It has a strong CPU, 16GB of RAM, a excessive refresh charge display, a body charge stabilizer particularly designed to boost gameplay, and a fancy cooling system. No, I am not describing a gaming rig or console, simply the OnePlus 10T smartphone.

OnePlus’s latest handset is a little bit of an odd duck. The place most smartphones push the picture seize envelope, the OnePlus10T’s digicam system seems simply truthful, particularly when in comparison with its huge brother, the OnePlus 10 Professional.

That is to not say OnePlus didn’t tout its Sony sensor and lens capabilities when it unveiled the cellphone on August 3. It did, although a lot of what OnePlus’s digicam array can do is due to software program and never its optical items. The highlight, although, was on gaming and all of the {hardware}, software program, and even equipment constructed to help it.

Let’s begin with the cell CPU. Regardless that this can be a comparatively inexpensive OnePlus mannequin, beginning at simply $649 / £629, the 6.7-inch system is filled with Qualcomm’s newest: the Snapdragon Eight Plus Gen 1, which is reportedly 10% sooner and 30% extra power-efficient than the Snapdragon Eight Gen 1.

That may not make this CPU sooner than, say, Apple’s A15 Bionic, but it surely’s inside taking pictures distance. As I’ve famous in earlier handset evaluations, the top-tier cell CPUs have sufficient energy for many duties, even CPU-intensive ones like multi-stream 4K video enhancing, with loads of headroom left over for extra.

I don’t suppose, nonetheless, I’ve ever seen a cellphone, not less than a sub-$800 / £800 one (you pay $749 / £729 for the 16GB RAM mannequin), so geared to gaming. Leaving apart the quick CPU and big quantity of RAM, there’s additionally the insane cooling system.

How will the #OnePlus10T maintain its cool? A brand new vapor chamber cooling system pic.twitter.com/9RpNHImm3lAugust 3, 2022

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OnePlus spent plenty of time throughout the launch occasion describing this wild 8-channel system in exhaustive element. Even the identify is excessive: The Subsequent-gen 3D Cooling System 2.0. The second-generation ultra-thin vapor cooling system covers nearly your entire again of the cellphone and, in response to OnePlus, can scale back the cellphone’s temperature by 5 levels in a single minute.

Even after I’m not taking part in video games on a smartphone (I favor PUBG and Asphalt, however OnePlus is scorching on League of Legends), I’ve seen the telephones’ backs getting fairly scorching, particularly within the basic location of the CPU. Cooling is a good suggestion and, as we play console-level video games on these pocket-sized units, it’s in all probability vital.

I’ve learn sufficient gaming PC and graphics card evaluations to grasp how irritating it may be to endure via dropped frames or stuttering throughout aggressive gameplay. That is the primary time I’ve encountered a cellphone that’s in search of to handle cell gaming body charges, in order that they don’t drop under a sure threshold throughout intense gameplay. That’s console, PC-rig-level stuff.

Players can get a particular cooling case for the #OnePlus10T pic.twitter.com/ozwFlw6S4GAugust 3, 2022

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If there was any doubt that OnePlus is pitching the OnePlus 10T as a cell gaming rig, it was forged apart when the corporate unveiled its cooling case.

That’s proper, the OnePlus 10T has its personal Glacier Mat Case (first launched with the Oppo Discover X5 Professional – Oppo and OnePlus units are primarily made by the identical firm). The case has a particular hydrogel layer that reportedly can wick away warmth and radically decrease the cellphone’s temperature.

What does this all imply?

The OnePlus 10T seems to be like an excellent, perhaps above-average Android smartphone (it’ll be even higher when it will get OxygenOS 13), however I don’t suppose it’s the smartphone for everybody. It’s an inexpensive, cell console for cell gaming followers who play extra than simply Bejeweled.

Additionally, what’s cooler than a textured glass Moonstone Black gaming rig, amirite?