OnePlus fudged OnePlus 7 Pro 3x optical zoom
The OnePlus 7 Pro may feature the most impressive camera setup OnePlus has ever featured on a smartphone, but it seems like they have done an oopsie. While most of the marketing material OnePlus has been pushing out boasts of “3x Optical Zoom”, the reality is that it falls a bit short of that.
Instead of a true 3x zoom, the OnePlus 7 Pro’s telephoto camera only offers 2.2x optical zoom. It instead arrives at 3x zoom by cropping the sensor. Speaking of the sensor, OnePlus actually used a 13MP sensor for the telephoto camera, but touts an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto camera, because of the way OnePlus crops the image to give you the appropriate level of zoom.
The Redditer who identified this issue found it when he switched between the OnePlus 7 Pro’s portrait mode and the main camera mode at 3x zoom. As the portrait mode uses the telephoto camera, the resulting field of view should be exactly the same, but it wasn’t. Also, images taken with the portrait mode sport a 13MP resolution.
It’s a pretty curious decision on OnePlus’ end, as OnePlus could have advertised the OnePlus 7 Pro as having 3x lossless zoom and 2.2x optical zoom, and no one would complain. Also, they could then market the OnePlus 7 Pro as having a 13MP f/2.4 telephoto camera, which should come across as more impressive than 8MP.
OnePlus has provided an official response to Android Police:
The OnePlus 7 Pro has 3x zoom with no digital zoom or loss of detail. The telephoto camera serves two main purposes: 3x zoom and portrait mode photography. It will switch the field of view depending on the camera mode. With 3x zoom, the telephoto camera delivers the advertised lossless 8 megapixels images. Portrait mode utilizes all 13 megapixels from the sensor in the telephoto camera.
This oopsie by OnePlus has even slipped DxOMark’s scrutiny, as the renowned camera reviewers mentioned that the OnePlus 7 has a 78mm-equivalent lens, when it is actually a 57.2mm-equivalent (2.2x zoom) with lossless cropping to 3x zoom.
OnePlus 7 Pro Specs
- Snapdragon 855, octa-core up to 2.84 GHz, 7nm FinFET
- Up to 12GB LPDDR4x RAM
- Up to 256GB UFS 3.0 storage
- 6.67″ WQHD+ Fluid AMOLED display, 90 Hz refresh rate
- 48MP f/1.6 + 8MP f/2.4 3x telephoto + 16MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle
- 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera, popup
- 4000 mAh battery, 30W Warp Charge 30
- 6GB + 128GB: RM2999
8GB + 256GB: RM3699
12GB + 256GB: RM4199
Pokdepinion: Well, OnePlus definitely shouldn’t have called it optical zoom. Let’s hope other manufacturers don’t follow in OnePlus’ footsteps.
