OnePlus 7 Pro Review – The Incredible Display Justifies Flagship Stance

The 7 Pro is the most ambitious phone from the Chinese manufacturer OnePlus that started its journey by providing low-cost alternatives to mainstream flagships. With the 7 Pro, OnePlus expands beyond cost constraints and puts its best foot forward.

The handset has really powerful specs, a very exciting display, and integrates a versatile triple camera. So, is the OnePlus ready for the big league? Is the new OnePlus flagship phone once again the best option for its price? Let’s answer all such questions in our detailed review!

OnePlus 7 Pro Price in India and Specifications

Design, Build and Display

Undoubtedly the first thing you will notice is that slick display. This year OnePlus employs a 2K resolution panel with a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother transitions. The great quality AMOLED panel has curved side edges and is notch-free. That has been possible because OnePlus houses the front camera within a pop-up module that has been tested for 300,000 elevations. The pop-up camera takes about half a second to elevate and automatically retracts itself when it detects a free fall.

The display is well calibrated and makes all the difference. In fact, the screen is what primarily makes OnePlus 7 Pro look amazing.

Other than that, the handset has a glass-metal sandwich design and the Nebula Blue variant that we have with us has been polished for a silky marble feel. The Glass used is Gorilla Glass 5, which is a downgrade from Gorilla Glass 6 used on 6T. The 7 Pro is not water resistant certified, but OnePlus has already given ample assurance that the phone can withstand submersion and splashes. So, you are well covered here.

The back glass is curved towards the edges, facilitating a more comfortable grip, but there is only so much comfort you may expect from a 206 grams phone. Yes, the OnePlus 7 Pro is really hefty and BIG, but we surprisingly got used to its dimensions and weight within a week. If you have a penchant for small sized phones, the 7 Pro might not be the right choice for you. 

Overall, this is not only one of the best-looking smartphones available in the market but also offers the best in-hand feel.

Performance and Software

As always, performance is the strong suit of the new OnePlus phone. It’s powered by Snapdragon 855 octa-core chipset backed by some generous RAM options and Ram Boost software feature to make good use of extra memory. OnePlus also delivers the next generation UFS 3.0 storage that should lend OnePlus an edge over other emerging and competitively priced Snapdragon 855 phones.

Anyway, the performance is super fast. All heavy duty games are playable at maximum settings. The under-display fingerprint sensor and Face Unlock works extremely fast too.

The software is the neat and clean Oxygen OS based on latest Android Pie. OnePlus has been good with updates, and you can at least expect the phone to be upgraded to Android Q by the end of this year. New software additions include a Zen Mode that will cut you off from everything except incoming calls and camera, a screen recorder, and several India-centric features like Cricket score updates, Smart SMS, Call Identification, etc. are on their way. 

Camera

The OnePlus 7 Pro has three cameras on the rear and one 16MP pop-up selfie camera up front. On the rear, the primary sensor is Sony IMX586 and it outputs 12MP shots. These images are crisp in outdoor lighting, but colors and exposures are off at times.

Images shot in low light are decent but not great. The Nightscape mode, however, works remarkably well. The portrait mode uses a zoomed crop, and you will have to place the subject farther away than you usually need too. The quality of portrait shots is mostly average.

The 3X Zoom is a feature that comes handy at times, but the quality can’t match what you’d get from the main sensor. The wide-angle camera is again occasionally useful, but wide-angle shots aren’t as crisp.

Overall, people who aren’t fastidious about images they shoot would enjoy the photography on OnePlus 7 Pro, but if you scrutinize clicked images, you’d find that the OnePlus still falls behind tier-1 flagships in this regard.

Battery and Audio

The OnePlus 7 Pro houses a 4000mAh battery with 30W Warp charging. If you use the display at maximum 2K resolution and keep the refresh rate 90Hz, the battery drains faster, but the mileage is still better than what we get from other similarly priced flagships.

And if you feel like charging your phone mid-day, the Warp charging can quickly top up lost juice. Overall, the battery backup is great, and it’s amazing when you switch to auto resolution and lower refresh rate.

Audio output on OnePlus 7 Pro is impressive too. There are stereo speakers tuned by Dolby and they sound good. Unfortunately, OnePlus doesn’t bundle a 3.5mm audio jack to Type-C dongle in the box. The audio via wireless headphones and via Type-C headphones is awesome.

Verdict

The OnePlus 7 Pro is a power packed phone. All the high-end specs are convincing in themselves, but the practical usage experience is even better. Of course, it’s not perfect but it is surely good enough to be perfect for most people.

It has a gorgeous display, is excellent for gaming, has an assuring battery mileage, outputs rich audio, and has a very affable software. On the downside, it’s a tad too big and bulky and the camera performance still isn’t the best in the market. If you can live with these cons and are willing to shell out the premium, we’d recommend the OnePlus 7 Pro as a great buy.