Daniel Rotar

August 21, 2020

iPhone SE vs Pixel 4a vs OnePlus Nord vs Samsung Galaxy A71!

Daniel Rotar

August 21, 2020

So, I’ve got four Phones right here: the iPhone SE 2020, the Google Pixel 4a, the OnePlus Nord as well as the Samsung Galaxy A71. All of these Phones cost between $300-$400, so I really want to see which one is worth it the most?

In this video, I’ll be comparing everything from the Design, Display, Camera, Performance, Special Features, Battery & Price to let you decide which one out of all these four Phones is the best one for you! We have seven sections and I want you to pick a Phone for each of those sections and then at the end you’ll see which Phone is the best for you, as that’s the one that you’ve picked the most.

Get those snacks ready and enjoy!

Design

Starting off with the Design, these four Phones couldn’t be any more different.

On the front, the iPhone SE has the most outdated Design as it uses the exact same front as the iPhone 6 from 2014. The Pixel and the Samsung are very similar, as in they both have extremely thin Bezels and just a Single Camera Cutout, the Samsung in the middle and the Pixel on the left. The OnePlus is similar as well, the only difference is that it has a Dual Camera Cutout on the front, rather than a Single.

The new, reduced price of the A71 makes it a far superior alternative to the lower-end A51.

Design is indeed a personal preference, but from the front at least, I do prefer the Galaxy A71 the most. Just as a side note, in case some of you are wondering why we chose the A71 rather than the A51, the A71 has now dropped in price and it does have better specs than the A51. Taking a look at the back and the Build Quality, there are some major differences between these Phones.

The Galaxy A71 definitely feels the cheapest. It has a full Plastic back and Frame surrounding it. Then it’s the Pixel 4a, which still has a Plastic back, but since it’s Matte and the Frame itself blends in with the back, it does indeed feel far more premium than the A71 does. Then we have the OnePlus Nord, which uses a Glass back and a Plastic Frame. This one already feels so much better than the other two. Finally, we have the iPhone SE, which has a full Glass back and a Metal Frame. The iPhone definitely feels the most premium, but we do have that six year old Design on the front, whereas these other three Phones all use a modern 2019/2020 Design.

So, out of all these four, I actually do like the OnePlus Nord the most, Design-wise. We have a very modern looking front, while not necessarily sacrificing too much on the Build Quality. That’s my pick but let me know which one you’d pick, Design-wise.

Display

Moving on to the Display and I have to say, all of these Phones have a very good Display Panel. There’s not a single one that I wouldn’t recommend, but there are indeed some differences between all of these Phones.

The biggest difference is when it comes to the Size. If you’re looking for a small and compact Phone, then the iPhone and the Pixel are the best options. They’re about the same size, the Pixel 4a is only a tiny bit bigger but the Display size difference is quite noticeable. The iPhone has the smallest Display, at 4.7”, while the Pixel 4a has the second smallest, at 5.8”. The good news is that you can easily use both of these Phones with one hand, whereas the other two are just so much bigger. The OnePlus Nord comes with a 6.44” Display, while the Galaxy A71 comes with the biggest Display out of these, a 6.7” Panel.

With the A71, bigger is not necessarily better.

Now, the second big difference between these Displays is the Display Panel technology that they each use. All of these Phones except the iPhone, have an OLED Display. The iPhone has an LCD Panel. This means that you have perfect Black Levels and essentially an infinite Contrast on all of these, compared to the iPhone.

The third difference is when it comes to the Resolution and the Pixel Density. So here, the Pixel 4a actually has the highest at 443 PPI. Then, it’s the OnePlus at 408 PPI, then the Samsung at 393 PPI and then the iPhone at 326 PPI. What this means is that when you’re looking at the Displays up close, the Pixel 4a has the sharpest image, while the iPhone has the least sharpest image. If you watch a lot of YouTube videos, all these Phones, with the exception of the iPhone, can play 1440p as well as 1080p YouTube content. The iPhone can still play 1080p, but the Display is lower than 1080p so you’re not actually watching 1080p content here, but rather 720p at a higher Bit-Rate.

The fourth difference is when it comes to colour and how good these Displays are for editing photos and videos. I personally prefer the Pixel and the iPhone as I feel like they do have the most natural colours, but the OnePlus and the Samsung are both very good as well.

You get decent Displays with any of these models, but the OnePlus is my pick here. — You get decent Displays with any model, but I would say the OnePlus is my choice.

In terms of Brightness, the iPhone came out on top with a max of 720 Nits, then we had the Pixel narrowly behind at 710, with the OnePlus & Samsung much lower down at 560 & 550 respectively.

Then we have the Refresh Rate. All of these Phones, with the exception of the OnePlus Nord, have a 60Hz Refresh Rate. The OnePlus Nord has a 90Hz Refresh Rate, meaning that anything that you do on the OnePlus would feel significantly faster and more responsive than on the other Phones. Animations are 50% more fluid and using it in general feels so much nicer, compared to the other three Phones.

Now, those were the big changes, but there are a few more smaller differences as well. For example, the iPhone SE has a True-Tone Display, which can automatically adjust its Colour Temperature to match the lighting conditions around you, making it much easier on the eyes when you’re reading. The Samsung and the Pixel both feature an Always-On Display and the Pixel allows you to tap the Display once to turn it on, wheres on the OnePlus and Samsung you have to double-tap and on the iPhone you have to press the Home Button to even turn the Display on, which is not as convenient.

Overall, I like the OnePlus Nord’s Display the most, but the Pixel is definitely on my second choice. Let me know which one has your favourite Display.

Camera

Moving on to the Camera, this is where it gets tricky. The iPhone SE has a Single Camera Module, which is actually the exact same Camera as the Main Camera Module on the iPhone 11 Pro’s.The Pixel 4a also has a Single Camera Module, which is the same exact Camera as the Pixel 4 XL. So, both the SE and the 4a have flagship level Cameras.

The OnePlus Nord and Samsung Galaxy A71 on the other hand, have mid-range Camera Modules, each with four individual Modules, which I’ll get to in just a bit.

The Nord is the only one with both an Ultra-Wide Angle & a Macro Module.

The OnePlus Nord and the Samsung also have an Ultra-Wide Angle Module, which is something that we do not have on the iPhone or the Pixel. The OnePlus also has a 2MP Macro Module, but it’s pretty bad and I wouldn’t really use it, but it’s there. When it comes to night time photography, the iPhone is the only one that doesn’t have a Night Mode.

When it comes to video, the iPhone is the only one that can do 4K60, with all the other ones capping out at 4K30. Moving on to the Front-Facing Camera, pay attention to the HDR Processing and the Sharpness, if you get a chance to test these for yourself. In terms of front video, the OnePlus Nord can actually record 4K30/60, while the other ones are stuck to 1080p30.

Overall, when it comes to day-time shots, I like the iPhone SE the most. But the fact that we don’t have a Night Mode or an Ultra-Wide Angle Module might make you go for the OnePlus or Samsung, in case you’re looking for that extra bit of flexibility. My choice here is still the iPhone, as it does have the best video capabilities on the back and that’s something that I do use quite a lot, especially when I’m travelling. But, the Pixel 4a is an outstanding choice as well. It also comes with the Astrophotography Mode, which is still the best one on any Phone.

Do let me know what was your choice in terms of the Camera.

Performance

When it comes to the Performance, CPU wise, the iPhone SE has the most powerful Processor, which is the Apple A13 Chip. This is the exact same Processor that’s inside the iPhone 11 Pro.

The iPhone SE 2020 comes with the best Chip, but the Pixel is very well optimised for what it has.

All of the other Smartphones have mid-range level Processors, with the OnePlus having the second most powerful Chip, the Snapdragon 765G, while the Pixel and the Samsung both have the Snapdragon 730G Processor. With the RAM, the iPhone has 3GB, while the Samsung and the Pixel both have 6GB, the OnePlus has 8GB.

When it comes to the Storage, the iPhone has 64GB as the baseline, while the other three all have 128GB. After using these Phones, I have to say that the OnePlus definitely feels the fastest. That 90Hz Refresh Rate makes a massive difference, so even though it is not the most powerful one, using it makes it feel like it is.

Special Features

What about the Special Features? Is there anything unique that each of these Phones has? Ironically, the iPhone actually has the highest number of Special Features. We have IP67 Water Resistance up to 1m of depth for up to 30 minutes, as well as Wireless Charging.The OnePlus Nord is indeed sealed on the inside, so it might be able to sustain some water, but it doesn’t have any official IP Rating.

What Apple saved on the Design, they put into adding some very useful features.

While the iPhone and the Pixel have a Capacitive Fingerprint Reader, the Samsung and the OnePlus have an In-Display Fingerprint Reader. Samsung’s one is ok, but the OnePlus Fingerprint Reader is crazy fast. The Samsung however, has a microSD Slot, in case you want to expand that Storage even further.

In terms of the Speakers, the iPhone and the Pixel both have Stereo Speakers, while the OnePlus and the Samsung have Mono Speakers. If you care about 5G, the OnePlus Nord is only one that supports 5G, but the Samsung & the Pixel have a Headphone Jack.

Now, there is one more Special Feature which makes a huge difference on these Phones, and that is the Haptics. The iPhone, the Pixel and the OnePlus all support Haptic Feedback. The typing experience is by far the best on the Pixel, followed by the OnePlus. The iPhone doesn’t have any Haptic Feedback on the Keyboard, unless you install the Google Keyboard.

Overall, in terms of Special Features, I gotta give this one to the iPhone. Water Resistance, Wireless Charging, Stereo Speakers and those Haptics, these are all some very useful things to have.

Battery

When it comes to the battery, the iPhone has the smallest Battery at 1821mAh, followed by the Pixel 4a at 3140mAh, then the OnePlus at 4115mAh and then the Samsung at 4500mAh. I haven’t used these for long enough to be able to tell you which will last you the longest, I would put my money on that being the OnePlus Nord, especially if you set the Refresh Rate to 60Hz.

All of these Phones support Fast Charging up to around 50% in 30 minutes, but the OnePlus supports up to 70% in 30 minutes and it already comes with a ‘Warp’ Charger in the box, whereas the iPhone, for example does not. Battery wise, the OnePlus takes this one.

Price

So in the end, which one is worth it the most? Well, at the moment, in the UK for example, the iPhone SE costs £420. The OnePlus Nord costs £380, the Samsung Galaxy A71 costs £360 and the Pixel 4a costs £350.

Now, in terms of each of the previous categories, I picked:

These are the prices for each one at the time of writing. We chose the Nord, which one would you get?

Design - OnePlus Nord,

Display - OnePlus Nord

Camera - Pixel 4a

Performance - OnePlus Nord

Special Features - iPhone SE

Battery - OnePlus Nord

Price - Pixel 4a

So my choice here is definitely the OnePlus Nord, but another thing that you should keep in mind when buying these Phones is longevity. The iPhone SE, since it’s an Apple product and it also comes with the A13 Processor, will be supported for many years to come.

Google does tend to support their Phones for a long period of time, but the Pixel 4a comes with the Snapdragon 730 Processor, which is a bit on the lower-end so I’m not sure how well this Phone will age up. I actually think the OnePlus Nord will age up better and then in last place we have the Samsung Galaxy A71.

Daniel Rotar

May 1, 2020

First Impressions

OnePlus 8 Pro - My In-Depth Experience!

Daniel Rotar

May 1, 2020

First Impressions

The OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro are finally here. In case you’ve missed it, we also uploaded my live unboxing with both the OnePlus 8 and the 8 Pro’s Review Kits. This was a bit of a special unboxing because it was quite different to what you would get when you buy the phone. We got sent quite a few more things, so if you haven’t seen that video, I highly recommend watching it!

But now that I’ve spent a bit more time with these Smartphones, I’m more comfortable giving you guys my first impressions. This is not my Full Review, I need a few more weeks with them for that. But nonetheless, I do have a lot to say about both of these so, enjoy my honest first impressions.

Since I’m not fully sure if we’ll get the chance to do a Full Review, as we do have to send these back very soon, I have split this video into the same usual categories as the Full Review, but do keep in mind that some sections do require more testing. With that being said, I’ll be covering the Design, Display, Camera, Performance, Special Features, Battery & Value.

Design

Starting off with the design, same as with the OnePlus 7 and the 7T series, we get two models, the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro. From the back, they both look almost identical to the 7 Pro and the 7T Pro from last year. The regular 7 and 7T did have a different Camera Module arrangement but now they both have it in the middle to make them look more similar, they look great.

This generation of OnePlus Smartphones have lost that signature Full-Screen Display.

We do get some new colours. In the UK, the get a new Glacial Green colour, which I personally really love. I was a big fan of the Nebula Blue colour on the 7 Pro, but I wasn’t that big of a fan of the Blue on the 7T Pro. This new Glacial Green colour is almost in between Green and Blue. It’s got that turquoise colour to it, but don’t ask me because I’m colourblind. We still have a Frosted Glass back which means that, compared to Smartphones such as the Galaxy S20’s, they will leave almost no smudges or fingerprints on the back.

We have a Matte Aluminium Frame surrounding the Phone as well as a SIM Slot, USB C Port and a Speaker on the bottom, so no Headphone Jack at all. We get the Volume Button on the left, the Power Button on the right, as well as OnePlus’s iconic Mute Switch, and finally on the top we get a Microphone Port. For some reason, the top of the 8 Pro has a strange indentation, I’m not sure why they’ve done that, I’m definitely not a big fan of it but at least that’s one difference between the two.

The colour that you get is now specific to the specs that you get. So, if you get the higher-end models with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of Storage, those will both come in the new Glacial Green colour, whereas if you buy the standard 8GB of RAM with 128GB of Storage model, those would both come in Black.

Taking a look at the front, this is where the big changes are. We no longer get a Full-Screen Display so unfortunately, no more pop-up Camera Module this time. We now have an In-Display Camera Module, just like on many other Smartphones now. For me, this is a step backwards. I mean sure, we do get slightly thinner Bezels, especially on the sides, but having no Notch or Camera Cutout was one of the most unique things about the OnePlus 7 Pro & 7T Pro. That now seems to be gone entirely with the 8 Pro.

I do like the fact that both the 8 and the 8 Pro have pretty much the same design though, they’re also both thinner and lighter than the 7T models from last year. The regular 8 is now 8mm thin and weighs 180g, compared to the 8.1mm and 190g of the 7T. The 8 Pro is now 8.5mm thin and 199g, compared with the 8.8mm and 206g of the 7T Pro. But since they both have this tapered edge design, they will actually feel much thinner than they are.

Display

Moving on to the Display, the regular 8 comes with a 6.55” Display, exactly the same size as the 7T’s Display from last year. The 8 Pro now comes with a larger 6.78” Display, compared to the 6.78” Display that we got with the 7 Pro and 7T Pro, last year.

In terms of Resolution, we get a 2400x1080p Display on the regular 8 and a 3168x1440p Display on the 8 Pro. This translates to 402 PPI on the regular 8 and 513 on the 8 Pro. At that PPI you cannot see any Pixels on either of them, but the higher Resolution on the Pro means that you can play 1440p YouTube content, whereas the regular 8 is restricted to just 1080p.

Another difference between the two is the Refresh Rate. Where the regular 8 has a 90Hz Refresh Rate, just like last year, the 8 Pro bumps this up to 120Hz. This is twice as fluid as some other Smartphones, like the iPhone 11 Pro Max for example. Samsung did add 120Hz to their S20’s, but you can only use this when the Display is set to 1080p Resolution, which, on the S20 Ultra especially, does look pretty blurry. The OnePlus 8 Pro can run at 120Hz at the full 3168x1440 Resolution.

This is also a 1300 Nit Display with HDR 10+ support, OnePlus even added a MEMC Chip to the 8 Pro, this adds extra Frames to videos on YouTube, Netflix and more. This way, you can turn a 30FPS video, into a 120FPS video and make it significantly smoother. That Camera Cutout is quite small, almost as small as on the S20, you’ll forget that it’s even there in no time.

Also, as with the OPPO Find X2, the OnePlus 8 Pro has a 10-bit Display Panel. Long story short, it can display over 1 billion colours whereas all other Smartphones, including the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the Galaxy S20’s, can only display 16 million colours. I gotta say, thanks to all of this, the 8 Pro has the best Display I have ever experienced on a Smartphone. It’s better than on the S20 Ultra and way better than on the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Camera

Moving on to the Camera, OnePlus Smartphones have never been known to have a great Camera. That’s always been their weak point, alongside no Water Resistance and no Wireless Charging. Well, I’m glad to say that the Cameras are much better than they ever were.

On the 7T Pro, OnePlus released a ton of software updates to improve the Image Processing and, if you’ve watched our previous blind camera comparison, you probably know that I actually blindly picked the 7T Pro as the best Smartphone Camera for Low Light shots, better than the Pixel 4 and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

The Camera has long been a weak point for OnePlus Smartphones, but this one seems much better.

The Main Camera on both is a 48MP Sensor. But, the 8 Pro has a brand new Sensor, with 1.12 µm in 48MP Mode and 2.24 µm in 12MP (Pixel Binning) Mode. The regular OnePlus 8 has the same Main Module as last year’s 7T Pro and 7T, with 0.8 µm The OnePlus 8 Pro also has a Telephoto Module with 3x Hybrid Zoom, not Optical. This is a Hybrid with an 8MP Resolution. The regular 8 is lacking that Module.

They both have an Ultra-Wide Angle Module. We have a 16MP Ultra-Wide Module on the regular 8, the same as last year, and a 48MP Ultra-Wide on the 8 Pro. This is actually the exact same Module as the 7T Pro’s Main Module, just with an Ultra-Wide Angle Lens.

The regular 8 has a 2MP Macro Module, whereas the 8 Pro has a Macro Mode on that 48MP Module. The motor is being adjusted so that the Lens can focus up close. If you care about Macro shots, there’s a pretty big difference between the two.

Finally, the 8 Pro also has this brand new Colour Filter Camera, which is a 5MP Resolution Camera. OnePlus hasn’t really talked about it and the only use that I’ve found is in one specific filter which turns your photos into something that looks pretty horrible. This could have easily been done through software as well so, this is pretty much as gimmicky as it can get and the only reason why this Module really exists is so that OnePlus can brag that they have a Quad-Camera Module rather than a Triple Module.

The Front Facing Camera is still a 16MP Sensor but now it has has a smaller f/2.5 Aperture compared to an f/2.0 Aperture, like we got with the 7T Pro’s pop-up Camera Module. Selfies are actually worse and the video quality is still limited to just 1080p on the front.

I did get to test out the Camera a bit. Keep in mind that this is not a Full Review, definitely hit the like button if you want to see a crazy detailed Blind Camera Comparison. Once this whole outbreak is over, we can go out and do that properly. But until then, the Camera is pretty decent. It still doesn’t compare to the iPhone 11 Pro Max but it is quite a bit better than the S20 Ultra. Mostly because the Ultra has such a disappointing Camera Module. Night Mode is actually pretty impressive on this Smartphone, with almost as good of a performance as the iPhone 11 Pro Max and again, better than the S20 Ultra.

Overall, photos are good, they’re not the best but definitely in the top five range for Smartphone Cameras. Selfies have been ok, but I feel like they can be improved with a future software update, they just looked a bit washed out and blown out. But, probably my favourite part about the 8 Pro’s Camera was that Macro Mode. This simply blows the iPhone, the S20 and even the Huawei P40 Pro out of the water when it comes to Macro Photography.

So, while the 8 & 8 Pro definitely don’t have the best Smartphone Cameras, they do have some very good Cameras, still in my top 5 Smartphone Cameras on the market right now, especially when it comes to the Pro.

Performance

Performance wise, this has never been an issue on OnePlus Smartphones. We get the Snapdragon 865 on both with 8GB and 12GB of RAM versions on both models as well as 128GB and 256GB of Storage.

This is combined with UFS 3.0 and now LPDDR5 Memory on the 8 Pro, the 8 still comes with LPDDR4 Memory, but the 8 Pro feels just truly next level in terms of speed. That 120Hz Display, with 240Hz Touch Input, and the specs that I mentioned before, make it significantly smoother and faster than even the S20 Ultra. This is the fastest Smartphone that I have ever used. It’s faster than the iPhone, the Pixel, the Huawei P40 Pro, the S20 Ultra, the Fold or anything else.

I’m also a massive fan of OnePlus’s OxygenOS skin. It’s pretty much stock Android with just a few tweaks that allow you to customise it more than you can with a Pixel. OnePlus even removed their OnePlus shelf and now we just get the Google one. So, performance wise, it literally cannot get any better than this.

Special Features

When it comes to special features, we essentially get four new big ones, out of which two are exclusive to the 8 Pro. The first one being 5G.

This is because that Snapdragon 865 already has a 5G Modem built into it, so there’s no 4G version of it at all, we get 5G on both. This is also mmWave 5G, which is currently the fastest 5G that you can get and you get that on both. The second big new feature is WiFi 6, which we also get on both.

We then get the two new features which are exclusive to the Pro, these are IP68 Water Resistance and Wireless Charging. Water Resistance has always been missing from OnePlus Smartphones. OnePlus claimed that they still water sealed the phones but they didn’t want to pay for the IP rating, to avoid bringing the cost up, but we do have it now. It’s the standard 1.5m up to 30 minutes that we’ve seen on most other Smartphones. It is a bit lower than the iPhone 11 Pro’s 4m Water Resistance but at least we finally have it.

The OnePlus can Wirelessly Charge at the same rate of the iPhone 11 Pro Max with a Wired Charger.

Then, we also get Wireless Charging. Finally, we have Wireless Charging on a OnePlus Smartphone! OnePlus always said that they wanted to wait until they could deliver a Wireless Charging solution that was just as fast as their insanely fast Cable Charging, and they’ve done it. The 8 Pro supports up to 30W Wireless Charging, which just to give you guys an idea of how fast that is, that is six times faster than the iPhone 11’s, not the Pro, but the regular 11’s as well as all the previous iPhone’s Cable Charging. It can charge up to 50% in just 30 minutes, which is just as fast as the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s Wired Charging.

But, there is a catch, you do have to use OnePlus’s Proprietary Charger, which costs $70/£70, in order to get that full 30W Fast Charge. You can still charge it by using regular Wireless Chargers, but the 8 Pro does not support standard Fast Wireless Charging. This means that no matter what other Wireless Charger you use, you will only get 5-7W Wireless Charging, unless you use their own Wireless Charger. Reverse Wireless Charging is also here, which is great.

There is no Always On Display which is not great, but OnePlus did tell me that they’re working on one for a future software update so, fingers crossed.

I have to say, the Haptics on the Pro are just insanely good. They’re right on par with the S20 Ultra and the Pixel 4. They even feel better than on the Pixel 4 or iPhone 11 Pro Max, so definitely the best Haptics on a Smartphone alongside the S20 Ultra. The Haptics on the regular 8 are pretty good as well, just not as good as on the 8 Pro. The fingerprint reader is also crazy fast. It’s still Optical but it’s literally the fastest one out there, so I can’t complain.

Battery

In terms of the Battery size, we have a 4510mAh Battery on the 8 Pro, compared to the 4300mAh on the regular 8, so they’re actually quite similar. They both support OnePlus’s super fast WarpCharge 30T which can charge these phones, via cable charging, up to 50% in just around 20 minutes. I cannot really talk about the actual Battery Life because I haven’t used these enough for me to cover that.

Realistically, the 7T and 7 Pro from last year were good, better than the Pixel 4 for sure, but noticeably worse than the iPhone 11 Pro Max or the Note 10. They were very similar to my Exynos S20 Ultra, a Full Review on that coming soon.

The regular 8 should be very similar to the 7T Pro from last year, or even better as it now has a larger Battery. The 8 Pro should be worse but only if you use it at 120HZ. If you drop the Resolution to 1080p and 60Hz, you should easily be able to make it throughout a day.

Value

Finally, we have the value. Are these two Smartphones worth it?

Well, the OnePlus 8 now costs $700/£600, up from $600/£550 that the 7T used to cost. A slight price increase in the UK and a more significant one in the US. The 8 Pro now costs $900 /£800, up from £700, the 7T Pro was not available in the US before. So, the 8 Pro has had a pretty significant price bump, by £100, meaning that it is now just $100 short of an iPhone 11 Pro. It is actually the exact same price as a Galaxy S20, even in the UK, for the 4G model.

I have to say, overall, the S20 is a much better choice. You get a much better Camera, combined with a ton of features from Samsung, such as DeX, an Always On Display, Fast Wireless Charging with any Wireless Charger and a lot more. The iPhone 11 Pro is also a better option than the 8 Pro, if you care about that Camera. If this is one of your main concerns, there are way better options out there.

But, if you only take the occasional photo, then you’ll absolutely love the insane amount of speed and fluidity that this phone gives you. It’s honestly the king of speed. As for the regular 8, I actually do think that the 7T from last year is a better deal. So try to pick one up cheap, if you can.

ZONEofTECH

December 8, 2019

Reviews

OnePlus 7T Pro Review - The PERFECT Android Phone of 2019!

ZONEofTECH

December 8, 2019

Reviews

This is the OnePlus 7T Pro. It’s definitely not the best name in a smartphone, but hey I’ve seen worst. Before I get into this I do want to say that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ is the best Android phone of 2019 in terms of the amount of features that you get, there’s absolutely no denying that. We did a full review video after over two months of use. So feel free to check that out here.

But the OnePlus 7T Pro is the best Android Phone of 2019 in terms of value. You get pretty much everything you could ask for in a phone, at a much much lower price than the Galaxy Note 10+.

So without any further adieu, here is my full review covering my final thoughts on the OnePlus 7T Pro!

DESIGN

Ok, so most of you reading this are probably familiar with OnePlus as a company and what their vision stands for. In case you’re not, they’re basically trying to make flagship smartphones at affordable prices.

Now they do have to cut some corners in order to achieve that, which I’ll talk about in this review. To give you one example the OnePlus 7T Pro pretty much takes the crown when it comes to the least amount of changes from the previous generation ever. The OnePlus 7T Pro which came out in October is almost an identical copy of the OnePlus 7 Pro that we got back in May.

But it is still an incredible phone, and that’s because the 7T Pro is still one of the only phones in 2019 that does not have a notch or even a camera cutout at all. We get is a full screen display with zero interruptions for you to watch your content, which is just incredible!

Now, the screen-bezels, or should I say the frame of the phone, is indeed thicker than on other phones such as the iPhone 11 Pro Max or the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, but considering that you don’t get any cutouts in the display itself, I’m very happy with this tiny trade-off. The 7T Pro simply looks like a phone that came from the future, 2020 or even 2021, where smartphones are just a full-screen display. It looks incredible and I’m absolutely in love with the design of this phone!

The back is made out of glass, but it does have this frosted glass texture, same as the iPhone 11 Pro’s or the Google Pixel 4, so it’s this very soft glass that doesn’t catch any fingerprints at all. This is therefore another plus for the OnePlus.

The 7T Pro only come in Haze Blue, and then also has a McLaren edition

Now, unlike the OnePlus 7 Pro which came in Mirror Grey, Almond & Nebula Blue, the OnePlus 7T Pro only comes in Haze Blue and then there’s also the McLaren Edition which has a more unique look to it on the back, which I do like a lot. However, if you’re looking for just a standard black or even the gold, you’re out of luck. I have to say, I actually do prefer the old Nebula Blue over the 7T’s Haze Blue, since it is a bit darker and feels more mature than the Haze Blue, to me at least.

The sides are made out of polished aluminium so they do look very premium but something that I don’t like about the 7T Pro design wise is just how bulky and big it feels in the hand. You see, at 8.8mm thick the 7T Pro is noticeably thicker than the 7.9mm thick Note 10+ and the 8.1mm iPhone 11 Pro Max. So overall this is a pretty chunky phone. Luckily the sides do curve, so it doesn’t feel that fat, but it does feel thick when holding it in the hand. When you also consider that the display is also quite large, at 6.67”, you can tell that the 7T Pro is definitely not a phone that you can easily use with one hand.

Finally, even-though the 7 Pro and the 7T Pro basically look identical, aside from the different blue colour, there is one visual identifier and that is the Laser Autofocus is now outside of the camera module rather than inside of it, like it is on the 7 Pro. Also, the ring surrounding the camera module is now shinier and the megapixel count is now gone, but other than that, these phones are identical.

DISPLAY

Moving on to the display and it’s good. Overall I would say that this is the best display on a smartphone but it doesn’t nail that in every single category and you’ll see why in just a second.

The 7T Pro has the exact same display as the 7 Pro did. So that’s a 6.67” Samsung made AMOLED display panel, with a resolution of 3120x1440 which translates to a PPI of 516. It’s a very sharp display, the black levels are perfect, the colours pop. It features a DCI P3 colors gamut with 100% coverage, so if you’re into photo or video editing on the go this is a amazing choice for that. Also, if you’re into consuming media, the 7T Pro does support HDR 10+ content. In addition, since there is no notch or display cutout, I actually crown the OnePlus 7T Pro the best phone for watching and viewing content!

But wait there’s more!

The 7T Pro comes with a 90Hz refresh rate panel, meaning that everything you do on this phone is 50% more fluid than on any other smartphone on the market right now that come with a standard 60Hz panel.

When you put the 7T Pro next to the Note 10+, or even the iPhone 11 Pro Max, you can see how much smoother the animations and UI really are. To see this in the video jump to 6 Minutes and 21 Seconds

Games can also run at a much higher frame-rate, which they already do on other phones, but you would not be able to see frame-rates higher than 60. Whereas on the OnePlus 7T Pro, you can see up to 90fps.

A brightness comparison between the Note 10+, 11 Pro Max, Pixel 4XL and 7T Pro

So, the display on the 7T Pro seems like the best display ever on any smartphone and so far. But you see there is one complaint that I have, which might be a big issue for some users, and that is the brightness. We’ve actually used a professional colour and brightness measuring tool and on a pure white full-screen window, the OnePlus 7T Pro only achieved a maximum brightness of 457 nits, which whilst still higher than the Pixel 4 Xl’s 443 nits, it was significantly lower than the 723 nits on the Note 10+ or the 785 nits on the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

CAMERA

This is where the OnePlus 7T Pro gets really interesting, because you see, when I said that OnePlus had to make some trade-offs to keep the price low, the camera is usually the biggest trade-off in pretty much every single OnePlus phone.

But then, the OnePlus 7 Pro came out in May and it was OnePlus’s first premium smartphone, so to say. It had many innovative features from the design, to the popup front camera module, to the 90Hz refresh rate display and it also had a triple lens camera module, which was supposed to be great. But in the end it was only okay. It was better than the OnePlus 7’s camera but still nothing close to an iPhone’s camera, or a Samsung Galaxy S, Note, or even a Google Pixel. It was just a better mid-range camera, that was it.

And the 7T Pro has the exact same camera for the most part that the 7 Pro does. So does this mean that the camera is bad? Well, actually since the 7 Pro launched in May OnePlus has just slammed us with constant updates and improvements to their camera app, to the point where now, in our latest Blind Camera Test between the 7T Pro, the Pixel 4 XL, the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, the OnePlus 7T Pro got 2nd place, after the iPhone 11 Pro Max! I gave it the same score as the Pixel 4 XL and an even higher score than the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+.

In a lot of cases, it had the best night mode out of all 4 phones. Stabilisation was great, HDR was very good. So OnePlus have managed to turn mid-range camera hardware into pretty much a flagship level camera and I’m very surprised. The pop-up front camera module was very good as well, with perfect exposure, a wide viewing angle, and even the low light shots with the front camera were very good and my favourite out of all these 4 phones!

So what’s the catch? Well, the front camera can only do 1080p video at 30fps compared to 4K30 on the S10 and Note 10, or even 4K60 on the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Also the wide-angle lens isn’t as wide as on the iPhone or the Note and it’s also fairly soft and pretty bad in low light. But aside from that it’s very good, especially after the recent software updates.

The 7T Pro does have a Macro mode now, which is actually a hardware feature where a mechanism inside the phone adjusts the focus motor to focus up close. You can actually see how much of a difference this makes. If you take a look at the image you can see how sharp the coin is on the 7T compared to all the other phones which don’t have a macro mode. So, that’s pretty awesome and this is something that we didn’t have on the 7 Pro before.

PERFORMANCE

If you’re not yet convinced on getting the 7T Pro, this is the section that will definitely convince you. The OnePlus 7T Pro is by far the fastest and most fluid phone that I’ve ever used. Faster than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, faster than the Note 10+, the Pixel 4 or anything else.

But what do I mean by this? Well, spec wise, we get the Snapdragon 855+ processor, which is an overclocked version of the 855 that we got in the 7 Pro a few months before. The GPU is now 15% faster than on the 855 and the CPU is about 5-8% faster, so you should see a few extra frames in games, but nothing major.

But where it gets interesting is when we look at the RAM. You see the OnePlus 7 Pro came in 6GB, 8GB and 12GB of RAM options, however the 7T Pro only comes in 8GB. This is also a reason why the price has actually gone up by quite a bit now. However, if you do get the McLaren edition of the 7T Pro, that’s when you get 12GB of RAM.

But the reason why this phone feels so fast is because of that 90Hz refresh rate display and that UFS 3.0 storage, which neither the S10 or Pixel 4 have. The Note 10+ does have UFS 3.0 but it doesn’t have a 90Hz refresh rate display, same goes for the iPhone which has NVMe flash but no 90Hz. So the 7T Pro just flies through everything and OnePlus also has their Oxygen OS skin which is an extremely light skin. Pretty much stock android with just a few nice modifications, such as the ability to change the background colour of your UI, the accent colour of your buttons, you can re-order the menu buttons as well, and things like that that just give you more customisation options compared to a Pixel 4 for example.

Also OnePlus is the 2nd manufacturer, right after Google in terms of releasing software updates and it’s not that they’re fast with updates but they’re also supporting their devices for a really long time. Take the OnePlus 3 that came out in 2016 for example, that device is still receiving updates from OnePlus, and the OnePlus 5 & 5T which came out in 2017 will both be receiving an update to Android 10 in Q2 2020.

So yeah great performance, day 1 updates and years of software support. Pretty happy so far!

SPECIAL FEATURES

Like I mentioned at the beginning, the 7T Pro takes the crown when it comes to the least amount of changes from the previous generation ever, but unfortunately that means a lack of special features that make this phone stand out.

The 7T Pro still lacks wireless charging, which is something that all of OnePlus’s competitors have put into their flagships. OnePlus did say that the reason why they didn’t add wireless charging is because it’s not fast enough yet but that’s not strictly correct. The Note 10+ supports up to 15W wireless charging speeds, which is 3 times faster than the stock 5W iPhone charger.

In addition to the lack of wireless charging, there is no official IP water resistance rating or even dust resistance. OnePlus did add a rubber seal to unofficially add water resistance but they haven’t paid for the rating itself. I have seen cases where people submerged their OnePlus 7 Pro in water and it survived but at the same time, I’ve also seen cases where it didn’t. Considering the fact that we have that pop-up camera module now I wouldn’t submerge this in any way!

The 7T Pro follows the trend of other smartphones by no longer having a headphone jack

The headphone jack is also gone now. The speakers are good but not great.

There’s no microSD card slot, no crazy features like an S-Pen or anything like that, so yeah, it doesn’t look that great so far.

But I do have two very positive things to say here. The first is that the in-display fingerprint reader on the 7T Pro is the fastest in-display fingerprint reader on any phone. It’s crazy fast. Then the second thing is that the 7T Pro has a haptic engine, similar to the one inside the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which brings haptics to the entire UI and it’s one of the best on any android phone, right on par with the Note 10+ and the Pixel 4XL.

BATTERY LIFE

Now, when it comes to the Battery Life it’s good but not great. The 7T Pro comes with a 4085mAh battery, which is slightly larger than the 4000mAh battery that the 7 Pro had. However, now that we have a large 6.67” display that’s also 90Hz, the battery lasts noticeably less than on the Note 10+, the iPhone 11 Pro Max or even the Samsung Galaxy S10+.

You can indeed switch to 60Hz on the display, which will improve the battery life but considering that 90Hz is one of the main key selling points of this phone I don’t think the trade-off is worth it really.

You do get a 30W charger inside the box, which is 6 times more powerful than what Apple used to ship until the iPhone 11 Pro’s. In our fast charging speed test, the 7T Pro charged to 50% in just 24 minute and up to 100% in just 1 hour and 7 minute. Insanely fast for a 4085mAh battery!

But, like I mentioned in the last section it doesn’t have wireless charging.

VALUE

Now we finally come to value. Is the OnePlus 7T Pro worth it?

Well, the OnePlus One used to cost $300 back in 2014. The 7T Pro now costs £700, or $910 if you convert, because interesting enough it is not available in the US this time around.

So whilst the 7T Pro is 3 times more expensive than what the first OnePlus phone used to cost, it’s still cheaper than the Note 10+ which costs £1000, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max which costs £1150.

And for the most part, you get the same experience. Just no wireless charging, no official water or dust resistance rating and a slightly worse camera. But considering that you do get faster performance, a full-screen display, a pop-up front camera module which is a great party trick, I do think that the 7T Pro is worth it so much more than any of the competition. The only exception being the non-Pro OnePlus 7T, which actually offers the exact same specs, same exact camera, just a slightly older looking design that still looks great and that starts at £550. So I do think that that phone is actually worth it even more than the 7T Pro is.

ZONEofTECH

October 21, 2019

In-Depth Comparison

Pixel 4XL vs iPhone 11 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ vs OnePlus 7T Pro - Blind Camera Comparison!

ZONEofTECH

October 21, 2019

In-Depth Comparison

The Google Pixel 3 had some of the best camera abilities on a smartphone at the time of its release. Now the Google Pixel 4 has an additional lens on the back and one less on the front.

We compared it to the most recent releases from Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus to see how it would compare. You can check out our full blind camera comparison above, but here are a few of the shots from the test. Let us know which ones you prefer and why in the comments!

Also, the order of the phones in this article are not the order of the phones in the blind comparison.

FRONT CAMERA - WIDE SELFIE

REAR CAMERA - PORTRAIT MODE

REAR CAMERA - HDR (High Dynamic Range)

REAR CAMERA - ZOOM

REAR CAMERA - FOOD

REAR CAMERA - ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

So which one did you like overall? Don’t forget to watch the full camera comparison to make your full decision, as there are 30 different tests for each camera!

ZONEofTECH

October 10, 2019

Unboxings

OnePlus 7T Pro Unboxing - The Best Android Smartphone of 2019?

ZONEofTECH

October 10, 2019

Unboxings

OnePlus has sent over this special mystery package and I have a pretty good idea of one thing that’s inside of this but this package is huge so there’s probably quite a few things inside.

So without any further ado, here’s my unboxing and my first impressions of the OnePlus 7T Pro!

UNBOXING

Ok, so we get this big red box, this is the OnePlus 7T Pro Media Pack, which means that if you’re just buying the 7T Pro from the Store, you wouldn’t really be getting this unfortunately,as this is something that only the reviewers get.

Now when you compare the 7T Pro Media Pack to the one that we got just a few months ago with the 7 Pro, you can see how much bigger this one really is. It’s significantly larger and thicker as well and I think that it also looks better, with that full on red look.

So OnePlus logo on the front and nothing else really on the sides and the back.

Taking off the sleeve takes us to the actual box. Now I think that this one’s really cool, it’s got the ‘Never Settle’ logo on the front, but the front also slides away in this butterfly like style and the contents of the box are revealed.

An example of the drawing styles in the Media Pack that comes in this box

The first thing here is this black OnePlus sleeve which seems to contains the OnePlus 7 Pro booklet. This is essentially a guide made for reviewers, so that they get accustomed with all the new features that the OnePlus 7T Pro comes with, and they’ve actually changed the style significantly, from the one that the OnePlus 7 Pro used to come with. There’s no actual images of the phone itself, just drawings and graphics, which I do like! Whoever designed it should get a promotion! This is just a brilliant job and the whole booklet is made out the same cardboard like paper that the box is also made from. So it’s a much thicker and textured paper, than what we got before with the 7 Pro reviewers guide. Also inside the booklet we get a OnePlus branded cleaning cloth - which I don’t think I’ll ever open. This is way too precious to open. This has also had a design change as we now have this landscape cloth rather than the portrait style one that we had before.

Removing that and we get 2 compartments. I opened the one on the right first, since the one on the left seems to be the box for the 7T Pro. Inside of that we get 3 cases for the OnePlus 7 Pro. So we get a Sandstone case and 2 which from the outside look pretty much the same, but they’re actually quite different. They’re both part of the Karbon series of cases, but one is the Karbon Protective Case while the other is the Karbon Bumper case, which does offer more protection to the frame of the phone. I just love both, the feeling on the back is just incredible, but I prefer the Bumper One. It’s a bit weird to explain as it’s made from one piece of plastic, however, the back is more solid while the edge is made from rubber, but there’s no seam line or anything. It’s all just made from one block or at least merged together in a perfect manner.

The size difference between the OnePlus 7T Pro Box (Left) and the 7 Pro (Right)

Then finally we get to the actual OnePlus 7T Pro box. The first thing I noticed about this box is that it’s very tall. Comparing this to the OnePlus 7 Pro box, this is about 25% taller, however it’s also not as wide or as thick as the 7 Pro box. Now, I actually prefer this design, it’s much sleeker, not just in terms of the form factor but also in terms of the style of the box. We have a red box with the message “This is the OnePlus 7T Pro. It is the culmination of all our design and engineering efforts and crafted for those, who like us, always strive for the very best”.

On the sides we get the OnePlus 7T Pro branding, nothing on the top and bottom and on the back we get color (Haze Blue), the Capacity (256GB) as well as the RAM (8GB). Then on the bottom of this box we have ‘Never Settle’.

So once we have removed the phone what else do we get? Well, we get this very long booklet that says OnePlus on it, and inside that we get quite a few things; another card that says invitation on it, which has a message from Pete Lau, the Founder & CEO of OnePlus. We then get three OnePlus stickers, all different. We then get two manuals, one being a quick start guide that also shows you the layout of the phone, and the other one being the warranty and the safety guide.

There is also another cases in here too, a silicone case just like with the 7 Pro which is really nice to see OnePlus including this in the box, giving day 1 protection!

We then get another card with the sim eject tool, the charging cable which is the same iconic OnePlus red and white cable, definitely the best looking charging cable out there, and we finally get the Warp Charge 30T charger which actually looks identical to the 7 Pro charger, same design, same size, even the exact same specifications and the exact same model number, yet the 7T Pro can charge 23% faster than the 7 Pro could. It seems like the reason for this speed increase is actually some optimisations done in software or it could be thanks to the new processor which I’ll talk about just in a minute.

Ok, so that’s pretty much it when it comes to the MediaPack. The box was indeed bigger but we actually got less stuff than with the 7 Pro MediaPack, which also included the Bullet Wireless 2 Headphones as well as a OnePlus Car Charger. However, we did get 3 cases this time round, rather than just 2.

THE PHONE

Ok, so now let’s remove the plastic wrap from the 7T Pro and take a look at the actual phone!

Design wise, it looks pretty much identical to the 7 Pro from just a few months ago. We have the same exact bezel sizes, the same display, the same display resolution at 3120x1440, the same 516 PPI. It also has the same 90Hz refresh rate, as well as the same camera system, the same haptic engine and I’ll promise that this is the last time I’ll say “the same” in this article.

Holding these in my hand it’s pretty much impossible to tell which is which from the front.

But in that case, what’s different?

The new Haze Blue 7T Pro, the small black mark next to the camera is the Macro shot assistant

Well, 7 things really.

First off we do get a new colour called the Haze Blue which replaces the Nebula Blue that the 7 Pro came in. It’s a bit lighter than the Nebula Blue and it also reflects more light so it’s a bit shinier. Personally I like both.

Then the second change is the processor. We now have the Snapdragon 855+ compared to the 855 that the 7 Pro had. The GPU is now 15% faster which means slightly higher FPS in some more demanding games like Call of Duty mobile for example.

Thirdly there is a new addition next to the camera module, which is for the new Macro mode that this phone now has. Essentially you can get as close as 2.5cm from an object and it will still focus, where most phones will fail. Here’s an example of how close the 7T Pro can focus vs the iPhone 11 Pro that’s all blurry here so this is perfect for photographing insects or plants or just textures in general.

Then the fourth edition is that the battery is slightly larger at 4085mAh compared to 4000mAh, mostly for that 855+ chip which is essentially an overclocked 855 in the end.

Fifth. If you ever used the Reading Mode on the 7 Pro, on the 7T Pro now allows you to use it in Full Colour mode rather than just Black & White.

Sixth. The 7T Pro comes with Android 10 right out of the box. The 7 Pro will also be getting Android 10 soon, I don’t have it on my unit just yet, but it should be here by the end of the month.

And finally seventh we actually do get a faster fast charge with Warp Charge 30T, which like I said before is 23% faster than on the 7 Pro.

CONCLUSION

So in the end, the OnePlus 7T Pro is a very small upgrade over the 7 Pro that we got back at the end of May, just four and a bit months ago. However, I don’t think that that’s necessarily a bad thing.

The 7 Pro was already an amazing smartphone. Pretty much the best android phone overall, especially considering the price and the 7T Pro is now an even better version of that. Yes, it still doesn’t have a camera that’s as good as the Note 10’s or the iPhone 11 Pro’s, but it does have a very usable and good camera for the price which by the way OnePlus has improved a ton with software updates which they’ve been slamming in a few times a month.

If you add that to the insanely fast UI, with the near stock android experience, day two updates right after Pixel phones, that 90Hz refresh rate display, and no notch or display cutouts at all, all for $670 or £650 less than what the regular iPhone 11 costs! Well, you guys have what’s probably the best all round android phone of 2019!

ZONEofTECH

June 29, 2019

Reviews

OnePlus 7 Pro Review

ZONEofTECH

June 29, 2019

Reviews

The OnePlus 7 Pro is in my opinion the best all around Android phone that you can get and in a lot of cases, even the best smartphone that you can get!

I tested this phone for more than a month and here is my full in-depth review with my final conclusion on the OnePlus 7 Pro!

Ok, so there are 6 sections in this review – Design, Display, Camera, Performance, Special Features & Battery Life and I want you to keep it’s $670 or £650 price point in mind throughout!

DESIGN

Starting off with the design – oh boy! I think the OnePlus 7 Pro is by far the best smartphone that you can get today, design wise.

It’s manufactured just like any other premium smartphone – we have a full metal frame surrounding the phone – it’s not stainless-steel like on the iPhone X’s and XS Max, it is actually made out of polished aluminium but it does feel very sturdy and premium.

Both the back and front are made out of glass and they both curve around the frame in the exact same way. The transition between the black the frame and the front is almost seamless – you can still feel the frame protruding, but it feels much more unified than on the Galaxy S10+ for example.

Now when it comes to how it feels in the hand..ehh..not that great!

Out of all the smartphones that I’ve used in 2019 – the iPhone XS Max, the S10, the S10+, the Pixel 3XL, 3a & 3a XL and even the regular OnePlus 7 – the 7 Pro feels very very chunky and a bit uncomfortable to hold in one hand – which I don’t really like.

The OnePlus 7 Pro (Left) vs the Samsung Galaxy S10+ (Right)

Now it’s not just the massive 6.67” display that’s the cause of this, it’s also the thickness of the device. At 8.8mm thick – this is a full mm thicker than the S10+ and 1.1mm thicker than the iPhone XS Max. If you added a case to this, such as the new OnePlus Nylon Case, the 7 Pro would then measure 10mm or 1cm thick.

In addition the OnePlus 7 Pro is also quite heavy in the hand. It weighs 206g which is 2g lighter than a XS Max but 31g heavier than an S10+.

Personally – I didn’t really notice the extra weight at all, only the thickness but some of the reviewers that I’ve spoken to, that also had the 7 Pro early, did say that they noticed the weight straight away – so that’s something to keep in mind.

The 7 Pro also comes in 3 colors; Nebula Blue, Black and Almond.

Mine’s the Nebula Blue color which I absolutely love however I usually go with black on any of my devices so that’s my personal choice, but I do think this Nebula Blue looks gorgeous, especially in the way it reflects the light.

But there’s also that a Almond colored one which I do love a lot. I haven’t seen it in person but from the stills that I’ve seen, it looks incredible.

So design wise, even though I don’t like the thickness of the 7 Pro, I love everything else about it and I still think that this is the best designed phone on the market right now – so much better looking than the iPhone XS Max or the S10+, both of which have obstructions in the display, such as the notch or the camera cutout which take away from the viewing experience.

The 3 colors of the 7 Pro (Photo by OnePlus)

DISPLAY

Not only do I think that this is the best design on a smartphone at the moment, this is also the best display that I have ever seen on a smartphone to date!

So it has that larger 6.67” AMOLED panel I mentioned earlier, which is manufactured by Samsung, with a resolution of 3120x1440, making it OnePlus’s highest resolution display yet. It has a PPI of 516, quite a bit higher than the 458 on the iPhone XS Max, text is just crystal clear and everything you do on this phone simply looks stunning. And since this is an OLED panel you also get perfect black levels and amazing rich colors for when you’re watching content.

The panel itself is made from Gorilla Glass 5, not the Gorilla Glass 6 that the Galaxy S10 has. Now I do have one scratch already this is from about 3 weeks of daily use compared to my S10+ that I’ve used daily for more than 2 months and it’s still flawless.

But you see, these are not the reasons why I think that this is the best display on any smartphone. There are 2 other reasons why I think that.

The Infinity Panel is what allows the 7 Pro to have a notch less display

The first being the fact that there is no notch or camera cut-out at all on this! Thanks to this, you can enjoy FULL SCREEN content without ANY interruptions at all! This is something that we were hoping for in 2020 or even later but OnePlus has already managed to do it, by using Samsung’s New Infinity Display technology.

The second reason why I think that this is by far the best display on any smartphone, is the refresh rate. You see, the 7 Pro has a 90Hz refresh rate panel vs the 60Hz that regular smartphones have. This means that you get 50% more frames for the animations that you see on the display which means that everything you do is 50% more fluid than on other smartphones. So scrolling through the menus or through a website is buttery smooth, everything feels and looks amazing! A night and day difference from a Galaxy S10 or even an iPhone XS Max.

A comparison of the displays between the OnePlus 7 Pro (Top) and the Samsung Galaxy S10+ (Bottom

The only downside that I found in terms of the display, is that it doesn’t get as bright as the S10’s and I’ve also found that the S10 does indeed deliver richer colors when watching content on YouTube and better HDR tone mapping but these are only noticeable when comparing the 2 side by side, other than that – this is an outstanding display!

CAMERA

Ok, time to talk about the camera because this has always been the most controversial thing about OnePlus phones. They offered great specs, great performance but the downside has always been the camera, it just didn’t compare with Google, Samsung or iPhone cameras, and with the 7 Pro it’s pretty much the exact same story.

On the back we have a triple lens camera module, similar to the S10+ or the Huawei Mate 20 Pro or P30 Pro but we have a main 48MP f/1.6 aperture sensor. However, this never takes pictures in full 48MP resolution and instead you get 12MP images out of this. The 2nd module is an 8MP f/2.4, 3X optical zoom one, but it’s actually just 2x optical zoom and the rest is done with that 48MP sensor. This means you get 3x “lossless” zoom essentially. Finally, the 3rd module is a 16MP f/2.2 aperture wide angle module which I do like a lot, since you can get so much more in the shot.

Camera Comparison between the OnePlus 7 Pro and XS Max. Note the lack of definition on the bushes in the OnePlus 7 image

In day time it’s pretty good! It’s very comparable to competition. I did find the images to be a bit too soft which is ironic considering that these should be the sharpest with that 48MP sensor, when the other 3 smartphones all have 12MP sensors. The HDR processing is decent as well but not as good as on the competition.

The night shots were actually better than I expected, better than on the iPhone XS Max but not as good as the S10+ or Pixel 3XL.

It’s video capabilities were also really good as well. It has superb stabilisation and 4K 60 video recording, I loved taking videos on this, however it was nowhere near as good the XS Max.

So the camera hardware is pretty good, definitely not the best one out there but still good. However OnePlus did released about 3 noticeable camera upgrades since it came out including; improved HDR, Night Mode capabilities and video recording, so it is definitely a better camera now.

Ok, but what about the front facing camera? How is it or more importantly where is it? Well, in order to make that display truly notch and punch hole-less OnePlus included the camera underneath the display and it uses a motorized pop-up system in just 0.53 seconds. It does close automatically in case you drop your phone, and according to OnePlus it will withstand over 300,000 openings and closings which should last you for at least 5+ years.

You can use it to unlock the phone but it’s not as secure as a fingerprint reader, so I personally would avoid it.

Quality wise I really do like this front facing camera. It’s a 16MP f/2.0 aperture sensor and it takes some very good shots. In some cases even better than the Pixel 3 and the iPhone XS Max.

So overall we have good hardware, but the software needs more tweaks. Luckily OnePlus is releasing constant software updates to improve the camera and considering that this is a $670 phone, the camera’s more than capable enough for that price.

PERFORMANCE

But what about the Performance?

Well, I’m happy to say that out all of the upsides that the performance on this phone is my favourite by far!

Spec wise, this thing is fully packed. We have the Snapdragon 855 Processor, 128GB of storage as the baseline and 6GB of RAM and then you can also get a higher end 256GB version with 12GB of RAM which is absolutely nuts!

The cooling pipe found in the OnePlus 7 Pro (Source: JerryRigEverything)

The 7 Pro is noticeably faster by a large margin than my S10+, Pixel 3 and even my iPhone XS Max which costs double of what the 7 Pro does. Apps launch in just a fraction of a second, and they stay open in the background for ages, I could go back 15 apps and still find the app fully open which is crazy! If you combine this with the 90Hz refresh rate display, the new UFS 3.0 storage (this makes it the only smartphone in the world which gives you read speeds up to 1.7GB/s), and OnePlus’s OxygenOS (which is slightly modified version of stock android that lets you change the accent colors, navigation bar and more), then you have the fastest smartphone on the planet!

Also, if you’re into gaming, this is an amazing device to play your games on. With that 90Hz refresh rate panel, you can game up to 90 fps, connect gaming controllers, and you even have a 10 layer heat pipe in the 7 Pro, which helps keep temperatures down during long gaming sessions.

Overall, performance wise, this is the best smartphone that you can get at the moment, for day to day use at least.

SPECIAL FEATURES

When it comes to Special Features the 7 Pro is lacking, but I’ll start with what the OnePlus 7 Pro does have.

First off, fast charging is insanely fast on this phone! It uses OnePlus’s proprietary Warp Charging 30 technology which charges the 7 Pro at 30 Watts and you get 50% charge in just 20 minutes which is insane! This is the fastest fast charging on any smartphone at the moment. Also the charger does come bundled inside the box, unlike Apple’s.

We also have stereo speakers now with a side facing speaker on the bottom and then the earpiece also acts as speaker itself. The sound quality is good, not as good as the S10+ or the Xs Max, but very close.

Also, I love the fingerprint sensor on this. It’s not an ultrasonic fingerprint reader like on the S10, but an Optical one, which is inferior from a hardware perspective since it uses a camera rather than soundwaves to read your fingerprint, but it is much faster than the S10+ one. I’d say it was the fastest and most accurate fingerprint reader I’ve ever used on a smartphone to date.

OnePlus have added a new haptic engine to this which is amazing. It’s very similar to the one inside the Pixel 3 which means that you not only get haptics or small vibrations when using some UI elements, but you also get the best typing experience on any smartphone which is also thanks to that large 6.67 inch display.

You can easily mute your phone or turn vibration on using the mute switch, which only Apple uses aside of OnePlus, as far as I’m aware at least. This means using a hardware switch rather than having to do it from the UI.

However, the 7 Pro it does lack in a lot of areas where others don’t.

For example if you really care about a headphone jack, there isn’t one here. I actually prefer wireless headphones but I can see why this could be a huge downside for some.

There’s also no microSD card support at all which again, not really a downside for me since I mostly use cloud storage and everyone should, but if you need more than 256GB then a Samsung phone is one of the last few options left.

But the main downside here for me is that there is no wireless charging at all on the 7 Pro. Now OnePlus’s excuse for this was that their Warp Charging was much faster, which I agree it is much faster than any wireless or even wired charging standard that we have today. But after using so many smartphones with wireless charging, I’ve even installed wireless changing pads in my home and office and the fact that I cannot use my OnePlus 7 Pro with any of them is very disappointing. You might expect this from the regular OnePlus 7 but not the Pro. Yes, I know wireless charging isn’t great but it‘s extremely convenient and for convenience purposes, I’m willing to accept a slower charge.

The Pixel (Left) has an Always On Display whereas the OnePlus 7 Pro (Right) requires a tap to wake

Another issue is that there is no Always On Display at all on this. Always On is one of my favourite features ever, in a smartphone. Being able to see the time displayed, all the time, or the notifications without having to tap the display to see them is such a brilliant thing to have. Samsung has had this for years, Google has it, even LG has it but Apple and OnePlus don’t. And whilst you can install some 3rd party Always On Display apps they will just kill your battery in a matter of 2-3 hours. I just couldn’t find one that worked well enough.

Now, there is also no official water resistance rating on this device. OnePlus did say that they did that in order to keep the cost low, which makes sense. They did add some rubber seals to the ports so technically it is water resistant to rain and splashes, but we just don’t know to what extent. So I wouldn’t use this anywhere near a swimming pool or even listen to music in the shower, like I do with my S10 or XS Max. This isn’t a big downside since manufacturers don’t cover water damage anyways, but it still gives me a piece of mind if it has an official rating. Otherwise, like I said, I tend to avoid using this near water or steam.

BATTERY LIFE

When it comes to battery life, the 7 Pro comes with a pretty big 4000mAh battery. Which does last me for quite some time but it’s not as large as my S10+ which has a 4100mAh battery. However, it definitely lasts me longer than my XS Max does.

Having that insanely fast 50% charge in just 20 minutes is a life saver but this also means that I need to pack that Warp Charger every single time I travel with the 7 Pro because since Warp Charging is a proprietary technology, the 7 Pro does not support the more common USB type C Power Delivery standard. So you need that Warp Charger every time you travel, if you want that 50% in 20 minute charge. If you didn’t take it you could use a MacBook charger for example, but the 7 Pro would charge very slowly

But for me the biggest downside to the 7 Pro’s battery is that it doesn’t support wireless charging.

CONCLUSION

So overall what’s my opinion on the OnePlus 7 Pro?

Well, it’s definitely not perfect. It lacks many features that other high end and even some low end smartphones have today, such as wireless charging, an Always On Display or a great camera. I mean the Pixel 3a which costs half of what the 7 Pro does, has a much better camera.

But it does have the best display in a smartphone, the best daily performance on a smartphone, the best fast charging in a smartphone and also in my opinion, the best Android Overlay in an android phone which is even better than Google’s stock android since it does give you more customisation.

And considering that it does all that at almost half of what an iPhone XS Max costs that is seriously impressive so, good job OnePlus!