Total VFM but OP is losing out on innovations. Review on OnePlus 7

I have been a loyal OP user for many years now. And I recently upgrade from OnePlus 6 to the 7. My review is from the perspective of a loyal OP user who is now a bit sceptical about the brand & how long will my loyalties withstand. Please do not get me wrong - I did give the phone 5 stars & I shall explain why my last statement is contrary to my rating.

First up - OP knocked the pricing out of the park with the OP7. I previously owned a OP6 8/128 gb version & I have been wanting to upgrade to 256gb since I use my phone extensively for taking photos & watching movies on the go.

The UFS 3.0 storage helps a lot with that. More over the 3700mah battery(from 6T) helps power through the day with ease. Certainly better than the 3300mah on the OP6.

Secondly, the speaker quality feels great. I can finally hear the phone ring in my pocket or in the other room. Something the 6 struggled with. The larger earpiece is also great for calls finally. The rather tiny earpiece on the OP6 made it tough to keep It in position to hear the other person while you are walking. I often found myself cranking the volume all the way to max on the OP6. However on the OP7, I dial it down to 20-40% and yet its loud for my ears.

Thirdly, the button placement is much better - especially the alert slider which is finally more ergonomic. Fit and finish is great as usual - as we have come to expect from OnePlus over the years.

Fourthly, the value for money is excellent on the OP7. In line with my first point. I recall paying 38k for the 8/128gb OP6 last year. And this year for 36k, I got 8/256gb OP7.

Lastly, after my OP6 trade-in and SBI discounts etc, I got the OP7 for 17k - which in my opinion is an excellent deal.

The obvious question is: why not the OP7 Pro? The Pro is the uber cool phone which everyone has been raving about. Here are my reasons:

I prefer the smaller footprint & size. Makes it easier to use single-handedly. Although a 6.4inch phone is not even close to ergonomically, And I personally found the weight distribution on OP7 to be far better than the Pro model. 200+ grams on the Pro is just out of my daily usage comfort zone.

The price - for 15k more, the incremental benefits was simply not worth it - for me. But I see a lot of people seeing excellent value for it might as well be worth the extra spend for many users.

I prefer not having any physical moving parts on my handheld devices. And no I do not find the pop-up camera concept. As a matter of fact, I might have considered the Pro had it been a hole-punch instead. The pop-up camera was the biggest reason why I decided to get the OP7 instead.

While the quad-HD screen & 90hz screen sounds futuristic - I am a simply guy & I prefer simplicity. A 60hz 400+ppi display is all you need for everyday usage. And I prefer the longer battery backup any day. Besides content for 90hz is limited making it just a gimmick. I have seen a few friend who got the Pro and bumped the resolution down to 1080p from quad-HD just to conserve battery. I find it funny. Like - they paid for the feature & don’t use it.

Moving on to the last part - as to why I think that I find myself a bit skeptical OP7 & my brand loyalties feel shaky.

To be honest - there is no big innovation I see coming from OP at this moment. OP seems to be falling into the trap that Apple did over years. Between the OP6, 6T & 7 - there is little to no change besides the internals(the processor & may be memory speed). If anything - they have constantly dropped features which will always be a sore point for a brand loyalist. First the 3.5mm jack was dropped in 6T but there was some saving grace with the type-c to 3.5 adaptor in the box. With the OP7, they took that adaptor away as well - forcing you to either buy an adaptor or move to BT.

The in-screen fingerprint reader is also a sore point. It just isn’t accurate. Especially, once a tempered screen guard is applied. This is a known fact about the 6T. But I miss the OP6 biometric which was way more accurate & quick. Even the ultrasonic sensor on the Samsung is way more reliable. The fingerprint reader on OP7 is disappointing to say the least - definitely a downgrade in my opinion from OP6.

The screen & good at this price & suffices daily usage needs. I would have preferred a more brighter screen - than the 6T screen handed down to save costs.

While the Sony IMX586 sensor is all the rave across all mid-range flagships these days, the image processing is lagging behind on OP. Ofcourse a few SW updates will probably fix that - and with a Google Camera app installed - it already improves the output by leaps & bounds. That said - the secondary camera is useless & I don’t know why OP decided to put that in. When Google can offer excellent Bokeh effect using a single lens & SW magic. Either a wide angle lens or Telephoto lens instead of the silly 5mp secondary cam would have been more useful. Even a macro mode Lens would have been a far better upgrade.

Now I am not going to beat around the topics like no IP rating or Memory card etc - those are in the past & most people have moved on or rather accepted it.

But there is no innovation to wow OP users & keep them engaged. I still prefer the simplicity, speed & the clean SW experience - probably the reason why I continue with OP. But is that enough in the long run to keep customers engaged.

Overall the OP7 is a great phone & offers a snappy experience with a clean Android OS running the show for you. But I constantly find the wow factor missing from each newer generation release. I hope the next 7T or 8 changes my opinion & keep me glued to the brand.