Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat for the price
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2024
1 week update, changed my rating, tldr; 10/10, excellent phone. Excellent price, excellent performance, 11/10 fingerprint reader that almost never fails to respond for my phone unlocks, work logins, banking, passwords. Camera is very responsive and app is quick to open, the shutter speed is quick and the photos are clear more of the time. The phone is powerful, it's easy to use with plenty of customizable features and compatible with my third party launcher as well. Sound quality is great, connectivity to all devices and network is great, battery life is excellent.
previously:
It's 2 generations newer than my previous phone, the OnePlus 6T. I had bought that in a similar fashion when it was only 2 years old, and despite this phone being 2 years newer than that one, it is currently 4 years old. Mine had only one issue, which was the USB C port and features never allowing me to connect to a PC for file transfer/photo transfer or anything, no matter how much troubleshooting was done. I had gone as far as replacing the USB ribbon beneath the battery and still unsuccessful in being able to file transfer, however, I had opted for WiFi-Direct anyway and backed up most of my videos.
With this one, there are more inconvenient mishaps such as the bottom of the phone having questionable touch feedback and response, often receiving a response then refusing to cooperate when attempting to drag items from the app drawer or my launcher's dock. I've also had issues with my home launcher crashing or becoming unresponsive, however that issue has not been troubleshooted just yet. It was not difficult to set up, it was far more easy to set up than my previous phone so I am glad that there are so many options and improvements in technology, it has many improved and even new features compared to the 6T and the original OnePlus One. I love how easy the fingerprint reader is to use here, as I use it for all of my personal apps, my phone gave me some issues often.
I love the customization options, although some that I had preferred and had previously are not available currently. I love the gestured navigation as I had been introduced to that with my recent tablet purchase a year ago, I wish I could choose which gestures to use for what and keep the navigation bar while also customizing their functions just like the 6T. I was not able to set up a custom live wallpaper background and lock screen as the app does not seem to be available for this device, I would use a third party app to showcase particular albums of my device and customize slide animations and swap frequency. I love that the switch remains the same-- on the side of the phone for Silent to Ring mode. The vibrations are quite strong for this model, love the 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage.
I had an issue with WhatsApp not finding any backups for my previous phone despite it being connected to my phone number/google and backing up every day at the same time, so perhaps that can be resolved and hopefully is not a device issue. I was not able to transfer my clock alarms and settings over, which was deeply upsetting. I very much dislike the hopelessly limited font settings for the device and how they override most of the text options through various apps. I hate that it was not simple finding icon pack settings and being able to restore my former icon pack options and selections, along with live wallpaper settings. I love the thoroughly in-depth device settings that allow me to enable and disable just about every permission and WiFi/data usage for all of my apps, hiding them to reduce app drawer clutter or locking them behind a passcode for privacy/security, however, I wish there were an over-arching option to just select which apps to prioritize/maximize security/disable rather than going through EVERY option and every app individually... I will keep notes of my experience with this phone and update this review as things change or improve. Best regards.