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OnePlus 7T vs. iPhone 11: Which device is worth your money

OnePlus 7T vs. iPhone 11 Comparisons. Both of these flagship phones retain much of what you get in significantly more expensive devices. Click for more info

Author:Daniel BarrettMay 30, 202291723 Shares1730618 Views
OnePlus 7T vs. iPhone11
If you don’t need a top-of-the-line premiere smartphone that costs upwards of $1,000, a range of somewhat more affordable options with the features most people need are available at a more reasonable price. Current examples include the newly released OnePlus 7T and the iPhone 11.
Both of these flagship phones retain much of what you get in significantly more expensive devices. They’re both powered by top-flight mobile processors, pack multilens cameras and offer meticulously crafted designs that betray their reasonable prices. True, the OnePlus 7T and the iPhone 11 lack luxuries like pop-out selfie cameras, 5G connectivity and ultrahigh resolution displays — but cutting out those features keep costs down, and within reach.

Specifications

For starters, the OnePlus 7T is taller and narrower, but a hair lighter, while the iPhone 11 is squatter, with slightly thicker bezels all around. The iPhone 11 also incorporates a conventional wide notch, while the OnePlus 7T goes the teardrop route, shoehorning its earpiece in a slit above the selfie camera.
The iPhone 11’s wider frame makes it more cumbersome in my experience. I also prefer the matte glass finish on the back of the OnePlus 7T, which evokes a more premium feel akin to the similar texture Apple employs on the pricier iPhone 11 Proand the Pro Max.
However, Apple’s iPhone 11 definitely comes out on top, it’s durability. The device features a IP68 water-resistance rating (up to 2 meters of water for 30 minutes), whereas OnePlus’ reluctance to certify its handsets in similar conditions gives me pause.

Design and Durability

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The OnePlus 7T weighs in at 190 grams and is 8mm thick; it’s made of glass and a metallic looking rear panel that offers a choice of two color finishes: frosted silver, or glacial blue. It needs a case because the body is slippery. The despised top notch is nearly one-third smaller than in the previous OnePlus 7. The 7T still has the familiar side slider but, like the iPhone, has ditched the headphone jack. The flat screen has a distinctive 20:9 aspect ratio of 6.55 inches, making it taller but more comfortable to hold despite its size because it’s not as wide as some larger phones.
The iPhone design may seem a little stale to some people, with its thick bezel surrounding the 6.1-inch screen and the wide notch at the top. The preferred design these days is bezel-free end-to-end glass. Despite that, the iPhone 11 feels solid, is available in six colors, and the glossy glass back doesn’t feel slippery. It’s made of aluminum as opposed to stainless steel, so a case is a good idea. It also has an IP68 water resistance rating for up to 2 meters underwater for up to 30 minutes, as opposed to the 7T, which has no stated water or dust resistance.
Winner: iPhone 11

Display

Would you rather have an extremely bright screen or one that’s dimmer, but produces more captivating colors? That’s the choice you’re getting from the iPhone 11 and the OnePlus 7T.
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Apple’s device uses an LCD panel, which means you’re not getting the same rich hues and deep blacks offered by more modern OLED displays, like the one in the OnePlus 7T.
The OnePlus 7T’s screen also offers a higher resolution, with a noticeably greater density of pixels (402 pixels per inch, compared with the iPhone 11’s 326). More important, it refreshes at a faster 90Hz, making for super-smooth scrolling and animation. The iPhone 11 is capped at 60Hz, like most phones.
At 6.55 inches, the OnePlus 7T’s display is technically larger than that of the 6.1-inch iPhone 11 — though the OnePlus’ aspect ratio is narrower, so the 7T doesn’t feel significantly bigger given the wider proportions of Apple’s hardware.
The iPhone 11’s 652 nits of peak full-screen brightness make it the phone you’d rather use on a sunny day, compared with the 474-nit OnePlus 7T. That’s about the only scenario in which I’d rather have Apple’s screen, though. The 7T’s 155.1% coverage of the sRGB color space shatters the iPhone 11’s 113%, thanks in large part to the power of OLED technology. Add in the 7T’s smoother refresh rate and sharper resolution, and the OnePlus easily walks away with victory in the display round.
Winner: OnePlus 7T

Camera

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The OnePlus 7T has three camera lenses arranged in a circular camera bump: a 48-megapixel main camera with optical and electronic stabilization and an f/1.6 aperture; a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with an f/2.2 aperture; and a 16-megapixel ultra wide-angle sensor with an f/2.2 aperture, and a separate macro mode. The 7T adjusts its autofocus to allow subjects to be in focus between 2.5cm and 8cm, so you can really close in on your subject. With 2x optical zoom, the 7T shoots 4K video at 60fps and slow-motion 720p resolution video at up to 960fps. New and improved features in this model include a Nightscape night mode for the wide-angle camera and better performance from the 7T’s UltraShot engine.
For selfies, the OnePlus 7T gets a 16-megapixel lens with a fixed focus, electronic stabilization, and an f/2.0 aperture.
Well, the iPhone 11 camera setup seems less endowed, with its dual-camera setup, comprising of a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with a 120-degree field of view and f/2.4 aperture. There’s no telephoto lens, but you can shoot portraits with blurry backgrounds and six portrait lighting effects, such as Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, and High-Key Mono. It also supports a Night Mode, Smart HDR, True Tone flash, and Panorama mode, and can record 4K videos at up to 60fps, and 1080p slow-motion videos at 240fps.
The iPhone 11 features a 2x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom. The 12-megapixel selfie cam has an f/2.2 aperture and features Slofies, new slow-motion selfies. The front camera supports Portrait mode, 4K video recording, Animoji, and Memoji. The QuickTake feature lets you seamlessly shoot video without switching out of Photo mode.
A new iPhone camera feature called semantic rendering captures several underexposed photos before you tap the shutter button, and then an overexposed shot after, where the camera algorithm crunches the photo for the best shot. Smart HDR processes different aspects of the photo like faces using the separate frames to highlight and enhance different parts of the image. That’s why the iPhone 11 offers overall better imaging than the OnePlus 7T, despite having only two cameras, and even despite the 7T’s admirable inclusion of a macro mode.
Winner: iPhone 11

Performance

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ chipset inside the OnePlus 7T is the most powerful CPU available to Androidphones these days. And yet, even with the 7T’s 8GB of RAM, it still can’t match the blistering pace of Apple’s A13 Bionic silicon.
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The iPhone 11 notched a 3,251 score in Geekbench 5, a test of overall system performance. The OnePlus 7T topped out at 2,759. The iPhone 11 is also more adept at graphics rendering, as it churned out 1,481 frames at 23 frames per second in GFXBench’s Aztec Ruins off-screen test. The OnePlus 7T called it quits after 1,169 frames, at 18 fps.
Speedy though the 7T is, it can’t outrun the Apple’s in-house system-on-chip in benchmarks. That said, you’re not likely to experience a discrepancy in performance in most cases. The iPhone 11 may be able to flex its extra muscle in particularly demanding games, but the gap is slim.
Winner: iPhone 11

Software and Updates

The OnePlus 7T runs Google’s latest Android 10 operating systemalongside the OxygenOS 10 skin. The OxygenOS 10 experience is similar to stock Android and offers Dark Mode, Digital Wellbeing, Zen Mode, and Reading Mode. The new iPhone runs iOS 13, which, among other things, supports Dark Mode, better privacy controls, a swipe keyboard, a revamped Files app, and more than 50 new features.
The 7T packs 128GB or 256GB storage while the Apple smartphone offers the same storage options, plus a third lower choice of 64GB, which many observers feel is inadequate for today’s smartphone tech. Neither phone supports external storage.
OnePlus is one of the fastest Android device manufacturers when it comes to software updates, but it’s not as quick as Apple, which also tends to support devices for longer.
Winner: iPhone 11

Battery Life and Charging

The iPhone 11 has a relatively small battery compared with the OnePlus 7T. The 3,046 mAh power pack inside the iPhone 11 is about 20% smaller than the 3,800 mAh unit that powers the OnePlus 7T according to teardowns of Apple’s device.
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And yet, it’s the iPhone that lasted longer on a single charge in our testing, holding out for 11 hours and 16 minutes of website streaming over T-Mobile’s LTE network before it ran out of juice. The OnePlus 7T topped out at 8 hours and 47 minutes, well below average for a smartphone on our test.
The OnePlus 7T can charge faster out of the box with the adapter that comes with the phone. OnePlus’ Warp Charge 30T technology took the device from empty to 61 percent in 30 minutes. The iPhone 11’s stock brick certainly can’t do that; owners will have to shell out another $50 for Apple’s USB Type-C brick and associated cable, which can get the iPhone 11 to 50 percent in a half hour. For what it’s worth, the iPhone 11 can also charge wirelessly — something no OnePlus phone to date has supported.
Winner: iPhone 11

Special features

Both the iPhone and the OnePlus 7T more or less focus on a core smartphone experience so there’s not much in the way of extra special features from either phone that are not already called out in the specs. The main feature that differentiates the 7T is the 90Hz display refresh rate, which benefits you right now. For the iPhone, the new Apple-designed U1 chip incorporates Ultra Wideband technology, which can be used for spatial awareness and allow the iPhone 11 to precisely locate other U1-equipped Apple devices.
According to Apple, “It’s like adding another sense to iPhone, and it’s going to lead to amazing new capabilities.” While the tech is enabled in iOS 13, it has limited practical use at the moment.
Winner: Tie

Price and Availability

At $599, the OnePlus 7T slides in at $100 less than the cheapest iPhone 11, which costs $699 for a 64GB model. You’ll need to spend $749 to get yourself an iPhone 11 with the same 128GB of storage offered in the OnePlus 7T. The 256GB variant of the iPhone 11 costs $849, and OnePlus doesn’t sell a higher capacity version of its device. Neither handset offers expandable storage with microSD memory cards, so you’re stuck with the capacity you’re given.
The iPhone 11 comes unlocked for all wireless networks, GSM and CDMA alike, and is sold through virtually every carrier under the sun. You can also buy the OnePlus 7T unlocked, though it is only wired to fully support GSM networks, like AT&T and T-Mobile. The 7T can work on Verizon with a bit of elbow grease, but even then you can’t walk into your carrier of choice and just buy one — unless that carrier happens to be T-Mobile, which does carry the OnePlus 7T.
The OnePlus 7T ultimately gets the nod for its near-bargain price, though OnePlus’ lack of wider availability makes this a closer call than it would otherwise be.
Winner: OnePlus 7T

Overall winner: iPhone 11

The OnePlus 7T is a phenomenal value, and if you’re an Android devotee, it’s definitely the phone you should walk away with, without a second thought. However, the iPhone 11 is just a little more well-rounded.
More Reading: iPhone 11 vs Galaxy S10e: Benchmark and comparison
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Daniel Barrett

Daniel Barrett

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