Chinese smartphone company OnePlus is increasingly becoming the one to beat.
The company made waves when it launched its original “flagship killer” phone back in 2014, full of high-end specs and a deliciously mid-range price, and only available to buy with an access code.
Five years on, OnePlus is gunning for the premium market with the new OnePlus 7 Pro. With a flashy new design and upgraded camera features, OnePlus is taking aim at Huawei and Samsung’s flagship models.
We spent just under two weeks with the new OnePlus phone and here’s what we thought.
OnePlus 7 Pro: Design
With the advent of folding phones, smartphone companies need to get creative when it comes to design or risk looking like last year’s model. OnePlus has pulled this off spectacularly with the new 7 Pro.
Gone is the notch, instead, the device has a pop-up selfie camera. This means the phone has a beautiful 6.67-inch all glass AMOLED screen, unaffected by any notches or pinholes. OnePlus has decided to slightly curve the screen too so it seamlessly fits with the glass back design of the phone, which not only looks good but also doesn’t end up cutting off content on apps like Instagram.
The prowess of the screen is a marvel too. It has a 90Hz refresh rate which means it is really fast – by comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ has a 60Hz screen refresh rate.
The screen also received a HDR10+ rating so you can officially watch HDR content from the likes of Netflix on the go and not compromise on the viewing experience.
The back of the phone is all glass and comes in three colours: Mirror Grey, Nebula Blue and Almond. I tried the Nebula Blue version, which has an anti-glare matte finish that means no grubby fingerprint marks, keeping the phone looking smart.
The screen and back are protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5, though OnePlus does throw in a handy see-through case in the box.
OnePlus 7 Pro: Camera
Starting with the pop-up selfie camera. OnePlus says it pops up in 0.53 seconds and has been tested over 300,000 times and it doesn’t slow down.
It is a 16-megapixel sensor and takes pretty nice portrait images. If you drop the phone with the selfie camera open, it automatically retracts in order to protect the lens which is handy.
It’s worth noting that the pop-up camera did get a bit annoying when it comes to facial unlock so I turned this off in favour of the in-screen fingerprint scanner.
On the back of the phone, OnePlus has gone for three camera lenses: a 48-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom and an ultra-wide angle lens. The company has also updated the camera software, to a new Ultra Shot algorithm.
This is the best camera OnePlus has created so far. Images look great, portrait mode has been improved so the bokeh effect isn’t so fuzzy, and the ultra-wide angle lens allows you to get more into the shots, just like on the Samsung Galaxy S10+.
One thing I didn’t like about the recent Huawei P30 Pro was that images often appear over-edited by the device’s camera software, whereas with OnePlus the pictures look warmer, and truer to real life than on Huawei.
OnePlus 7 Pro: Software
The OnePlus 7 Pro ships with Android Pie and OnePlus’s Oxygen OS skin on top. OnePlus is one of those companies that really pays attention to the design of its software from little things such as the way the clock screen is designed to the Airplane mode feature which displays a little airplane taking off in the settings pull-down.
Some new features have been added to Oxygen OS for the 7 Pro. Zen mode allows you to completely brick the device for 20 minutes in order to allow you to minimise interruptions and focus on the task at hand.
For gamers, there’s a new Fnatic mode thanks to a partnership between the two companies. This minimises interferences from other apps so you don’t get a WhatsApp message during a crucial Fortnite moment. As well, it concentrates all the phone’s power into that game to maximise the fun.
OnePlus’s Oxygen OS is a dream to use and no more so than on the 7 Pro.
OnePlus 7 Pro: Performance
This phone is fast, thanks to its whopping 12GB of RAM that ensures there is no lag with anything you do. Updates to Oxygen OS mean things like apps load nine times faster than on last year’s OnePlus 6T.
The only issue I’ve found when it comes to performance is the battery. I was getting down to around 20-25 per cent by about 9.30pm, which doesn’t seem enough for a phone with a 4,000mAH battery. On the Huawei P30 Pro, which has a marginally bigger battery at 4,200mAH, easily lasts two days on a full charge.
That being said, thanks to OnePlus’s Warp 30 charging technology, you can take the phone from 0 per cent to 50 per cent in only 20 minutes so if you need to quickly plug in for some juice, it won’t take long to get back up and running.
Thanks to the 10-layer liquid cooling system in the device you also shouldn’t need to worry about the phone overheating when it’s powering up so quickly.
OnePlus 7 Pro: Verdict
OnePlus’s CEO Pete Lau says this is the best phone the company has ever created and I’ll be inclined to agree with him. The 7 Pro packs in everything you want in a flagship: innovative design, smooth performance, great camera features and easy-to-use software.
If you’re looking for an Android flagship to buy this year, OnePlus is making that buying decision a whole lot easier.
OnePlus 7 Pro: Price and availability
The OnePlus 7 Pro is available to buy now from £649 from John Lewis stores and online, as well as the OnePlus website.
The only reason not to buy this phone is if you’re going to hold off for the 5G version of the phone. There are a few differences under the hood such as the 5G modem to connect to the new 5G networks and the liquid cooling system is twice as large in order to keep the modem ticking along at the right temperature.
The 7 Pro 5G is also a lot more expensive. At the moment, it’s only available to pre-order from the EE Store with prices starting from £50 upfront and £69 per month to get access to all those 5G super speeds.
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