I liked this particular phone the minute I saw it at the launch. Sure, there’s a “Pro” model, but I was more impressed with the design of this one. I’m not saying that the other one is bad, because it isn’t – this one was just my preference.
This is available in frosted silver or this glacier blue version and I’ll be breaking the review into daily updates. It’s a corker of a phone and you can get it right now for £549 from their website unlocked. There’s a super-quick Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus CPU, 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage.
The screen has Corning Gorilla 3D Glass and is a very slick 90Hz 6.55″ 2400×1080 AMOLED panel which kicks out 402PPI with HDR10+ and a 1,000 nit brightness. OnePlus have improved the new OxygenOS so that there’s better animations and a responsive visual experience, making it just gorgeous on the super high-refresh screen. It also gets a 20:9 aspect ratio to make the big dimensions more manageable in your hand.
This all sits on Android 10, which you’ll have out of the box without needing to upgrade.
Other specs include an in-display fingerprint reader, GPS, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, Dobly Atmos (which is really good), NFC and 4G. The 3800mAh battery charges in no time at all thanks to that Warp Charging technology, but there’s no wireless charging.
Around back there’s a 48 megapixel ultra wide triple camera with 2X optical zoom.
Today is my first day with it and I’m taking it out of the box. This, I have to say, is quite an unboxing experience. You’re impressed straight from the word go. Great presentation, really thoughtful. I’m a cold-hearted reviewer now. I’ve seen more smartphones than I can care to count and it’s kinda taken the edge off the whole “unboxing experience” to a degree. This, though, stood out.
So, let’s do our first day in video..
I mentioned (after stumbling slightly) that camera setup. Here’s a look at the results of shots taken in the rain. You can see how the rear lens goes up to that max 2X optical zoom and produces very clear results before then going further with digital zoom..
This is a “normal” shot, which was taken on the 48 megapixel lens
Above, a “normal” shot. As you saw on the video, the weather hasn’t been kind. Next, a wider shot. You zoom “out” from the main normal view to automatically (and seamlessly) switch to the wider-angled lens. Then you get this…
Using the wide-angle lens. I capture some of the fence in the foreground here and you can see more on the left and right.
Then I take it up to the maximum optical zoom before any clever digital geekery kicks in…
Maximum OPTICAL zoom (2X). This gets a nice clear image of that main puddle in the centre of the field. This uses the telephoto lens
10X digital zoom used.
Above is the maximum 10X zoom and you can see that we’ve got some pixelation creeping in here but, hey, we’re at 10X zoom and I’d expect that. I’ll be covering more about the camera tomorrow so keep tuned for the next episofde