OnePlus 7T Pro First Impressions

Fri 18 Oct 2019, 22:30

I got the phone yesterday, the 17th (release date), so here's my quick impressions:

• 90 Hz isn't as revolutionary as I thought it would be.
• In-screen fingerprint reader seems to have gotten better since the 6T? I remember having lots of issues with it on the 6T, but on this one I've had no issues.
• The motorized pop-up camera is stupid, but cool. I think it's better than having a notch.
• No notch.
• It's a beautiful phone with the whole front being a screen and the rounded edges.
• However, in usage, the rounded edges are pretty annoying. Text along the edges get warped which is very striking to me.
• Screen isn't always on to show the time etc. I kinda loved that with the Pixel 3a.
• It's ridiculous how fast it charges. In one instance I plugged it in at around 35%, did my back exercises which takes like 10-15 minutes, and then I unplugged it and it was around 75%. It's crazy.
• The haptic feedback feels good. I really liked it on my Pixel 3a too but I didn't realize how "cheap" it felt, it was like the whole phone rattled. With this phone it feels more solid.
• It's huge and very heavy. When I'm up or walking around I don't mind the weight, but I do mind the size - it's hard to reach everywhere. When I lie down I don't mind the size but I mind the weight - it's very heavy to hold to watch videos on.
• I was pretty concerned with how the back looked, with that blue color, but in person I have to say I kinda like it.
• The phone is surprisingly not slippery. I remember the 6T being slippery as soap, but this one is quite comfortable actually.
• Auto-brightness sucks. It's really, really, really terrible. I never even considered turning auto-brightness off on my Pixel 3a or on any of my iPhones, but I had to turn it off here the first day. It never gets it right. Especially when in bright rooms it puts the brightness at like 30% which I can barely see.
• I have a bug where I can't see my music/podcast apps notification with the controls on my lock screen. They do however show up in the notification center if you pull that down. I never had this issue with my Pixel so I have to assume it's OxygenOS.
• Because the phone is so huge I have trouble with doing the back-slide gesture. I have to really reach with my thumb and even then I don't get it and have to do it a few times. I have considered switching back to buttons, but I don't want to, it feels so stoneage.
• Camera seems OK. I've taken a whopping two pictures with it. Here's a frozen pizza mid eating: ... and here's a squirrel, taken with the zoom lens (cropped so it's a landscape photo):

Overall, I like the phone. I like it alot more than I liked the 6T. With the 6T something just felt wrong instantly and I still don't know what it was. But with the 7T Pro I feel quite alright. I'm probably not gonna switch back to the Pixel 3a anyway, I'm already too used to the faster CPU and the extra storage. I mean I can live with 64 GB, but it's just much nicer to have 256 GB; it's so nice not having to think about storage at all.