2020 is stacking up to be OnePlus’ best year yet, as the company follows up the very well-reviewed Nord and OnePlus 8 series with the new 8T.
The phone takes everything I liked about the 8 Pro, adds a few more features and then packs it into a case that’s a cross between the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 7T. While this sounds like a recipe for success, there are a few holdups.
The only issue I have with the phone relates to its cost. If money is no object, then you’ll be happy with this device, but several other lower-cost options this year might make you think twice about paying $1,099 CAD for a powerhouse like the 8T.
When I reviewed the OnePlus 8 series, I said that perfection was only a phone away, and the 8T just about proves me right.
Specs
Simplicity works wonders
OnePlus has been using variations of the same design for the past few years, with the only exception being the 7T’s unusual camera bump and the 7 Pro’s pop-up camera. Now, it’s finally shifted from using long camera bumps to a rectangular shape. Initially, I wasn’t a fan of the 8T’s camera module since it reminded me of Samsung’s smartphones, but the more I used OnePlus’ latest device, the more it grew on me.
I especially like that OnePlus jammed all the camera hardware into the bump, instead of placing it beside the camera like it did with the 8 Pro. The new camera enclosure is also a little thinner than the 8 Pro and the 7T, which is a welcome change since the old bumps were so large.
OnePlus covered both the front and the back of the phones with Gorilla Glass 5, Which feels nice when holding the phone in my hand. The rear of the ‘Lunar Silver’ model OnePlus sent me is also frosted with a soft-touch material that looks nice and feels great. If you don’t want silver, the phone also comes in a light green hue called ‘Aquamarine Green.’
The edges of the 8T are wrapped in a small metal band with the volume keys on the left. On the right side, you’ll find the classic OnePlus Alert slider and a power button. All the buttons are satisfyingly clicky.
OnePlus placed the USB-C port and the louder half of the device’s stereo speakers along the phone’s bottom. The other speaker is embedded in the earpiece and helps with stereo separation when the phone is in landscape, but I found it quieter than the other speaker. OnePlus said this also provides Dolby Atmos support. I’ve never had much luck with in-phone Atmos setups unless I’m Holding them level with my face and playing content at high volumes, which isn’t practical for the duration of a movie or show. That said, the speakers are loud, crisp and easily fill a room with sound.
The real star of the phone is its 6.55-inch 120Hz AMOLED display. This time around, OnePlus put extra effort into making the screen more colour accurate than ever before. It also left the smartphone’s display flat like last year’s 7T which some people, me included, like more than curved displays.
Originally, I thought the 8T had a better display than the OnePlus 8 Pro. Yet, the more I look at pictures and videos side-by-side, there isn’t a noticeable difference. Still, it’s nice to see the China-based company double down on its dedication to screen quality.
OnePlus says that the 8T’s new display is also 28 percent thinner than its previous phones with a peak brightness of 1,100 nits and the ability to cut blue light emissions by 40 percent. However, it’s hard to notice a difference until you also turn on the software-based blue light filter that most Android phones have.
Overall the 8T’s beautiful screen, soft back and 188g weight make this phone super comfortable to hold. Interacting with this device also feels super-premium with its responsive and accurate display, plus it has a very nice haptic feedback. OnePlus has been working towards making phones feel this nice for years and this is the closest it’s gotten.
My new favourite camera
I’m usually a fan of most smartphone cameras since I find that no matter what I’m using, it’s mostly about being in the right place at the right time. That said, I’ve fallen for the OnePlus 8T’s fantastic lenses.
There are three main cameras on the phone’s rear and a monochrome camera like the OnePlus 8 Pro. However, this year you can’t use it to see through thin black fabrics and plastics like the 8 Pro. OnePlus patched that ‘feature’ out of the 8 Pro following an outcry over the accidental X-ray capability.
The main lens is a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor with optical image stabilization and an f/1.7 aperture. Flanking that is a 16-megapixel 123-degree ultrawide and a 5-megapixel macro lens.
It’s disappointing that OnePlus skipped out on the telephoto lens this time around and decided that Macro and Monochrome were better. While both of those lenses are cool, neither are as useful as a zoom lens. That said, the 8T’s digital zoom is passable in some situations.
When it comes to taking pictures, the camera app is feature-packed with various modes, including OnePlus’ ‘NightSight,’ ‘Portrait mode,’ pro controls and options that give the camera additional versatility.
I didn’t find myself using the ‘Pro’ mode very often since the regular camera was pretty powerful in its own right. The primary camera setup takes images in 12-megapixel shots that look sharp and provide accurate colours. There is a shortcut to take 48-megapixel photos but OnePlus mentions that using the camera’s full megapixel count works the best in bright, well lit environments.
For the most part, the photos I took came out well, but anything with tons of small details like a furry dog or trees sometimes were a little hit-and-miss as the camera struggled to capture all the fine details.
However, I still managed to get more super sharp photos than not with this camera.
The video quality is just as good, with the new optical image stabilization helping to create stable and cinematic video. OnePlus even added some video editing tools and filters to its default Gallery app.
This time the phone is capable of capturing 4k video at either 30 or 60fps. There’s also a super slow motion mode that can shoot as high as 480fps when recording 720p video. These features are cool but the most significant improvement to video this time around is its increased stabilization.
Not new, but not bad
Inside the phone, OnePlus hasn’t packed in a ton of cutting-edge features, but it’s still filled with useful high-end gear.
This includes a 5G-capable Snapdragon 865 chipset and 12GB of RAM. Overall, this future-proofs the device as Canadian 5G networks launch and slowly expand across the country.
The 8T also features a 4,500 mAh battery that’s split in half so the company can use a new version of fast-charging it calls Warp Charge 65. The new standard is capable of boosting the phone’s battery to almost 60 percent in 15 minutes. To get to 100 percent, it also only takes roughly 40-minutes, which is pretty impressive. During my time with the phone I could easily get a day and a half of heavy use, and I bet if I really tried I could push it even further.
One of the more interesting aspects of the fast-charging on this phone is that this time OnePlus included a USB-C to USB-C cable that can support 45-watt charging with other devices like headphones, laptops, the Switch and other devices. This is useful since most company’s fast-chargers are locked down to only fast-charging their own devices. OnePlus is stressing that the new phone doesn’t get hot when you game or charge. IN my experiance this is true, which is crazy since I found that previous OnePlus phones get pretty hot.
There’s also NFC, Bluetooth 5.1 and other high-end audio codecs, which is a nice touch for people with high-end speakers and headphones.
In terms of security, the OnePlus 8T has a rudimentary face unlock that’s not super secure because it doesn’t have any way to measure depth, and a quick in-display optical fingerprint sensor.
The perfect phone still might not be the best phone for you
OnePlus really has done it. The company made a phone capable of competing against most modern flagships and in many cases, is actually better. The only classic OnePlus compromise is the fact that the OnePlus 8T lacks wireless charging.
That said, the camera, OxygenOS 11 and the hardware all stand up to the test in day-to-day use. One weird aspect though, is that the T-Mobile version of the phone in the U.S. has an IP68 rating while the unlocked version is unrated. This leads me to believe that all versions are going to be moderately waterproof, but I wouldn’t test it on purpose.
OnePlus has stepped up OxygenOS with Android 11, including a new always-on display mode, plus one that even uses Bitmoji, but I’m still waiting on the final update to add it.
Overall, there are some random software bugs, but the phone runs smoothly, and a solid restart every few days usually fixes whatever issues I encounter.
When I reviewed the OnePlus 8 Pro, I said that OnePlus made an amazing phone, but that the company needed to overhaul its software to tie it in with the device’s hardware and OnePlus’ design.
Since then, the OnePlus has done this. The OnePlus 8T checks all the boxes for me except for the $1,100 price, which is a lot to ask for a smartphone that you can’t subsidize from a carrier. If it came in closer to $700 like the Nord, I think this would be my favourite phone of the year. But for now, it’s nice to see OnePlus release a phone that’s as stellar as this and hopefully, it can take what it’s learned and apply it to the next Nord handset.
“The OnePlus 8T checks all the boxes for me except for the $1,100 price, which is a lot to ask for a smartphone…”
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.
Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.
The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.
The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.
The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.
Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.
“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.
The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.
“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”
The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.
However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.
That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.
“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.
“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”
The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.
About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.
“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.
Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.
The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.
“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.
Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.
Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.
“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”
Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.
The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
