OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition review: the fastest smartphone around

OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition release date and price

Announced on October 10 with the OnePlus 7T and OnePlus 7T Pro, the OnePlus 7T McLaren Edition will go on sale on November 5 at a price of £799. That's £100 more than the standard version on which it is based. Only one version is available with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.

In this review, I will focus only on the differences with OnePlus 7T Pro. To find out everything about the screen, camera, sound quality or battery life, I recommend that you read our detailed test of the OnePlus 7T Pro, the McLaren edition being identical in these areas.

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Above all, it's an aesthetic difference

Let's be clear from the beginning, the differences between the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition and the classic version are few and far between. Admittedly, under the hood, the smartphone offers a little more RAM, but it is mainly in terms of design that we can distinguish between the two devices.

Inspired by McLaren's aesthetic approach, the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition follows the lines of the OnePlus 7T Pro while adding the iconic Papaya Orange touch of the famous car manufacturer. The smartphone, available only in black, then takes advantage of the light reflections on its back to display an orange border along the lower and lateral edges of the device. Depending on how you hold the smartphone, the OP7 McLaren Edition looks different.

The other major difference is found in the black back. Around the camera module that houses the three sensors stored vertically, OnePlus has added a "carbon fiber" effect that also plays with light. Personally, I'm not necessarily a fan of this effect but it's a subjective question of course.

OnePlus has also added a different protective shell in the box to the white plastic shell usually offered. Instead, there is a cover made of Alcantara, a fabric that is pleasant to the touch, but also more durable and more adhesive. Both brands want to convey the luxury image that is often associated with Alcantara.

As you can imagine, the handling is equivalent. The smartphone retains exactly the same dimensions and weight as its brother. It is, therefore, a rather imposing smartphone that should be operated with both hands. The pop-up camera always allows you to enjoy the 6.67-inch AMOLED bezel-less screen at 90 Hz, which is ideal for multimedia use.

Oxygen OS customized McLaren

At the software level, OnePlus has also made some changes. The smartphone still has the latest version of Android, Android 10, with the manufacturer's in-house interface, Oxygen OS.

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The smartphone retains the same feeling of power, speed, and fluidity as the OnePlus 7T Pro, but also offers a few small additions, including exclusive animations, themes, and wallpapers. The lock screen also features a minimalist clock inspired by the McLaren dashboards, although I've never driven a vehicle of this brand before so I can't confirm similarity. By default, the smartphone also offers a dark mode, which you can change in the settings if you prefer the theme one way or the other.

Funny thing, the notification LED on the edges of the screen also lights up slightly with a papaya orange glow. Finally, custom icons complete the overall immersion in the McLaren universe.

More RAM than you really need

Of course, under the hood, the smartphone differs from the standard version with 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM on board. For the rest, there are also 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage as in the OnePlus 7T Pro, a Snapdragon 855+ processor, the Warp Charge 30T fast charge, a 90 Hz AMOLED display and a triple camera.

Not surprisingly, the smartphone is powerful. However, the difference in everyday life is completely imperceptible compared to the standard model. In particular, the smartphone obtains the same benchmark test scores as its brother. That is not surprising. The excess RAM is only used for multitasking and application management in the background. But the difference between 8 and 12GB is not visible on a daily basis for the moment, it can even penalize the smartphone because its management is more complicated. The only advantage will be in the long term in several years.

If you're looking for a fast and powerful smartphone, the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition is the most successful model from the Chinese manufacturer.

You can consult the results of the benchmarks tests in the table below:

OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition technical specifications