One of the most anticipated phones of the year arrived recently from OnePlus; the low-priced, high-specs, alternative to premium phones. The latest phone from OnePlus, the OnePlus 7 Pro is the first phone to market to feature the latest storage standard, UFS 3.0, which promises storage performance that is twice as fast as its predecessor. The phone also features a high refresh rate display, rated at 90hz (most phones are rated at 60hz). With a higher refresh rate, animations, like swiping, playing games, and general use of the phone, will appear much smoother than otherwise.
In addition, the phone carries over, and improves, on last year’s features and innovations, like an on-display fingerprint sensor, amazing memory options (now with an option of up to 12GB of RAM), great build quality, larger battery (4000 mAh vs 37000 mAh) and an upgraded camera array (3 cameras instead of 2, and a larger main sensor).
Another big feature is the hidden front-facing camera, or selfie-cam. In order to make the front of the phone all-display, they utilized a pop-up front camera like others have done (Xiaomi MI Mix 3 and Vivo Nex). And to make things even more interesting, OnePlus included a self-retracting feature into their phone when it senses a sudden change in acceleration (like when you drop your phone). When the built-in sensor feels the phone may be falling, it will retract the front-facing camera automatically. It does this in order to protect the camera and mechanism from damage.
Many people have written about the OnePlus 7 Pro and their positive experiences, and I cannot disagree with them. The phone is great. But to me, the value for an upgrade is not there.
Let me explain. When you compare the new phone to the previous model, the OnePlus 6T, it’s difficult to convince yourself to pay the extra $120 for an upgraded screen and storage. After all, the screen and storage is really the only things that truly separate both of those phones.
| Feature | 7Pro | 6T | Comments |
| Finger-print reader | X | X | Deal breaker feature, both have it |
| Future-proof RAM | X | X | The 7 Pro has up to 12GB, but in my opinion 8GB are good enough |
| Qualcomm Snapdragon | 855 | 845 | Unless you play games, everyday users will not notice a major difference between the two |
| QHD Display | X | The 6T has a lower-resolution, FHD (1080p) display. The 7 Pro, QHD, display is nice, but again, unless you play games, not a deal-breaker | |
| UFS 3.0 | X | This could be a big deal for photographers and videographers. The faster you can move data in and out of storage, the better. |
The price increase from the OnePlus 6 to the OnePlus 6T was $30. Most of us can swallow $30, even $50 for the latest model, but $120? That’s too much. This is even more true when you consider you can get a new OnePlus 6 on Amazon, unlocked, for $450, that’s a $220 savings.
Is the latest OnePlus phone great? Yes, absolutely. Is it worth $670 (or $750 with 12GB of RAM)? That depends. If this is your first OnePlus and you are coming from a Samsung or Apple phone, probably. But if you are upgrading from the previous model of the OnePlus family, I don’t think so. Unless you are a gamer, or have a very specific reason to require the higher resolution display and/or faster storage, the OnePlus 6 or OnePlus 6T will do just fine.
