OnePlus 7 Pro Review UK

OnePlus 7 Pro Review: Overview & Price

So you’re interested in the OnePlus 7 Pro, perfect because in this review we go over everything you need to know about the phone.

We even showcase the best OnePlus 7 Pro deals right here in the UK, ensuring you get the best deal possible from the likes of EE, Vodaphone and O2.

The OnePlus 7 Pro release date was back on the 14^th of May 2019, and it took the smartphone market by storm with its incredibly high specs and performance power.

OnePlus has priced the 7 Pro at £649 here in the UK, placing it in the mid-range market with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S10, OnePlus 6T and Xiaomi Mi 9.

Here are some of the OnePlus 7 Pro specs;

• OxygenOS 9.5.11
• 128/256GB internal storage
• 6/8/12GB RAM
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset
• 4000mAh battery

This phone is not here to take part, but here to take over with its incredibly high spec but yet a rather affordable price.

Smartphone companies tend to love the word “Pro” and we have come to realise that this usually means an extra couple of megapixels on the camera or a slightly brighter display.

However, OnePlus have rightfully given this phone the Pro name, as it really does blow most of the competition out of the water when it comes to value for money.

You may be wondering is the OnePlus 7 Pro waterproof? Find out shortly in this review.

Let’s take a look at what this phone has to offer…

OnePlus 7 Pro Review: Design & Display

So when it comes to the OnePlus 7 Pro design, it really doesn’t feel the same as anything OnePlus has produced before.

The OnePlus 7 looks and feels extremely similar to the OnePlus 6T, but this year’s Pro model of the phone is more unique.

However, we definitely noticed a resemblance to the OPPO Find X as OnePlus do use their production facilities to build their phones.

One of the first things we noticed during our time with the OnePlus 7 Pro is that it is absolutely huge, 6.7-inches in fact.

The display of the phone is actually 88.6% screen to body ratio that is one of the biggest we have seen in any smartphone; the whole front of the phone is display.

The rounded edges of the device make it feels easy to hold in your hand and provide plenty of grip for the device.

The phone comes in three colours; Mirror Grey, Almond or a Nebula Blue.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on the Nebula Blue OnePlus 7 Pro for just over a week to conduct this review, and we have to say this colour is stunning.

The phone has a matte finish that adds to the grip of the phone and makes the device look great.

Fingerprints are hard to come by on the phone too, and we found that even when using the phone without a case it doesn’t collect fingerprints.

OnePlus were kind enough to include a clear plastic case in the box though for extra protection.

The actual frame of the OnePlus 7 Pro is made from metal that is sandwiched between two Gorilla Glass panels.

This glass ensures that the phone is scratch resistant for those times where you have your car keys and phone in the same pocket.

The OnePlus 7 Pro design can actually be compared to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S10, however there is no hole-punch from facing camera here.

So where is the front-facing camera then?

Well, it actually uses a motorised pop up which comes out of the top of the phone when you open the front-facing camera, this is great as it allows for much more real estate on the front of the display.

Just be careful not to drop the phone when you have this open, as the last thing you want is for the pop-up camera to snap off.

We did test this during our time with the phone, and dropping the phone from around hip height does give the camera enough time to suck back into its socket, but we would still be extremely careful when having the front-facing camera open.

This is thanks to fall detection that is used in the device; OnePlus even say that the mechanism has withstood 300,000 actuations during their testing.

The camera pop up does have the face unlock feature, and yes it is quick enough to support this, which is great.

This ensures your phone is safe from intruders and can only be accessed by you.

One downside to this motorised pop up is that this compromises any IP water resistance rating. This means that the OnePlus 7 Pro is not waterproof.

We were not too sure what to make of this though being as OnePlus released a video of them dunking the phone in a bucket of water, so the phone clearly has some form of water resistance even if it does not have an official IP rating.

In terms of buttons on the phone you will find a physical alert slider along the right-hand side of the phone, with volume rockers on the left.

However there is no dedicated Bixby button on this phone, nor is there a 3.5mm headphone jack.

This means if you are a music lover you may want to invest in some wireless headphones such as the Samsung Galaxy Buds to make life a little easier with this phone.

The OnePlus 7 Pro display is where the phone really shines, it has arguably one of the best smartphone displays to date.

This phone has the first-ever 90Hz 1440p OLED display in any smartphone anywhere, and we were seriously impressed.

OnePlus even came out with an independent body rating from DisplayMate of A+ before the phone was released, to diminish any doubts of how great this display is.

As previously mentioned there is no front-facing camera on the actual display that makes room for more real estate, this is fantastic for viewing Netflix and YouTube.

The bezel-less 6.67-inch ‘Fluid AMOLED’ display really does give you a truly fantastic experience when watching videos, playing gamers or even browsing through social media.

The colours pop and are extremely vivid, colour accuracy is great and brightness levels are strong too.

Although not quite as good as you would find on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S10, but the display is still plenty bright for almost any environment, even direct sunlight.

The Quad HD+ panel is even HDR10 compliant, with support from companies like Netflix which previously only offered OnePlus devices limited support.

Those that love to watch movies on their handset will be blown away by the OnePlus 7 Pro display, we have to say it is up there with the best we have ever seen.

The 90Hz refresh rate also means that scrolling through social media is smooth, without any lag or delay. After using this phone it really does feel different going back to a 60Hz refresh rate device.

OnePlus have followed suit in regards to having the display melt over the side of the phone, this does help with viewing content but we did find that we would accidentally bring up the notification shade now and then.

This is the same with the likes of the Huawei P30 and Samsung Galaxy S10, but after a couple of days using the phone, we soon found the best position to hold the phone in.

Now with the phone being 6.67-inches this does make it extremely tall, it feels huge when holding it in one hand and we can confidently say that this is definitely a two-handed phone.

Those with small fingers will take some getting used to this device, but once you are then we feel the larger phone brings a whole host of benefits, especially for content lovers out there.

OnePlus has also implemented an in-display fingerprint sensor; they have even enlarged the sensors read area and reduced the latency on the scanner.

See Related:

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This means that the phone will open lightning-quick from simply pressing your finger on the display, this works great for online banking, storing passwords and multiple other security purposes on your smartphone.

As a whole, the OnePlus 7 Pro display is easily one of the best we have ever used, if not the best.

We absolutely love how accurate the colours are and the 90Hz refresh rate really does make a difference even in everyday use.

OnePlus 7 Pro Review: Performance

The fun doesn’t stop there, the OnePlus 7 Pro specs are incredible too, and this phone is lightning fast thanks to its whopping specs.

The phone comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset backed up with up to 12GB of RAM.

The tagline for this phone is ‘Go beyond speed’ which says a lot in itself, OnePlus has focused on raw performance power to keep this phone breezing through even the most demanding tasks.

Running applications on this phone is a piece of cake, multi-tasking with games, downloading and watching the video all at the same time is effortless.

The OnePlus 7 Pro is built for performance power, and it doesn’t half have some horsepower.

One reason the phone runs so effortlessly is due to the 10-layer liquid cooling system which is underneath the glass of the device, this does exactly what it says on the time and ensures that the phone doesn’t get hot, even when 4 hours into a PUBG session.

Of course, we tested this phone on a couple of our favourite games, the first being PUBG.

We could play PUBG in max graphics for long periods without a single bit of latency, this was an incredible experience especially for gaming on a smartphone and one that is simply unmatched by most smartphone out there.

We also moved on to another one of our favourite games which is Runescape, this is an MMORPG and is known for being quite intense for mobile phone, but to no surprise the OnePlus 7 Pro glided through even on the highest graphics without a single hint of lag or interference.

The OnePlus 7 Pro also has a new ‘Haptic Vibration Motor’ that provides instant feedback when gaming, so if you are playing Asphalt for example and crash, you will instantly feel the phone vibrate, similar to the DVS which is in the Sony Xperia XZ3.

This makes for a surreal gaming experience, and helps to keep you immersed in your gameplay; it can be turned off if it becomes annoying after a while too.

When it comes to internal storage, the OnePlus 7 Pro has you covered too.

With either 128GB or 256GB of memory, the phone has more than enough storage to keep tons of music, photos and applications stored on the device.

Whilst there is no MicroSD slot here, we do feel that 128GB or certainly 256GB is more than enough for most users.

The OnePlus 7 Pro also includes ‘Universal Flash Storage 3.0’ which is essentially a way for the phone to speed up reading and writing speeds.

Throughout this OnePlus 7 Pro review we have to say we were most impressed by its specs and performance.

The OnePlus 7 Pro uses Oxygen OS on top of Android 9.0 Pie, this set up is super clean and easy to use and is found on most 2019 Android phones.

One of the first things we immediately noticed about the software, is that the phone literally glides through the UI with no lag or stutter.

Switching between apps is lightning fast, as it multi-tasking.

New with this software is a built-in screen recorder, this is great for online gamers especially for the likes of PUBG.

The screen can be recorded and then immediately shared with friends or uploaded to YouTube.

There is a pretty cool ‘Zen Mode’ that is essentially like the digital wellbeing app used in other Android phones.

This feature encourages you to put down your phone; entering Zen Mode will restrict your phone usage for 20 minutes.

You may be thinking why is this a good thing? Well now in 2019 most people are using there phone all day, every day, so it’s great to be able to put your phone down and spend quality time with family or some precious alone time.

We love that OnePlus and other mobile manufacturers promote this from the core of their smartphone, as it can really be a great tool for kicking that social media addiction and mental health in general.

The software also comes with other cool features too; you can long-press the long press of the power button to activate Google Assistant.

Another great perk of Oxygen OS is that it is usually at the front of the line for software updates, meaning whenever Google releases a security patch or any update, your phone will be one of the first to receive this.

OnePlus 7 Pro Review: Camera

One of the biggest downfalls to OnePlus phones over the last couple of years has been the camera, that’s why we were delighted to see that the OnePlus 7 Pro camera has took a completely new approach.

The phone has a 48MP lens with an f/1.6 aperture and OIS, then a 3x telephoto lens with optical zoom at 8MP f/2.4.

Finally, the OnePlus 7 Pro has a new 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle lens, used for capturing fantastic wide shots.

This phone of is the first of the OnePlus phones to use a triple camera, and we have to say it is a lot better than the set up on the OnePlus 6T.

That being said it certainly isn’t up there with the likes of the Huawei P30 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S10, but it is a big improvement.

When looking for a mobile phone people tend to think the more megapixels on a camera the better, but this is not necessarily the case, and there are multiple other factors to take into account.

The OnePlus 7 Pro camera shots come out with lots of detail and great dynamic range, especially when in daylight, however, we did find that the software tends to overexpose images ever so slightly.

We also noticed that barely any of the images have a shadow, just like Huawei were doing with their P30 and P30 Pro.

The OnePlus 7 Pro has a ‘Night Scape’ mode which works extremely well to capture high-quality images at night, we found this to be fantastic and up there with the camera dominators of the smartphone world.

The ultra-wide-angle is a little disappointing as it is noticeably softer than the main 48MP lens.

We did find it took a lot longer to focus in with this lens, so if you’re taking a photo that is going on social media we wouldn’t definitely stick with the main camera.

The ultra-wide-angle still has its place though, it’s great for taking selfies with friends as you can fit everyone in the shot without having to bunch everyone together.

The lens gives you a huge 117-degree field of view, so there are a whole host of amazing shots you can capture with this lens.

The 8MP telephoto lens with OIS is strong too, not quite as strong as seen in the OPPO Find X or OPPO RX17 Pro, but still a great lens with plenty of zoom.

Around the front of the phone is a 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera, as mentioned this is motorized and it works pretty well.

One of the most fascinating things we found about the front-facing camera is that OnePlus actually put up a video on YouTube of them tieing a cable to the pop-up camera.

They have attached a huge cement slab, demonstrating the pure strength of the pop-up lens, giving you absolute certainty that the camera won’t just snap off with a single drop to the ground.

Images from the selfie camera come out with plenty of detail and strong dynamic range.

Even when using the selfie cam in the dark we were impressed, we managed to snap a few Instagram ready selfies with ease.

The OnePlus 7 Pro camera is able to record video in up to 4K too; footage comes out with lots of detail and great colour accuracy.

Thanks to the stabilisation the footage is super steady, meaning you won’t need to invest into a tripod or have a super steady hand for some decent footage.

OnePlus 7 Pro Review: Battery Life

The OnePlus 7 Pro has a 4100mAh battery that can keep you going all day even when using the phone rather intensely.

This, of course, depends on the individual using the phone as gaming and streaming will drain the battery much quicker.

We did notice that because the phone runs at 90Hz refresh rate, we found the battery life drained a lot quicker than the likes of the Xiaomi Mi 9 and Huawei P30.

This can be prevented however as in the settings you can drop this down to 60Hz that is what most smartphones in 2019 use.

The OnePlus 7 Pro also comes with Warp Charge 30, which is their lightning-fast charging tech, we feel this makes up for the lack of wireless charging.

Plugging in for a couple of minutes will see you getting charged up extremely quickly, 20 minutes plugged in gives 50% charge.

The OnePlus 7 Pro has to be the fastest charging phone we have ever used, it charges up extremely quick which is super convenient for us as we are always in and out of the house.

Even when charging the phone using a cable in the car has the same speed of charging.

As a whole the OnePlus 7 Pro battery is extremely impressive, granted there is no wireless charging but the speed of what this phone does charge more than makes up for this in our opinion.

OnePlus 7 Pro Review: Summary

So should you buy the OnePlus 7 Pro?

Well if you are looking for a 2019 smartphone which is affordable, yet has one of the best displays and performance specs in any smartphone then yes.

One of the key aspects we loved about this phone is how fast it is, it responds instantly to your demands when navigating around the device, no lag or waiting around which we love.

Given how cheap the OnePlus 7 Pro can be attained on a contract deal here in the UK, we do feel this phone offers great value for money.

The display is incredible too, watching Netflix and YouTube on this phone is a dream thanks to it having no notch or hole punch cut out for the camera.

Speaking of the OnePlus 7 Pro camera we found this to be a little gimmicky, but it is pretty cool and it does stand the test of time, we were gobsmacked when watching the video of OnePlus attaching a cement slab to the motorised pop-up.

OnePlus 7 Pro 8 GB RAM 256 GB UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Mirror Grey (2 Year Manufacturer Warranty) 

The OnePlus 7 Pro battery is also super impressive too, with lightning-fast charging speeds that have you topped up to 50% in a matter of minutes, we really didn’t have much to complain about with this phone.

We would have liked the OnePlus 7 Pro to be waterproof, but as it has a motorised pop up this is understandable.

We hope you have enjoyed our OnePlus 7 Pro review as much as we have enjoyed writing it.

You can check out our other mobile phone reviews here.

Feel free to check out the best OnePlus 7 Pro deals in the UK at the top of this post.