A day ago, Digital Walker officially made the OnePlus 7 official in the Philippines. It's a handset with flagship specs at a highly competitive price tag of just PHP 26,990. Basically, it is a flagship worthy device with an upper mid-range price tag.
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| OnePlus 7, a powerful camera phone for less? |
It may not have the triple-cam of the OP7 Pro, but as expected, it still has promising cameras.
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| 48MP main cam |
At the back, it uses the flagship 48MP f/1.7 Sony IMX586 primary sensor with PDAF focus, OIS, and EIS. It is paired with a 5MP f/2.4 depth sensor for bokeh shots. OnePlus also added a dual-tone LED flash.
The back camera specs of the OP7 are identical to the similarly priced OPPO Reno.
But since, OP7 runs with Snapdragon 855 flagship chipset with Spectra 380 ISP, not the lower-end Snapdragon 710 of Reno, we can expect its output to be better than Reno and other phones with lower-end chips but the same cameras.
Like other new OnePlus devices, it goes with a Nightscape handheld long exposure mode.
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| 16MP selfie cam inside the notch |
For selfies, it goes with a 16MP f/2.0 Sony IMX471 sensor with portrait mode and screen flash.
Anyway, I know you are intrigued to see if its cameras are as good as it is on paper. Here are our first few shots.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Daylight 1 |
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| Daylight 2 |
In daylight, no problem. OP7 took the images the way they supposed to look. Details are crisp, white balance is accurate, contrast level is decent, and it doesn't look like an over-processed image. Just right.
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| Against the light |
For against the light shots, the auto HDR of this unit did quite well. It provided good exposure and respectable dynamic range. The HDR implementation of this unit is right up there with some flagship devices. Shutter speed and saving time won't be just as fast the normal daylight shots.
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| Normal, 2x zoom |
Sadly, the zoom of the OP7 is not optical like the OP7 Pro. Fortunately, its digital zoom is pretty good. Just take a look at the normal vs 2x zoom shot above.
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| Close to natural-looking bokeh |
The advantage of having a secondary depth camera is for natural-looking portrait shots. The OP7 did very well in this scene. Edge detection is flagship-grade. Only those super expensive camera phones with ToF lenses are better in my opinion. Depth estimation is better than most as well. The bokeh implementation of OnePlus is very good so far.
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| Another indoor bokeh shot |
And YES, most of the indoor shots I took are respectable to great. It is still rich in details with punchy colors. I just noticed that my indoor shots have a bit more saturation than daylight shots.
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| Dim |
On dimmer daylight scenes, OP7 still performed well. Noise is not that evident and colors are still quite punchy. My only issue is with the dynamic range. I wished that its exposure is a bit brighter as well.
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| Auto vs nightscape 1 |
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| Auto vs nightscape 2 |
In low light, it is not as good as the OP7 Pro with the brighter f/1.6 lens. But don't get me wrong, its 48MP cam with f/1.7 lens is still considered as great, especially for the price.
You will just notice grain and loss of details, dynamic range, and colors. The solution? The Nightscape mode!
The night mode of OnePlus can help you take brighter low light images with sharper details and punchy colors. 8/10 times, it works. 2/10 times, shots will look unnatural and oversharpened.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Daylight selfie |
The 16MP selfie cam of this thing is super impressive in my opinion. While it may not have the dual OIS of other camera phones, it still gets the job done.
Its field of view is not the widest, but daylight selfies are crisp and color accurate. I also like the fact that it doesn't make my face look too white or too dark. Details in the background are still present and I think its auto HDR is impressive.
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| Normal selfie vs selfie with face beauty and background blur |
Even the face beauty is not too much up to level 3. The thing that I like with its face beauty feature is it won't make you look too white with pinkish skin. It is still natural-looking. The bokeh is not perfect, but it is quite impressive especially that it only came from a single selfie cam.
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| Indoor selfie |
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| Indoor dim selfie with face beauty level 1 |
Indoor selfies are mostly okay as well. What surprised me is the selfie I took with minimal lighting. It is softer than daylight selfies (obviously), but colors are great and details are still considered as respectable. Exposure is just right as well.
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| Low light selfie |
Selfies in low light are okayish, but you can see that noise is more evident. The good thing? Exposure is still quite bright with good colors.
Quick thoughts
OnePlus 7 Pro's cameras can compete with some of the best and pricier flagship phones today despite its much lower upper mid-range price tag.
Thanks to its high-end chipset and flagship-grade primary shooter, it delivered images with the details, sharpness, colors, and exposure that is not that common at this PHP 26,990 price range.
I'm pretty impressed with digital zoom, bokeh mode, and even night shots as well. Even the selfie camera is SUPERB so far.
The only thing that I miss coming from other phones with 3 or more cameras like the OP7 Pro, is its lack of an ultra-wide mode for that extra versatility.
Stay tuned for our review!
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