OnePlus 7 Pro review

Final thoughts

With every passing year, we've seen OnePlus mature with every iteration of its phones. This year, OnePlus has shown the most growth thus far with the 7 Pro. We do have to admit there is still a small number of shortcomings that the company should address in a future device, but its competitive price makes it a worthy alternative of any of the top players in the smartphone game.

OnePlus 6T (left) next to OnePlus 7 Pro (center) and Huawei Mate 20 Pro (right)

OnePlus continues to focus on the speed and fluidity of the user experience. Oxygen OS is an Android skin built over years of feedback from its own customers via the OnePlus Forums. With the introduction of its 90Hz display, it pushes the fluidity and speed of the feel of its OS to a whole new level.

In an interview, Pete Lau has revealed that the OnePlus 7 Pro's display costs three times as much as previous OnePlus devices - and it certainly shows the first time you lay eyes on this display. Of course, such a display would drive the cost of the phone up significantly so you can imagine that we are impressed by the $669 starting price. In the US, even the highest spec'd 12GB/256GB model costs only as much as the entry-level 64GB iPhone XR in the US.

The competition

The OnePlus 7 Pro is aiming to compete against all the top players in the smartphone industry. It is a great smartphone with top of the line components, a large, beautiful, and smooth high-res display, as well as the fastest storage you can get on a smartphone today.

The first smartphones that come to mind are the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+. The OnePlus 7 Pro is significantly cheaper than the latest Samsung flagship and offers a very similar spec sheet. The only place where Samsung might have an edge is in the camera department - the Galaxy S10's camera is arguably better, but the 7 Pro does come close - at least in versatility, if not in image quality.

Samsung Galaxy S10 • Samsung Galaxy S10+

The iPhone XS Max is the most expensive competitor, coming in at nearly twice the price of the OnePlus 7 Pro. It certainly isn't twice as good a phone though, so the OnePlus is certainly the better value here.

Apple iPhone XS Max

The Huawei P30 Pro is the best phone from Huawei today, and the OnePlus 7 Pro is a great alternative considering the higher premium price of the P30 Pro.

Sure, the OnePlus doesn't have the crazy zoom camera, and its wide-angle camera leaves a lot of room for improvement, but the fast hardware and the sizeable nice-looking display with no notch makes it a worthy alternative to the pricey Huawei phones.

Huawei P30 • Huawei P30 Pro

The OnePlus 6T is still a great smartphone. The company is dropping its price by $30 with the arrival of the 7 Pro, and if you wait out a bit, you might be able to find one even cheaper in the month following the launch of the 7 Pro.

The OnePlus 6T offers a very smooth user experience with the simple yet sophisticated Oxygen OS, and it's bound to be updated for a considerable time in the future considering it's only been about half a year since it launched.

And if you are after the 7 Pro's performance and near-stock Android you might as well consider the vanilla OnePlus 7. It delivers the same software package and Snapdragon 855, plus the stereo speakers and faster fingerprint scanner. The main camera on the back is identical, but you'll be missing the telephoto and ultra wide-angle lenses. If that's good enough for you and you can have a little notch in your life the vanilla OnePlus 7 might be a much better proposition in terms of bang for your buck.

OnePlus 6T • OnePlus 7

The 7 Pro offers an experience closer to the Google Pixel 3 XL. The Pixel has vanilla Android with updates directly from Google. it also has Google's HDR+ camera and its front-facing wide-selfie camera, which is arguably the best selfie taker in challenging light situations. The Pixel 3 XL also starts at $900, so it is a steeper price but it comes with the purest form of Android.

The Pixel 3 is also a worthy alternative, and the smaller size is much more manageable for one-handed use. Of course, we think that OnePlus' gestures are far superior to Google's navigation Pill and we find Oxygen OS to have more features built into the OS.

If top-end performance isn't your priority, perhaps the Pixel 3a XL could be worth checking out. It has the same polished camera that the more expensive Pixel has without the matching price.

Google Pixel 3 • Google Pixel 3 XL • Google Pixel 3a XL

Final verdict

OnePlus is ideally positioned in the US. It landed a deal with T-Mobile to sell its phones in physical stores and it remains the only Chinese brand in this advantageous position to compete against Samsung and Apple devices. T-Mobile has been consistently growing in the US and has the potential to get true OnePlus fans to switch and make monthly payments to buy the 7 Pro.

The OnePlus 7 Pro doesn't have every bell and whistle that the more expensive flagships have. There isn't wireless charging, there's no official waterproofing, and there's no option for expandable storage or a 3.5mm audio jack.

But if you ask OnePlus, these are not omissions, but deliberate decisions of avoiding inflating consumer prices with features that it doesn't think will add enough value. The expandable storage is well-justified now with the 7 Pro's UFS 3.0 storage - throwing a microSD card in contradicts the idea of super-fast storage speeds.

So overall, the OnePlus 7 Pro will deliver flagship performance in every department except it won't cost as much as a flagship smartphone by the major brands. There are some trade-offs - but OnePlus believes it's made the right ones keeping its consumers in mind. From where we're standing, they do have a point, and if you are not obsessed with photography, we can wholeheartedly recommend this phone as it has all that it takes to keep you happy day in and day out.

Pros

• Very competitive pricing
• Bright and beautiful 90Hz display
• Fluid and snappy Oxygen OS
• Vastly improved hardware design
• One of the fastest (if not the fastest) in-display fingerprint readers around.

Cons

• No official water resistance rating
• No wireless charging
• No headphone jack
• Non-expandable storage
• Does not include earbuds or a 3.5mm audio adapter
• Wide-angle camera falls short
• No Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) support even though the chipset supports it