OnePlus has, this time, brought two phones instead of one – the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, and they have named it as the OnePlus 7 Series. The OnePlus 7 Pro is the top-of-the-line flagship device from the company and it has all it takes to be a flagship killer, but do you think it’s worth the price? Here’s what we have to say in our OnePlus 7 Pro review.
What’s In The Box
- OnePlus 7 Pro with built-in battery
- USB Cable (Type-C)
- 30W Warp Charger (5V, 6A)
- Flexible Silicon Case
- SIM Tray Ejector Pin
- User Manuals and Warranty Card
OnePlus 7 Pro Unboxing On IGTV – Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/tv/BxjxsPolxcO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Design, Build, & Ergonomics
For the first time, OnePlus has bought not one, but two phones and the OnePlus 7 Pro is the among the highest model with all the necessary features for a flagship device. The OnePlus 7 is already a premium device, however, the OnePlus 7 Pro has been an ultra-premium smartphone aimed at the high-end users.
Speaking of the design of the phone, you can see the glass body with a full-screen notchless design, the OnePlus 7 Pro feels very solid and well build. The display comes out completely without Notch or Punch hole for its front camera and fills almost the entire front of the smartphone.
For the front camera, the company has put a motorized unit that pops-up from the inside and opens the selfie camera. The fingerprint scanner is under the display similar to the predecessor OnePlus 6T. The back has tri-camera setup with dual-tone LED flash.
In contrast to the OnePlus 7, the 7 Pro comes in a completely newly developed chassis. The screen has curves on the sides, and the bezels look extremely minimal. The back has a nice matte finish gradient pattern, we got the Nebula Blue color.
Take a look at the OnePlus 7 Pro alongside the OnePlus 6T and the OnePlus 6T Mclaren Edition, you will see the design aesthetics changes. The back offers a matte finish glass instead of the glossy ones you see on the previous phones.
Similar to the OnePlus 6T, the OnePlus 7 Pro doesn’t come with the 3.5mm jack, you do get a USB Type-C port for audio output and stereo loudspeakers as well. You don’t get a microSD card slot, so you have to rely on the internal memory altogether.
Display
The OnePlus 7 Pro has a 90Hz 2K display which eventually takes on the battery. The display is a 6.67-inch fluid AMOLED and not with FullHD+ resolution as we saw on the previous OnePlus phones, rather it offers a more competitive QuadHD+ panel (3120 x 1440 pixels | 516 ppi pixel density) with a 90Hz refresh rate and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9.
Unlike the phones with regular 60Hz refresh rate, the OnePlus 7 Pro offers a better rate which smoothes the overall viewing experience. This is the best screen as far as we know that allows very fluid movements, the touch is super smooth, the scrolling, the movements, everything on the screen appears extremely fast.
The screen has no Notch or Punch holes, the selfie camera directly relies on the pop-up interface. The display is further protected with a 3D Corning Gorilla Glass and offers curves on the bezels similar to the Samsung Galaxy S10+.
Thanks to the OLED panel, the OnPlus 7 Pro can show you glance at the notifications on the Ambient display. You can customize the Ambient display options from the Display settings.
Under the Display settings, you have multiple options like changing the screen refresh rate, screen resolution, screen calibration, Themes, Night mode, and more.
Software & User Interface
Software side the OnePlus 7 Pro runs on the latest OxygenOS version 9.5 which is based on the current stable Android build i.e. 9 Pie. Being a stock based interface, the OnePlus 7 Pro doesn’t come with pre-loaded apps or bloatware. Apart from a few proprietary apps, there is only the Netflix app that comes as a pre-installed application and it can’t be uninstalled, but disabled.
A new integration in the OxygenOS is the Zen Mode that locks or disables your smartphone for 20 minutes so that you can enjoy life while being away from the phone. Once you enable this feature, a timer will be displayed on the phone with no other notifications coming or access to the apps.
Do note that the Zen Mode cannot be canceled once it’s started, you cannot access to the homescreen, apps, or see messages, notifications. Even you try to turn it off by rebooting the phone, it will still be under Zen Mode until the timer runs out.
You can add the gesture navigation on the phone under the System settings, the Android 9 Pie supports native gesture navigation while you also have the option to use the OnePlus navigation gestures. Other features in the software include the gaming mode which has been improved. The screen recorder can record videos at a 90Hz refresh rate.
Hardware, Performance, & Gaming
OnePlus smartphones are known for the performance, the OnePlus 7 Pro relies on the fastest Qualcomm chip available in the market, the Snapdragon 855 is a 7nm octa-core SoC clocked up to 2.8 GHz with Kryo 485 cores.
Furthermore, the OnePlus 7 Pro comes in three variants, one with 6 GB LPDDR4X RAM & 128 GB storage, another of 8 GB LPDDR4X RAM & 256 GB storage, and the top variant with the highest 12 GB LPDDR4X RAM & 256 GB storage.
Also on the storage department, it uses a UFS 3.0 internal storage which is currently the fastest mobile storage type as of now. The phone doesn’t offer external microSD card option, so all you have left is the internal storage.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is the successor to the Snapdragon 845 found on the OnePlus 6T and it takes on the likes of Samsung’s Exynos 9820 Octa and the HUAWEI’s Kirin 980. As far as the performance is concerned, the Snapdragon 855 tops out in the benchmarks as you can see.
AnTuTu scored points, Geekbench 4 scored 3,501 points (single CPU), 10,763 points (multi CPU), and 7,578 points in GPU benchmark. Storage benchmarks indicate the OnePlus 7 Pro has as much as 1,445.85 MB/s sequential read speed and 387.46 MB/s sequential write speed, take a look at the screenshots below to see the benchmarks we recorded.
Gaming would definitely be one of the most exciting aspects on the phone, the powerful Adreno 640 coupled with the 90Hz QuadHD display amps up your gaming experience. Although to achieve 90Hz in the games, they should support the same. We played games like PUBG MOBILE, Asphalt 9: Legends, and SkyForce Reload on full graphics settings and without any lags.
Games Played On OnePlus 7 Pro
- PUBG MOBILE
- Asphalt 9: Legends
- SkyForce Reload
Cameras
With the OnePlus 7 series, everything is new for the cameras, there are triple cameras onboard and a selfie camera that pops out from the inside. The rear side offers tri-camera setup with 48 MP f/1.6 Sony IMX586, being the main camera, 8 MP f/2.4 telephoto camera and a 16 MP camera for ultra-wide angle lens with 117-degree FOV.
The selfie camera is of 16 MP using the Sony IMX471 sensor. The pop-up selfie camera is tested to withstand over 300,000 movements which suggest it will last for more than 5 years of heavy use. Another major aspect of the pop-up camera is it retracts automatically when on fall detection.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxma8L8Ft8l/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The camera supports dual OIS, laser focus, 4K video shooting at 60 FPS, super slow motion 480 FPS and other camera modes including AI scenes, Portrait mode, UltraShot, Nightscape 2.0, Pro Mode, Studio Lighting, and RAW Image capturing. No, you won’t find AR stickers like the ones you see on the Samsung and Vivo phones.
The 48 MP main camera shoots in 12 MP image by default, the 48 MP can also be fully exploited in Pro mode. The overall image under normal lighting conditions captures very detailed pictures. The low-light shots are good, however, may be outperformed by the top-of-the-line flagships. Nevertheless, the Night mode will help a bit for taking good pictures, especially in low light.
Here are some samples we shot on the OnePlus 7 Pro cameras.
OnePlus 7 Pro Camera Samples
Battery Runtime & Charging
Compared to the OnePlus 7, the OnePlus 7 Pro slightly offers a larger battery life, it is fueled by 4,000 mAh battery versus the 3,700 mAh on the OnePlus 7. The increase in power consumption may hit the battery due to its QuadHD+ display. This means the OnePlus 7 might have the edge when it comes to battery life.
In our battery life test, the battery runtimes are quite acceptable, the OnePlus 7 Pro can last about 2 days on average usage with ~5 hours of screen-on-time. You can achieve a good battery life if using it less obvious with less intensive tasks.
Talking about the charging speeds, the OnePlus has its new Warp Charge 30 which speeds up the charging. Within just ~70 minutes, the phone charges from 0 to 100 percent which merely faster than the predecessors. Even if you only charge for let’s say 20 minutes, you have recharged the battery more than 35% which should last about a few hours. We didn’t face any overheating during charging the phone.
The only area where the OnePlus 7 Pro lacks is the wireless charging. Aside from the competitors, the OnePlus 7 Pro should come with a wireless charging option.
OnePlus 7 Pro Battery Test Results
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Verdict
OnePlus 7 Pro has been the most impressive OnePlus smartphone we ever saw and this could be a true flagship killer. It undercuts the flagship competition with its fast Warp Charging, 90Hz QHD+ AMOLED display with HDR support, curved screen notchless design, motorized pop-up camera, and super fast performance.
Cameras are decent, however, phones like Pixel 3a may outperform the OnePlus 7 Pro. You do get high-spec triple cameras with 3X optical zoom and wide-angle lens as well as support for 4K@60fps video shooting. But those who are camera enthusiast may want to see better options in this range.
The OnePlus 7 Pro suffers from a few weakness like water-resistant design, wireless charging, no 3.5mm port and microSD expansion. Nevertheless, the OnePlus 7 Pro seems a deal breaker for the features it offers and is recommended to buy unless you want all those missing features that would make it as a true flagship killer.
Rivals
- Samsung Galaxy S10e (128 GB) – Rs 50,900
- OPPO Reno (128 GB) – Rs 39,999
Strength
- Premium Glass Design | Solid Build
- Curved Display | Notchless Screen | 3D Corning Gorilla Glass
- High Brightness | 90Hz Fluid AMOLED QuadHD+ | HDR Support
- Pop-up Selfie Camera | Retracts When Falls
- Triple Cameras | 3X Optical Zoom | Decent Camera Quality
- In-Display Fingerprint Scanner
- Stock Android Interface
- High-End Performance | 12 GB RAM | 256 GB UFS 3.0 Storage
- 30W Warp Charging
Weakness
- No 3.5mm Jack
- No MicroSD Card Support
- No Wireless Charging Support
- No IP Rating For Water-Resistant Design
