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OnePlus didn’t waste any time — just a day after the announcement of the iPhone 12, the new OnePlus 8T has made its debut.
With a $749 price-tag on the OnePlus 8T and the iPhone 12’s $799 ($829 unlocked), they occupy pretty much the same price tier. But how do they stack up against each other?
They are pretty much great deals on both sides. The OnePlus 8T flies with a 120 Hz refresh rate screen and has more… let’s call them “experimental” features with its quad cameras on the back. But both have promising displays and the best specs from the Android and iOS camps respectively.
It does come down to operating system preference and your own electronic ecosystem at home. But the OnePlus 8T does look to be a worthy adversary to the iPhone 12.
OnePlus 8T has a matte back vs glossy on the iPhone 12
OnePlus 8T comes in 2 colors, iPhone 12 comes in 5
Apple’s new iPhone 12 has the boxy design of the iPad Pros and MacBooks, giving us a fresh new style to gawk at and to reminisce the good old iPhone 5 days. The OnePlus 8T has its sleek design with a back that tapers off around the edges for a better fit in the palm.
Both devices have glass panels on their backs — on the OnePlus 8T, it has a matte finish, while the iPhone 12 is glossy. When it comes to color choice, you can get the 8T in either Aquamarine Green or Lunar Silver. The iPhone 12 comes in 5 fresh colors — green, blue, red, white, and black.
OnePlus 8T has a 6.55-inch screen, iPhone 12’s is 6.1-inch
OnePlus 8T has 120 Hz refresh rate, iPhone 12 is locked at 60 Hz
iPhone 12 screen is certified for Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG
OnePlus 8T has a small punch-hole, iPhone 12 has a notch
On the front, the OnePlus 8T has a 6.55-inch screen with a 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution. That’s an aspect ratio of 20:9 and a pixels-per-inch density of 402. The iPhone 12 has a 6.1-inch screen in a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, resolution 1170 x 2532 (457 PPI).
Both panels are OLED and both are excellent in terms of color and contrast. However, the OnePlus 8T does have 120 Hz refresh rate capabilities with redesigned Oxygen OS animations for extreme smoothness. The iPhone 12, sadly, is still in the 60 Hz camp.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.
Still, Apple’s screen is certified for Dolby Vision and HDR10 — which flow with its camera capability to shoot Dolby Vision clips in 4K — as well as the HLG standard. And yes, we tried it. Dolby Vision HDR clips shot on the iPhone do not play on the OnePlus 8T. However, they do play on a Samsung Galaxy Note, which also has an HDR10 screen.
OnePlus 8T vs iPhone 12 camera and audio
Main camera: 48 MP on OnePlus 8T, 12 MP on iPhone
Aperture size: F1.7 on OnePlus 8T, F1.6 on iPhone
Ultra-wide-cameras: 16 MP on OnePlus 8T, 12 MP on iPhone
Selfie cameras: 16 MP on OnePlus 8T, 12 MP on iPhone
4K video: 4K at 60 FPS for both phones. iPhone 12 can shoot 4K in Dolby Vision HDR at 30 FPS
OnePlus has “Video Portrait” for clips with bokeh, “Video Nightscape”, and can take photos in RAW
OnePlus pulled out yet another quad-camera setup on the back. The main sensor has a 48 MP resolution with an aperture size of F1.7. The individual pixels are 0.8 μm small, but OnePlus does use pixel binning — clustering pixels in groups of 4 to take 12 MP photos with better light-sensitivity.
The iPhone 12’s main camera is 12 MP, with 1.4 μm pixels. That does make them smaller than a quad pixel cluster on the OnePlus 8T camera, but the iPhone also has a slightly wider aperture — F1.6.
As secondary cameras, both phones have ultra-wide-angle shooters. On the OnePlus 8, it has a 16 MP sensor, while the iPhone 12 sticks to 12 MP.
Then, the OnePlus 8 has yet another two cameras. A 5 MP macro shooter and 2 MP monochrome camera. These are… well, questionable. I’ve never been wowed by a macro camera on a smartphone and they seem to only exist so that the marketing material for the phone can say “quad-camera”.
On the front, the OnePlus 8T has a 16 MP selfie camera, the iPhone 12 has a 12 MP camera yet again.
When it comes to features, the iPhone 12 can shoot 4K video at 30 FPS in Dolby Vision HDR, which is pretty impressive. But the OnePlus 8T strikes back with a Video Nightscape, which should presumably take better clips in the night. The OnePlus 8T also has portrait video — it takes clips with a simulated bokeh effect on the background. It hasn’t been a great feature in previous iterations, so we’ll see how it does.
When it comes to audio, we have two phones with stereo drivers here. And both use the same system — a bottom-firing speaker for the chunkier sound, and an amped earpiece for a secondary driver. Previous experience with these brands tells us to expect great audio performance from both camps.
OnePlus 8T vs iPhone 12 software and performance
OnePlus 8T has Snapdragon 865, iPhone 12 has Apple A14
iPhone 12 memory: 64 GB / 128 GB / 256 GB and 4 GB of RAM (speculated)
We have two phones with top-tier processors here. The OnePlus 8T has a Snapdragon 865 (now a Plus, though), with 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM. The iPhone 12 is powered by Apple’s outstanding, 5 nm A14 silicon, but is paired with 4 GB of RAM (according to leaks, we are still waiting on a teardown here).
AnTuTu is a multi-layered, comprehensive mobile benchmark app that assesses various aspects of a device, including CPU, GPU, RAM, I/O, and UX performance. A higher score means an overall faster device.
If the T-Rex HD component of GFXBench is demanding, then the Manhattan test is downright gruelling. It's a GPU-centric test that simulates an extremely graphically intensive gaming environment that is meant to push the GPU to the max. that simulates a graphically-intensive gaming environment on the screen. The results achieved are measured in frames per second, with more frames being better.
These specs allow the phones to run their respective operating system at flying speeds. OnePlus’ Oxygen OS is often praised as a super-clean Android experience. And OnePlus takes the time to tweak the animations to feel fast and responsive — something that is further amplified by the 120 Hz screen.
Apple’s iOS is a smooth system in its own right and, of course, runs stellar on Apple’s hardware.
These two systems are coming closer and closer together with each passing year. The App Store and Play Store barely have any system-exclusive 3rd party apps in them nowadays. iOS 14 added widgets. Android finally has its Nearby Share (AirDrop alternative).
OnePlus put emphasis on gaming with a revised Gaming Tool for hardware optimizations, automatic notification blocking, and even WhatsApp messaging without leaving your game. OnePlus also hits 90 FPS on Fortnite… while Apple banned the latter. It’s kind of fun that this seems to be becoming a selling point.
Either one of these phones will provide a satisfactory software experience. Choice is up to two things — what the user is used to and what type of ecosystem that smartphone is going to be thrown in.
OnePlus 8T vs iPhone 12 battery life
Apple has always aimed at that “one-day battery life”. Balancing a thin device with enough of a cell inside to last you from one nightly charge to the other. Apple doesn’t share exact specs, but preliminary rumors say that the iPhone 12 has a 2,775 mAh battery.
The OnePlus 8T has a 4,500 mAh cell, which should last quite a while. But not only that, it has 65 W Warp Charging brick that tops the phone off in 39 minutes. That’s two-thirds of an hour to get from 0% to 100%! The Warp Charger is so powerful, in fact, that it can also juice up laptops.
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