.

Winner: Tie. Both phones take nearly identical images in low-light.

Selfies

Lastly, there's the matter of selfies with the front camera. Both phones have the exact same camera; a 16-megapixel sensor with f2.0 aperture and fixed focus. The only difference is that the 7T has the camera placed on the display while the 7T Pro hides it in a pop-up mechanism.

Image quality is understandably identical. Both phones take good quality images from the front camera with good skin tones and dynamic range. The images aren't oversharpened as is usually the case with most front camera images, which results in the images looking a bit soft.

OnePlus 7T selfie samples

OnePlus 7T Pro selfie samples

The images are especially soft if the HDR mode kicks in, as it seems the camera captures in a lower resolution in this mode and then upscales them. This also results in a bit of fringing. However, all of this is only noticeable if you look from up-close. Most people aren't really looking at extremely sharp and high-resolution images of their faces for obvious reasons, so the level of detail on offer here is perfectly acceptable.

The only real issue we have with the camera is the lack of autofocus, which we think is important. The camera is also just wide enough for one person but if you take group selfies often then you might need to resort to a selfie stick.

This is aggravated in video mode, where there is a heavy crop applied, which barely even contains the user, let alone anyone else. Speaking of video, it is only limited to 1080p while some other phones with similar hardware are now doing 4K with the front camera.

The front camera doesn't have a lot of effects and gimmicks like on other phones but you do get the basic skin smoothening effect with three levels of control. You can also turn it off entirely, which is how it ships out of the box. Off does mean entirely off, unlike some other phones, which keep some level of skin smoothening on at all times, even in third-party apps.

Winner: Tie. Both phones have the same camera that are equally good.