Ever since the ‘OnePlus’ brand came into existence just over 5 years back, it has time and again proven itself to be worthy of the tag line it initially went with, ‘the flagship killer’. And once again, after delivering multiple flagship killers over the last few years, OnePlus has delivered the OnePlus 7 series smartphones. And these smartphones, are definitely here to kill those flagships.
To start the proceedings, we would take up the factor that has always given OnePlus the edge — its aggressive pricing. And once again, the company has played well on that front. For its Indian consumers — which make up most of the market for OnePlus — the company has debuted two phones, a OnePlus 7 Pro and the OnePlus 7. The latter starts at just ₹32,999 and gives you top-of-the-notch Snapdragon 855 processor. It has options to provide you with up to 8GB of RAM. The phone however will only be available starting June, and will not retail in the US.
The most important of those launches however, is that of the OnePlus 7 Pro. The phone is a performance beast, offering you a full body QHD+ display without any notch or hindrance whatsoever. It comes with the latest SD 855 chip under the hood, with an increased focus and overall use of the chip’s AI capabilities. The chip is a result of a 7nm fabrication process. A gigantic 12GB RAM will at least try to ensure that you are able to avoid those occasional lags that come in Android while switching apps or multi-tasking. However, those lags have got more to do with Android in itself and not the hardware. Nevertheless, with the company’s critically acclaimed Oxygen OS in place, those should become rare.
Cameras are where things become more interesting. The company has gone ahead with the much rumoured pop-up selfie camera, something that we have become habitual to seeing in Oppo’s most recent flagship line-ups. Clearly, OnePlus has used its parent, Oppo, as a testbed to see market reaction to the mechanised selfie camera setup. And the market has reacted well.
In terms of rear camera, you get a three-lens 48 megapixels camera setup, with wide-angle lens. It comes with dual Optical Image Stabilisation. The usual stuff — portrait mode, panoramas etc. — are all there. The cameras have 3x optical zoom, making sure that your zoomed shots become as crystal clear as they can get.
In terms of availability, OnePlus 7 Pro will go on a flash sale in India, on May 16th at 12 PM. The OnePlus 7 does not get a definitive launch date, but has been announced to a June launch.
