The OnePlus 7 Pro promises some very cool features — but the pop-camera is a little questionable

• The OnePlus7 Pro launched in India yesterday and features a pop-up selfie camera.
• Among all the upgrades that OnePlus introduced to its new flagship series, the pop-up camera seems to be the most questionable choice.
• The pop-up camera may have a ‘wow’ element but it comes at a considerable cost.

The newest OnePlus flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 7 Pro, has a lot of cool features like a notchless display, triple cameras on the back and stereo speakers — a major improvement over the single bottom edge speakers on its previous phones.

The Chinese smartphone maker even adjusted the one feature that users have been begging to be fixed — a more pronounced alert vibration on the OnePlus 7 Pro.

In fact, the phone’s upgraded features are what make for the fact that the new line-up by OnePlus looks a lot its predecessor, the OnePlus 6T.

But, when it comes to the phone’s camera, OnePlus seems to have made a questionable choice. The OnePlus 7 Pro jumps on the bandwagon with Vivo and Oppo to feature a ‘pop-up’ selfie camera.

The somewhat ‘awkward’ camera design is still in its nascent stages and has faced its fair share of the problems on devices that have already given it a shot — the Vivo Nex and Oppo Find X.

Standout or worst fear

Admittedly, the pop-up camera on the OnePlus 7 Pro is a ‘wow’ factor for the user, as well as for the people who’re selling the phone.

But, the one second of wonder as the camera slides out from the phone washes away as paranoia starts sets in — wondering whether or not the camera with pop-up on its own when its lying idle around in your bag or your pocket.

It’s not a far-fetched theory considering that this scenario already played on the Vivo NEX devices where the camera started to pop-up on its own without any prompting by the user.

Beware the pop-up camera

Even if you put technical glitches aside, having any kind of sliding mechanism on a mobile phone may not be structurally sound idea, especially when it comes to one of the most important parts of a phone — its camera.

Nokia’s applied similar mechanics to bring about the sliding QWERTY keyboard on the Nokia N97, which was a ‘regrettable failure’ by the company’s own admission.

Let’s start with the fact that having that kind of space open to the elements leaves it vulnerable to all sorts of dangers like water damage or even something as simple as dust getting into the wrong nook and cranny.

The kind of casing used on flagship devices, like the OnePlus 7 Pro, makes it difficult to perfectly seal off the sliding area.

The phone’s ‘wow’ factor also has an energy cost. The movement might be a lot of fun to look at but it also eats up more power zooming up and down.

Unlike the Oppo Find X, the OnePlus 7 Pro has a in-screen fingerprint sensor which marginally reduces the power consumption since you won’t be exclusively dependent on Face ID in order to unlock the phone.

And then, there’s the question of reliability. No matter how full-proof the mechanism behind OnePlus 7 Pro’s pop-up camera, at the of the day, it may make the phone less durable. Brute force isn’t the only factor that can ruin a good camera.

The pop-camera definitely gives OnePlus an edge over Samsung, Google and Apple by making the OnePlus 7 Pro stand out among the Pixels and iPhones of the world. And, at the end of the day, it does make the HDR 10+ display possible.

But, the real question is whether or not the a feature like the pop-up camera will work in OnePlus’ favour or be its downfall — or maybe even have no effect at all?

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