OnePlus launched its 7th-gen smartphone — OnePlus 7 along with its Pro version a few weeks back. In an attempt to retain the mid-range flagship position, the company launched it at a price of Rs. 32,999. Bridging the gap between OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7 Pro, the device offers the best of both worlds, leaving out few. We got hold of the OnePlus 7 for few weeks and this is what we think about it.
Perfect display
OnePlus 7 sports a 6.41-inch FHD+ Optic AMOLED 19.5:9 aspect ratio display with a resolution of 2340 × 1080 pixels translating to a pixel density of about 402 PPI and with a water-drop notch. It has rounded corners with bare minimum bezels just to make more space for the display. It has about 85% screen-to-body ratio.
Talking about the display, the Blacks are deep, the colour reproduction and viewing angles are good, it has a perfectly readable display under bright sunlight too. The display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 to avoid scratches. Just like its predecessor, the OnePlus 7 gets the DCI-P3 colour profile, along with the standard sRGB, Adaptive mode, and a Custom colour profile.
It retains Reading Mode, which completely changes the display to black and white, which gives you an impression of reading an e-reader/paper when using it.
The OnePlus 7 retains the same design as the OnePlus 6T. It has an alert slider on the right and doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack. It still has daily water-resistance so that the phone can withstand splashes and accidental spills, but it doesn’t have IP ratings. This device measures 8.2mm in thickness and weighs around 182grams.
Camera
The OnePlus 7 sports a 48MP rear camera featuring Sony IMX586 sensor with f/1.6 aperture, OIS, EIS, a 5MP secondary camera with 1.12 µm pixel size, f/2.4 aperture and a 16MP front-facing camera with Sony IMX471 sensor, f/2.0 aperture.
The Camera UI is simple with toggles for the timer, aspect ratio, Flash on top and front or rear camera toggle, shutter button and image preview button on the bottom. You can just swipe left or right to switch between video, photo, portrait, and Night. Moreover, there are new bokeh effects, including hearts, circles and stars so that lights in the background of your portrait shots will change based on your selection.
Talking about the camera performance, the OnePlus 7 takes good photos under daylight condition with very good details, colour, and vibrancy. Moreover, the images taken in HDR mode is better with improved contrast and saturation. The portrait shots are better with good edge-detection.
When it comes to night mode, it brightens up and sharpens the subject in an attempt to reduce noise. The front camera is good for selfies and video chats. Check out the camera samples below (Click the image to view the full resolution samples).
You can also check out the camera comparison between the OnePlus 7, Google Pixel 3a XL and the HONOR 20 here.
No bloat software
Coming to the software, the OnePlus 7 Pro runs on OxygenOS 9.0 based on Android 9 (Pie) on top. If you follow OnePlus, you must be knowing by now that it is pretty much stock with a minimalistic flat design. Analysing the track record, OnePlus are good at keeping its devices upgraded with the latest Android version, so one can expect to Android Q very soon.
This time, OnePlus has added some uniques features like Zen Mode, which locks your phone for solid 20 minutes, allowing only calls and photos. There is Fnatic mode, an advanced gaming mode, created by esports pioneers. Once enabled, it blocks all notification and calls and focuses performance entirely towards gameplay. Also present is a RAM boost, which learns which apps you use frequently and pre-caches them into RAM. And Screen Recorder too.
Speed you need
The OnePlus 7 is powered by the latest Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 7nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 640 GPU under the hood. The phone is incredibly fast, be it gaming, multitasking or other. The read/write speed is faster with UFS 3.0 storage. In our experience, we experienced zero lag, zero hitches, it’s just pure speed and raw power. Check out the synthetic benchmark scores below.
AnTuTu Benchmark 7
It scored 379220 points in the AnTuTu Benchmark 7 and topped the charts.
Geekbench 4 Single-Core
It scored 3549 points in the Geekbench 4 Single-Core benchmark and grabbed the third spot.
Geekbench 4 Multi-Core
It scored 11315 points in the Geekbench 4 Multi-Core benchmark and grabbed the second spot.
3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited
It scored 63096 points and grabbed the third spot in the 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark. Check out more benchmark scores here. Check out the PUBG Mobile gaming review below.
In-screen fingerprint Sensor and Face unlock
Just like 6T, the OnePlus 7 features a much improved in-display fingerprint scanner with larger space. The fingerprint scanner is placed at the bottom of the display which will be highlighted when the device is idle. Comparatively, the process of adding fingerprint has been improved, so does unlocking the device. You can add up to five fingerprints. Face unlock works well in most of the conditions.
Connectivity
The OnePlus 7 supports various connectivity options including 4G (4×4 MIMO) and VoLTE for Reliance Jio, Airtel and others. It also has Dual 4G VoLTE support so that you can use VoLTE on both the SIMs and also switch data between two SIMs easily. It has Wi-Fi 802.11ac dual-band (2×2 MU-MIMO ), Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 1 with support for USB OTG, USB Type-C audio and also has NFC.
Long lasting battery
The OnePlus 7 is powered by the same 3700mAh battery with Dash Charging technology as OnePlus 6T. On our usage, the OnePlus 7 lasted more than a day with average use (Browsing, texting, Youtube streaming) and last for a day with heavy use (playing COD, PUBG)
In our One Charge rating, the OnePlus 7 achieved 18 hours and 51 minutes. It took less than 30 minutes to charge from 0 to 50%, and took 1 hour and 30 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%.
Conclusion
The OnePlus 7 is one of the most balanced device in the market right now considering price to performance ratio. Even though it looks physically similar to OnePlus 6T, some major upgrades under the hood makes it a humble beast. Well, upgrading from 6T, is it necessary? Only if you want to experience that extra bit of everything — Camera, power and multimedia.
It is priced at Rs. 32,999 for the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage version and the 8GB RAM with 256GB storage version costs Rs. 37999. It is available from Amazon.in, oneplus.in, and OnePlus exclusive offline stores and partner retail outlets.
Pros
- Competitive pricing
- Stereo speakers
- In-display fingerprint scanner is better
- Smooth performance
Cons
- Same old design
- Average low-light camera performance