After some extended hands-on time with the flagship killer, it’s now time for our OnePlus 7 Pro review. How has the Pro model faired? Find out now.
We’ve had a substantial amount of time now with the OnePlus 7 Pro to formulate a review and gather our thoughts on the flagship killer-come-flagship.
Arguably the step-up in cost will no doubt put off many original followers of the OnePlus line. That said, the bump in overall quality is worth a slight jump in price.
You’re getting the most feature-packed OnePlus phone to date. Admittedly there are removals like the headphone port and physical fingerprint reader, but the addition of the best OnePlus camera system to date is a substantial compromise.
Compromise is one thing you will have to make if you are a OnePlus fan looking for an upgrade. Unfortunately, in the United States, you won’t be able to get the slightly cheaper standard OnePlus 7 model — complete with its 6T shell but upgraded internals.
Let’s reiterate what every news outlet has been saying: The OnePlus 7 Pro is a true out-and-out flagship that steps out of the budget flagship market and into the emergent ‘hyper-premium’ market. Does the jump in cost justify the higher price-tag though?
This is our review of the OnePlus 7 Pro.
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Just a quick rundown, as by this point, you will know all the core specifications of the 7 Pro. We’ve got the Snapdragon 855 chipset, 6,8 or 12GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of internal storage — in the UFS 3.0 flavor — as the base. There’s a pretty sizeable 4,000mAh battery that is necessary as it powers possibly the best-looking display in the business right now.
The proper edge-to-edge nature of the QHD+ display and the 90hz refresh rate has genuinely had people turning heads when I show them the phone and let them glide through menus and apps. The lack of notch is almost more striking than the admittedly gorgeous Nebula Blue color.
I love the color shift from a lighter blue to a deeper, darker purple. Holding the smooth curved back in different lighting conditions and different angles showcases the almost matte finish. As much as I love the color, the limited Almond option might be my favorite of the three colors.
It feels smooth in the hand thanks to the soft-touch glass that carries over from the OnePlus 6T. I can’t say it feels quite as nice as the frosted glass on the back of the Pixel 3 and 3 XL, but it’s smooth and comfortable to hold. Part of that is due to curved edges.
Side bezels are small but when not wearing a case on the phone I find the edges can hinder a proper grip at times. With such a big display and body, the OnePlus 7 Pro is most definitely not for the faint of heart. It is a beast, quite easily dwarfing many other devices.
The pop-up camera within the top bezel does have a slightly different color but the seams are clean, flush and not having the screen blemished by a cutout or notch is a welcome change. Not being much of a selfie-taker, I can’t say I wouldn’t be too disappointed to see the front-facing camera removed entirely.
I was concerned about the pop-up camera full stop. Another mechanical component to potentially fail is always bound to be a point of contention. I can honestly say that it’s quite an elegant solution. It pops up in no time at 0.53 seconds and it doesn’t protrude quite as much as you would imagine.
The process is so quick that should you use the face unlock method to secure your phone, it pops up and down in around a second. It’s worth noting that the tiny camera doesn’t come with any sort of 3D face-scanning tech though, so it isn’t the most secure.
Other biometric unlock methods come in the form of the in-display fingerprint reader, which has a minor overhaul over the quite poor optical option from last years OnePlus 6T. It’s much faster — arguably the fastest in-screen options I’ve tried — but we’re still not quite at the physical reader speed stage just yet. The in-display reader is still much faster than the pop-up face unlocks.
OnePlus may not boast an official IP-rating on the 7 Pro, but we’re led to believe that even with a sealed pop-up camera, the phone is waterproof. It isn’t something that bothers me personally too much. I can definitely see why people would be disappointed that we have the most expensive OnePlus phone ever made without any form of ‘official’ water protection (or wireless charging) though.
