Review of new $749 OnePlus 8T: nice performance and 65W fast charging with a 120Hz display, but fourth camera feels unnecessary and there's no wireless charging
A capable, if incremental, update — OnePlus has always been very proud of the raw specs of its phones, and the OnePlus 8T is no different.
Context & Ripple Effects
The 8T is the second data point of 2020 in OnePlus's spec-first playbook: like the spring's OnePlus 8, it pairs a high-refresh display with strong battery life while skipping wireless charging, and it pushes wired charging to 65W. The $749 price also marks continued drift upmarket from the brand's original value positioning, alongside the cheaper OnePlus Nord launched mid-year.
What makes this review worth revisiting is how durable the formula proved — and where it ended. The 2022 10T repeated the same trade-offs at $649 (fast wired charging, a filler macro camera), and by the 2025 15R OnePlus was cutting cameras and support years rather than adding them, before confirming it would cease US and European operations entirely under an Oppo restructuring.
First-order effects
- Buyers at $749 get the fastest charging and highest refresh rate OnePlus had shipped, but must accept no wireless charging and a fourth camera the reviewer calls unnecessary — the same omissions flagged on the OnePlus 8 six months earlier.
Second-order effects
- The template hardens into a product line: the 10T ships two years later at $649 with the identical strengths (wired speed, raw performance) and weaknesses (weak water resistance, a pointless 2MP macro lens), showing the formula was a strategy, not a one-off compromise.
Third-order effects
- By the 15R, the value equation runs backward — fewer cameras than the prior year's model and only four years of support at a $700+ price — and the relationships show the endpoint: OnePlus exiting the US and Europe under Oppo restructuring, after Oppo and OnePlus raised prices citing rising component costs such as high-speed storage.
The trend: OnePlus's spec-per-dollar flagship formula persisted across five years of reviews but could not survive rising component costs and parent Oppo's consolidation, which ended the brand's Western operations.