I’ve been a believer and die-hard fanboy of the OnePlus mission ever since they launched the OnePlus One back in 2014. They changed how people look and think about high-end smartphones when they started packing flagship level specs inside extremely affordable phones; the flagship market which was once controlled only by the main players saw a new player that made a very strong entry. Over the years, OnePlus has come a very long way with some jaw-dropping phones, all whilst learning from customers, growing from their mistakes and delivering a better experience with every new phone.
Jump to May of 2019, when they announced the OnePlus 7 Pro which was definitely intended to make heads turn, some quirky OnePlus touches along with a groundbreaking display – this phone was a delight to play with!
What you see on the outside
I’ll just dive right in and say that I’m a huge fan of the new color variants that OnePlus released with the OnePlus 7 Pro; we have the Almond which is sort of a take on a gold color, the Mirror Grey which is this smokey grey and the Nebula Blue variant, a two tone blue gradient color which is a definite showstopper! OnePlus went with a curved glass display which was very much needed since you had the other players in the market doing the same. The curved glass made the phone easier to hold in addition to giving a very polished and sleek physical look to the phone. Since we’re talking about the physical appearance of the phone, it has the usual setup of buttons – the volume rockers on the left side, the main power button on the right and just above it the very handy alert slider.
Just going to take a step back and explain how handy this alert slider is, being able to just switch your phone profiles from silent or vibrate or loud with just a flick of a slider is just a blessing in disguise, plus you also get to change a few minor settings on the sound profiles under each option. I’ve also seen Pete Lau, Founder and CEO of OnePlus, potentially entertain the idea of changing the order of options on the alert slider over on Twitter which would be really cool. I’m just going to deviate from the actual phone for a bit and talk about the company’s policy on being a social listener which goes a very long way when it comes to developing products. They’re very active on the OnePlus forum, they listen, troubleshoot and deliver requests in software and actual product updates. While this might not mean extremely positive numbers but goes a long way in building a loyal fanbase.
That gorgerous screen tho
Getting back to the phone, specifically to the 4000mAH battery which is a beast; even though that might be a huge battery you’d probably get a little under 6 hours of screen on time with it. I know it might not be a big enough number but the 30W (Warp Charge) does a brilliant job in juicing the phone. You’ll reach a 50% in a little over 20 mins and hit a 100% in little under 80 mins, this was with my WiFi and Bluetooth on and I was at 8% battery so there’s definitely room for these numbers to be even less if you go aggressive and switch to Airplane mode while charging.
Now, you’re probably wondering how does a 4000mAH phone just give 6 hours of screen on time? Well, it’s because of this beautiful 90Hz display! It’s definitely not noticeable on first glance but once you start diving into the phone and exploring settings, different apps – everything just changes. Everything feels 10 times more smooth and fast, which could probably be the 855 Snapdragon chipset with the octa core processor but the 90Hz refresh rate definitely has a hand in this.
What’s so different about this refresh rate? Most phones out there have a 60 Hz refresh rate, where the screen and pixels refresh around 60-times per second. On the OnePlus 7 Pro, we get a big 6.67-inch screen with a 90 Hz refresh rate. This basically means that the screen refreshes 1/3 more than almost any phone you’ve ever owned or used, making it look fast, crazy responsive, and super fun to use. This new refresh rate is something that won’t go unnoticed, and a feature that all other future phones will want to have. Oh before I move forward, did I mention how much I love the display on the OP7 Pro? It’s just magnificent! No notch, no bezels, a 94% screen to body ratio all topped with that 90Hz refresh rate make the OP7 Pro brilliant to use.
Hello triple threat setup
Time to talk pictures and boy has OnePlus taken it up a notch with their cameras, I think one of the main flaws in all the previous OnePlus phones were the cameras – they could just not compete with the other players but I think the OP7 Pro might just change that notion. The triple camera setup finally makes its way to the OP7Pro, you have the wide angle lens, the 3x zoom lens (which you can stretch upto 10x through software) and the ultra wide lens which finally made its debut to the OnePlus family. Pictures are crispy and packed with a lot of details, nightscape works 8/10 times and does a decent job when the conditions are right. Something that was really nice is that the camera detects what you’re trying to capture and suggests options accordingly, like when I was trying to fit a lot inside a frame it recommended that I use the “Wide-Landscape” mode or when the subject was too dark it suggested the “Nightscape” mode.
Now I know you’re probably waiting for this one, so moving up front we have the motorized pop up selfie camera. I’m not a fan of moving or mechanical parts on a smartphone cause it just makes the device very fragile and difficult to maintain since it involves moving parts but I think the OnePlus is going to make me change my opinion about it. The motorized component feels rigid and firm, it has this great feature where if it detects free fall it just slides back in and the standard transparent cases that comes with the OP7Pro perfectly houses it without exposing any space for dirt or dust to slide in.
The 16MP camera does a good job with the selfies, packs in just enough light with a 2.0 aperture and has 3 levels of beauty mode if you want that smoooth glowing skin. OnePlus has kept its core software minimal and this also reflects on the camera app, you get to choose from a handful of essential options to shoot from; not too much to be overwhelmed and not too less to feel like you’re missing out on something.
All we need is some Oxygen to survive
Talking about minimalism, let’s dive inside the phone and see how does OxygenOS hold up. OxygenOS has been OnePlus’ take on a vanilla android approach with no gimmicky features or animations, a very clean looking UI and all the bare necessities you’d want from a phone. It does justice to Android by keeping everything clean and tidy with a few nice additions.
Zen mode is a new entry to the OnePlus feature list, this allows you to completely disconnect yourself from the phone for 20 mins. I stress on this completely because during these 20 mins you have no way to disable Zen Mode (it even sticks through a reboot), you only get a handful of options like making emergency phone calls and taking videos or photos; so if you’re one of those people who maxes out their battery twice a day you definitely need a bit of Zen mode in your life.
Since there’s no physical fingerprint sensor, we see a re-entry of the in-display fingerprint sensor which is definitely much faster than my OnePlus 6T. You also have the additional option of face unlock with the pop up camera but this improved in-display sensor beats the face unlock on any given day.
There’s another new entry in terms of feature which is the system screen recorder which you probably wouldn’t use everyday but it’s a nice to know that it’s there whenever you’d need it. You’ve got the usual OnePlus goodies like gaming mode which lets you tweak design and performance settings for a better experience, parallel apps that let you run two iterations of the same app and quick launch that acts as a hotspot for actions or app launches from the fingerprint sensor.
A few things that didn’t really work well with me is a single grill for the speaker, while the OnePlus 6T rocked a dual speaker grill on the bottom of the phone the OP7 Pro replaces the left grill for the sim card slot. The ambient display doesn’t work all the time, it had problems in detecting the amount of light coming in and wouldn’t adjust the display accordingly.
To sum it up
As I’ve said before, OnePlus has come a long way as a brand and as a company and I can only see even greater things coming out from these Chinese wizards. The OnePlus 7 Pro is a true testament of what the brand is capable of for the fraction of its competitors’ price. I can safely say that the OnePlus 7 Pro will be a definite upgrade than your current phone in at least one way or another, be it the 90Hz display, the smooth and crispy OS or even the revised camera – this one’s going to make your current phone feel a bit embarrassed. New color variants, triple cam setup, an improved in-display fingerprint sensor and that beautiful 90Hz display screams best phone of 2019! I don’t know about you but once my OnePlus 6T gives up on me, I’m running for the OnePlus 7 Pro and so should you! 😉
Official pricing for the UAE:
6+128GB: 2849 AED/SAR
8+256GB: 2999 AED/SAR
12+256GB: 3249 AED/SAR
