Review | OnePlus 7 Pro full review: so fast, you won’t want to go back to another phone

OnePlus phones have the reputation of being the fastest mobile devices around. This has mostly been achieved through lean software with copious amounts of memory. This year’s OnePlus 7 Pro ups the speed to another level. And it’s a game-changer. There is a standard, non-Pro version of the OnePlus 7 without the special display tech. This review is of the Pro version. Design and hardware Most smartphones on the market have 60Hz displays, meaning they refresh animations 60 times per second. The OnePlus 7 Pro’s screen is 1½ times faster at 90Hz. OnePlus has added extra animation to its software so everyday UI movements, from swiping away an app to bringing down the notification panel to scrolling on a webpage, appear smoother because there are more frames moving and doing so faster. The extra fluidity may go unnoticed by casual smartphone users, but power users and tech geeks will feel the difference and, for me personally, it’s hard to go back to the standard 60Hz screen after using the OnePlus 7 Pro. Those who follow smartphones may remember that Razer’s gaming phone features a 120Hz screen, so that display is technically even smoother. But that device only pumps out 120Hz in select situations and the screen technology is the inferior LCD. The OnePlus 7 Pro’s OLED screen runs at 90Hz most of the time, except in situations in which there is no need for a higher frame rate (inside the camera app, for example). The faster frame rate is not the only improvement to the display. For the first time in a OnePlus device, resolution has been bumped up to the Samsung/LG level “Quad HD” (1,440 X 3,120) and the display has been certified HDR 10+. I can’t really see the difference between Quad HD and standard 1,080p (which is used in iPhones as well as most Chinese handsets), but HDR 10+ support results in noticeably punchier visuals when consuming supported content on Netflix, for instance. There’s also no notch intruding on the large 6.6-inch screen, so in terms of display, that on the OnePlus 7 Pro is about as flawless as current technology can get. The only complaint I can fathom anyone having with the screen is its Samsung-style curvature, which not everyone loves because users can activate the phone accidentally by brushing against its sensitive edge. With the display setting such a high bar, the rest of the hardware understandably doesn’t quite reach those heights. The overall glass back design of the OnePlus 7 Pro is a bit bland in my opinion, looking mostly unchanged from previous OnePlus devices and lacking any visual flair, such as the unique square camera module on the Huawei Mate 20 or the seamless uninterrupted designs of the Oppo Reno and LG G8. The camera bump is noticeable and houses a triple camera set-up that’s been seen on a half-dozen devices already this year: a 48-megapixel main lens, with a wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera. Unlike the Oppo Reno, the telephoto zoom lens on the 7 Pro offers “just” 3X lossless zoom, which falls way short of the former’s near 10X zoom. To get around the notch, OnePlus has opted for a 16-megapixel pop-up selfie camera, as seen in a slew of recent releases. Inside, the device packs a Snapdragon 855 processor and between 6GB and 12GB of RAM depending on the configuration. Software and features This is an area in which OnePlus has long excelled: the brand’s Android skin, OxygenOS, is widely considered the best Android software around, and this was before the UI became even smoother this year. Now? It’s no contest: navigating the OnePlus 7 Pro is more enjoyable than interacting with a Huawei, Samsung or Vivo device. You get complete customisation with the phone’s looks: each app can use a different icon pack; the menu screen can be pitch black or stark white, and font colours can be changed to dozens of options. If you choose to use navigation buttons (there’s also swipe gesture navigation), each button can be assigned a short cut when double-tapped or long-pressed. The app drawer contains a hidden panel to house apps that one may not want others to see. Performance and battery life The OnePlus 7 Pro easily keeps up the brand’s streak of having the fastest and smoothest phone around, and that sense of fluidity is particularly noticeable when switching between it and handsets from other brands. The Samsung Galaxy S10, for example, is not slow per se, but compared to the OnePlus 7 Pro, its animations lag noticeably. Check the video below, which has been slowed down to quarter-speed: notice when I swipe out of an app back to the home screen, the Galaxy S10 takes a split second for the action to register, while on the OnePlus 7 Pro, the app stays close to alignment with my thumb’s movement. This is noticeable in scrolling too – if I run my thumb up and down a web page really fast, I can see the Galaxy S10’s screen lag compared to that of the OnePlus 7 Pro. Camera performance is good, but not great. The main camera, with an f/1.6 aperture, is highly capable during the day, producing pleasing images. I prefer OnePlus’ warmer colour science to Huawei’s colder tone during the day. At night time, however, the OnePlus 7 Pro lags behind the Huawei P30 Pro in every area, as it tends to overexpose and can’t produce light from a really dark scene as well. The wide-angle lens is solid and has great distortion correction via software, but the 3X telephoto lens fails to impress me, having been spoiled by the 10X zoom on the Oppo Reno and Huawei P30 Pro. Due to the display’s higher-than-usual resolution and refresh rate, battery life on the OnePlus 7 Pro takes a hit despite the 4,000 mAh cell. This is a phone that can almost last me a full day, but not quite. I’d unplug the phone fully charged at 10am, and find it dip below the scary 15 per cent mark by 10pm. Still, I’ll take the trade-off for the gorgeous screen. Conclusion In an industry as overcrowded as this, making a good smartphone that ticks every box is no longer enough to impress. In my opinion, a new handset needs to offer at least one thing that is industry-first or industry-best, and the OnePlus 7 Pro accomplishes this in two areas: display fluidity and software speediness. Not everyone will care about (or notice) the extra fluidity, but as far as I am concerned it’s spoiled me for other models. Here’s hoping Apple, Samsung and Huawei follow suit with a 90Hz screen on their next flagship handsets. Dimensions: 162.6mm x 75.9mm x 8.8mm Weight: 206g Display: 6.6-inch 1,440 x 3,120 OLED panel Battery: 4000mAh OS version reviewed: Android 9 with OxygenOS on top. Processor: Snapdragon 855 Main cameras: 48-megapixel f/1.6 sensor, 16-megapixel f/2.2 wide-angle lens, 8-megapixel telephoto lens Front camera: 16-megapixel standard lens Memory: 6/8/12GB RAM, 128GB/256GB Price: starting at HK$5,698