When the OnePlus 7 Pro was launched, the company claimed that one of the Sensors in the triple-camera unit will be able to capture a picture with up to 3x optical zoom. Turns out, that wasn’t really true. The telephoto lens maxes out at a rather low 2.2x which is nowhere near what OnePlus claimed at the launch event.
This was discovered by a Reddit user who disclosed that the field of view of the image captured in Portrait mode is noticeably wider than the one clicked through the “3x zoom” mode. That is odd considering the fact that both of the modes use the telephoto lens which doesn’t explain why the image in Portrait mode is wider than the zoomed picture.
It was also found that the OnePlus phone captured portrait shots in 13MP while zoom shots from the same lens resulted in 8MP images. As it turns out, OnePlus is actually using a Samsung S5K3M5 sensor which actually outputs 13-megapixel pictures and the zoom mode essentially crops the edges of the picture to deliver a 3x-like zoom in 8MP quality.
What this means is the telephoto lens inside the OnePlus 7 Pro is actually using a 57mm lens in contrast to the 78mm lens that the company claimed. This 57mm focal length of the lens brings down the zoom factor from 3x as advertised to 2.2x in real life.
While OnePlus still isn’t using Digital Zoom on the subject and processing it, it’s falsely claiming a higher focal length that has a difference of 21mm, which is noticeable in terms of camera functionality. A higher focal length in this scenario would mean better focus from a distance with a different perspective.
This change can distort a subject’s face if you’re clicking a long-distance portrait of a person. This difference in focal length cannot be simply brought by cropping the edges as at the end of the day a 57mm lens and a 78mm lens will have different pictures at different angles if clicked from the same distance from the subject.
In a statement to Android Central, OnePlus clarified that the 3x zoom on the OnePlus 7 Pro is “lossless.” It said “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 utilises all 13 megapixels from the sensor in the telephoto camera”.
Do you notice now that OnePlus doesn’t even mention its “optical” zoom not even once in its statement?
This isn’t the first time, OnePlus has falsely marketed the camera on its smartphone. The OnePlus 5 was earlier claimed to have 2X optical only to later be revealed that the camera only zooms to up to 1.6x optically.