OnePlus 7 Pro is aiming to offer the best phone at the price point of $670 (USD), which is extremely competitive with many of the flagship devices. So is it a worthwhile upgrade?
Design
When we first took it out of the box, the weight of the OnePlus 7 Pro was noticeable but in a good way as it gives the device a sturdy feel in your hands. The device feels like it will hold very well over time. OnePlus also offers one of the cooler colors with the dark blue look that shifts depending on how the light shines. Looking around the phone, you will see that there is no headphone jack, which is unfortunate. However, when looking at the display, there are minimal bezels around the front panel. The OnePlus 7 Pro is one of the better looking phones out right now. The all screen look is achieved by hiding the front facing camera in the top with a pop-up slider. When the front facing camera is activated, the camera pops out and retracts when not in use. The front facing camera also has fall detection, so the camera retracts if it the phone falls down. One thing we have noticed is that the front facing camera attracts a lot of dust and lint just by being inside your pocket. The earpiece is also part of the top bezel, which also houses one of the stereo speakers.
Display
The display on the OnePlus 7 Pro is our favorite display on any of the phones out right now. The display is AMOLED with very high refresh rate of 90 Hz and 100000:1 contrast ratio. The display is a 6.67 inch 3120 by 1440 px (QHD+ with 516 PPI) and OnePlus calls it fluid display due to the high refresh rate. The benefit of 90 Hz display is that the content and text is a lot smoother when it is in motion compared to the 60 Hz display. For example, when scrolling through text, you will notice that text is easier to read while scrolling on a 90 Hz display compared to 60 Hz. The OnePlus 7 Pro does allow you to change the display setting between 90 Hz and 60 Hz, so if you are battery conscious then you can use 60 Hz display mode. The viewing angles of the display are really good as the picture stays nice and crisp from every angle you look at it. The auto brightness setting could be improved as it doesn’t get fully bright in direct sunlight and manual adjustment was required once in a while, which can be easily fixed with a software update. The display does have curved sides, which gives the OnePlus 7 Pro slimmer and edge-to-edge profile.
Performance
The OnePlus 7 Pro is a fastest phone we have used as the phone handles everything you throw at it without any problems. The phone comes with Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 processor featuring 7mm technology that is 45% faster compared to previous generation. The OnePlus 7 Pro also has an option for 12GB ram to boost performance but 6 GB and 8 GB also offer adequate performance without any issues. The phone has 256 GB of storage with UFS 3.0 technology for quick transfer of files. OnePlus has also built liquid cooling technology to prevent overheating during high intensity activities including charging while playing games.
The stereo speakers sound excellent. There are couple of places where they made sacrifices, including the fact that there is no wireless charging and also there is no waterproof or dust resistant certifications. The fingerprint sensor is placed perfectly, so you don’t have to work hard to reach the sensor when unlocking the device. There is no always on display but the fingerprint sensor location is displayed when your lift the device. The fingerprint sensor works very quickly without any wait time.
Camera
The OnePlus 7 Pro gets a tripple camera setup on the back with single wide angle, ultra wide angle, and a telephoto lens. The camera has 48MP sensor with f/1.6 large aperture, Dual optical image stabilization and 3x optical zoom. The viewfinder in the camera app allows you to quickly zoom in and out using ultra-wide angle camera. There is also a portrait mode and landscape mode. The landscape mode takes a long exposure but we found it to be not as good as Google or Samsung’s long exposure mode. The camera does allow you to shoot in 4K with 60 frames per second. There also a pro mode to allow you to customize the settings to your liking. The pictures come out great in almost all conditions but the ultrawide angle lens offers lower quality compared to the other two lenses, so the ultrawide angle shots suffer from loss of image quality. The other area that OnePlus 7 Pro lags behind the competition is the low light category as the shots do not come out with equal clarity and brightness as the competition, especially compared to the nightsight feature from Google.
Battery
The OnePlus 7 Pro does have 4000 mAh battery which results in a very good battery life with almost a full day of use and 5 hours of screen on time. A longer battery life can be achieved by switching to the 60 Hz refresh rate but we prefer the 90 Hz refresh rate as it lasts the entire day quite comfortably. The phone also has a 30 watt Warp Charge, which charges the phone really fast (about 50% in 20min). OnePlus also claims to have build heat management liquid cooling technology, which allows the phone to stay cool while charging, allowing you to use the phone as it is being charged.
Software
Out of the box you get Android 9.5 with Oxygen OS and you can expect to receive updates very quickly. With Oxygen OS, you get other tweaks with dedicated dark mode, screen recorder, gesture control, and google assistant activation using power button. There are other gestures for quick toggles including a “V” for flashlight and “O” for camera.
Technical Specifications
| Features | OnePlus 7 Pro |
|---|---|
| Screen Size | 6.67" AMOLED |
| Resolution | 1440 x 3120 px (516 ppi) |
| CPU | Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 (7 nm) |
| GPU | Adreno 640 |
| Memory | 256 GB (8/12 GB RAM) or 128 GB (6 GB RAM) |
| Storage Option | No |
| Battery | Non-removable Li-Po 4000 mAh battery |
| Rear Camera | 48 MP (f/1.6, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS) 16 MP, f/2.2 (ultrawide) 8 MP, f/2.4 (telephoto), 3x zoom, PDAF, OIS |
| Video Recording | 2160p@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@480fps |
| Front Camera | 16 MP (f/2.0) Motorized pop-up |
| Dimentions | 162.6 x 75.9 x 8.8 mm |
| Weight | 206 g |
| Security | Fingerprint (under display) |
| Wireless Charging | No |
| Waterproof | No |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible |
| Software | Android 9.0 (Pie); OxygenOS 9.5.7 |
| Cost | $670 (USD) |
In the Box
- OnePlus 7 Pro
- Warp Charge 30 Power Adapter
- Warp Type-C Cable (Support USB 2.0)
- Quick Start Guide
- LOGO Sticker
- Case
- Screen Protector (pre-applied)
- SIM Tray Ejector
Final Thoughts
At the price points of $670, we can definitely recommend buying the OnePlus 7 Pro. The phone has the best display, best performance, and great looking front display. The OnePlus 7 Pro has some short comings with no wireless charging and lack of IP water/dust proof rating. The camera is good but it still lags behind the competition when it comes to ultrawide and low light performance. Overall, it is a great smartphone as long as you can live without some of the features being offered in other flagship smartphones.
I am officially a tech addict and enjoy providing my views on matters related to this industry. I am always interested in trying out new tech gadgets and I have owned multiple smartphones including the legendary HTC One, SGS2, Nexus 4, iPhone 4, 5S, 6S, XR, Note 9. You can ask me any tech related questions in the comment section or on twitter @hookedNav