No new flagship smartphones come as much of a surprise when they’re announced these days, because most of the key details surrounded them leak long before any official announcements are made. That is especially true of the OnePlus 7 Pro, which was finally unveiled on Tuesday morning.
No new flagship smartphones come as much of a surprise when they’re announced these days, because most of the key details surrounded them leak long before any official announcements are made. That is especially true of the OnePlus 7 Pro, which was finally unveiled on Tuesday morning. From official press renders and key specs to pricing and release timing, just about everything you could possibly want to know about the OnePlus 7 Pro was leaked long before today’s big press conference, leaving nothing at all to surprise us on Tuesday. Of course just because there were no surprises doesn’t make OnePlus’ new flagship smartphone any less impressive.
In a nutshell, the OnePlus 7 Pro is the fast, sleekest, and most powerful Android smartphone in the world right now. It’s one of three new handsets OnePlus unveiled on Tuesday morning, but it’s the only one that will be made available in the United States. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks testing the new OnePlus 7 Pro, and I’ve been thoroughly impressed so far. Rather than pen a traditional review, however, I decided to focus on how it stacks up against its biggest competition and the only smartphone in the world that can outpace it in speed and performance tests. So in this post, you’ll find 10 exciting features of the brand new OnePlus 7 Pro that are nowhere to be found on the iPhone XS Max or any other iPhone model out there.
Image Source: Zach Epstein, BGR
Remember when Apple first announced the iPhone X in 2017 and its tagline was “it’s all screen”? Yeah, it wasn’t. And it still isn’t.
With a screen-to-body ratio of 82.9%, the iPhone X was nowhere close to being “all screen.” In fact, it didn’t even have the best screen-to-body ratio among smartphones that were available back in 2017. The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max from last year have the same design as their predecessor, so they’re also nowhere close to being “all screen.”
The OnePlus 7 Pro, on the other hand, is the closest any phone in the US has come to having a truly all-screen design.
OnePlus’ new flagship smartphone has a curved screen similar to the one on the Galaxy S10, but the bezels on either side of the display are even slimmer than the ones on Samsung’s flagship. The bezels above and below the display are also significantly thinner than they are on the Galaxy S10. There’s also no notch of any kind, and there’s aren’t even any holes for camera lenses in the screen like there are in Samsung’s latest flagships. The result is a phone with the best all-screen design we’ve seen so far.
But wait… if there’s no notch and no holes cut out for a front-facing camera, where is it?
Image Source: Zach Epstein, BGR
There are a few smartphones available in China that have motorized selfie camera mechanisms, but the OnePlus 7 Pro will be the first phone with this type of design to be released in the US.
Most of the time, the front-facing camera on the OnePlus 7 Pro is located inside the phone near the top edge. Whenever it’s needed, it automatically raises out of the device in what OnePlus calls an “elevator mechanism.” The camera then lowers itself again once the user is done with it.
Apart from taking selfies, the camera has a second core function: it’s needed for the OnePlus 7 Pro’s face unlock feature. The camera only takes a fraction of a second to raise or to lower, so face unlock is still reasonably quick on the phone. Previous-generation OnePlus phones had the fastest face unlock I’ve ever tested though, so it’s a bit annoying that performance takes a noticeable hit because of the pop-up camera design.
Image Source: Zach Epstein, BGR
There is an obvious downside to the pop-up selfie camera design, and it’s entirely unavoidable. A mechanism like this will always be more prone to breaking than a static camera mounted above around the screen like most phones, or inside it like the Galaxy S10. OnePlus says it tested the OnePlus 7 Pro’s elevator mechanism has been tested to work more than 300,000 times, which means it should continue to function without issue for five years if it’s used 150 times a day every day.
