OnePlus 7 Pro review: Great performance, excellent display quality; camera is the weak link

OnePlus 7 Pro
Price: Rs 48,999 (6/128GB); Rs 52,999 (8/256GB); Rs 57,999 (12/256GB)
Rating: ****1/2

Specifications: 6.67-inch Fluid Amoled display (90Hz, 19.5:9, HDR10+), 3120 x 1440 pixels (516ppi), Snapdragon 855, 6/8/12GB RAM, 128/256GB UFS 3.0 storage, triple rear camera (48MP f1.6 OIS + 16MP f2.2 ultrawide + 8MP f2.4 telephoto OIS), 16MP f2.0 motorised pop-up front camera, stereo speakers, optical in-display fingerprint, WiFiac, BT5.0, 4,000mAh battery (30W Warp Charge), 206 grams


Pros: The best display on a smartphone (90Hz, 2K amoled), superlative performance, superfast 30W Warp charging, stereo speakers, fast fingerprint scanning

Cons: No 3.5mm, no wireless charging, no official IP rating (but it does have liquid seals)


‘India is a specs-crazy nation’ exclaimed a fellow tech enthusiast. We were talking about smartphones in general. And it’s true: pixels, RAM and gigahertz are spoken about just as easily as cricket, politics and Bollywood. OnePlus knew this right from the start. Their first ever phone — OnePlus One — was being sold in sizeable numbers in India even before they officially launched. India is now their largest market while the OnePlus 7 series is the company’s tenth phone (counting the short-lived OnePlus X).

The two flagship strategy is new for the company: they’ve launched the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro at the same time. We think they’re evolving from the upstart that sold top-spec devices at low prices to a mighty challenger that’s likely to woo customers from the Apple, Samsung and Google camps. Our review is based on the 7 Pro.

It’s a very attractive phone too. The curved screen and back sit well in the hand. It’s heavier but feels sturdy. Sure, it has the pop-up front camera and we’ve seen this before on phones from Oppo and Vivo. But the bezels are just so tiny on this phone. Even the chin below the display has been shrunk down, giving you a massive expanse of screen. And what a screen it is! The screen has to be the biggest talking point here. OnePlus calls it Fluid Amoled and it is the best display we’ve seen on a smartphone. It’s high resolution, has support for HDR10+ (HDR videos on Netflix and YouTube are an absolute treat) and covers the DCI-P3 colour gamut. But it’s the 90Hz refresh rate that has to be seen to be believed (you can’t see the difference in a video since the screen you’re watching it on is 60Hz).


We also think Oxygen OS is the smoothest, fastest, most intuitive and best implementation of Android (we even prefer it to Google’s stock Android on Pixel phones). There are four main things that contribute to this blazing fast feel: the latest Snapdragon 855 processor, UFS 3.0 rated internal storage (it’s more than twice as fast as storage on other flagships), the 90Hz display and the Oxygen OS enhancements. Apart from being heavily optimised for speed and customisation, Oxygen now includes several extras like Zen Mode (helps you do a digital detox for 20 minutes), built in screen recorder, Wind Down (helps reduce usage at night) and a customisable Game Mode. Some India-specific features (developed by the India R&D) like Work-Life

Balance, Caller ID, Smart SMS and OnePlus Roaming are coming soon.


We tested the top-end version with 12GB DDR4X RAM. A common refrain is — what the heck is any phone going to do with 12GB RAM? Phones with 4GB RAM perform just fine too (and that bit is true). But with the extra RAM you have, this phone does something called RAM Boost — it uses free RAM (which is much faster than internal storage) to launch apps. So the more free RAM you have, the faster it will launch and switch between heavy games and apps.

Since this is the first Snapdragon 855 phone in India, the first phone globally with UFS 3.0 storage and the first 2K 90Hz screen in India, specs nerds have a lot to cheer about. Performance is excellent and the numbers are off the charts. It also has liquid cooling to keep performance stable during longer gaming sessions. This makes it one of the best phones for gaming too.


The camera is currently the weak link. We say currently because it seems like a work in progress at this point. There have been two camera updates in our time with the phone and more are likely soon. Not that it’s a bad camera, just a bit short of expectations. It does well with high dynamic range, macro photography, wide angle and night shots. But the overall sharpness and noise levels of photos captured with the primary 48MP camera falls short when comparing it with phones like the Google Pixel 3a. No complaints with video, because it can shoot stable HDR videos with OIS + EIS at 4K resolution. The front camera is excellent too and it also records 1080p video.


We were expecting amazing battery life too but the 2K 90Hz display is a big power drain. You can expect about 5.5 to 6 hours of screen on time which is lower than expected from a 4,000mAh battery. You could switch to 60Hz and and a lower resolution but what’s the point of that? Thankfully, you have one of the fastest charging phones on the planet with the 30W Warp Charge. They also sell a 12V 30W Warp charger for the car. Plus we should mention that there is no IP certification. That being said, this has all the internal + external water seals that other phones with IP ratings have.

Overall, there’s a lot to like. If you want a device for performance, best interface, gaming, display quality and content consumption, the OnePlus 7 Pro is an easy reccomendation. If they could tack on the camera of the Pixel 3 and the battery life of the Huawei P30 Pro, this would be the perfect Android phone by a long shot.