The first OnePlus 5G phone ever, and the first 5G phone to launch on UK carrier EE, is the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, which you can preorder right now. You’ll get it next week, at which point you’ll be able to use the carrier’s 5G network if it’s available in your area. But how much does the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G cost? It must be more expensive than the OnePlus 7 Pro, which is already OnePlus’s most expensive 4G phone. Neither OnePlus nor EE revealed the price though, so I tried to dig it up.
The OnePlus 7 Pro 5G can only be bought directly from EE right now, with a plan that includes 5G coverage. The phone isn’t available directly from OnePlus UK for the time being, which means you probably can’t score an unlocked OnePlus 7 Pro 5G phone right now, even if you’re willing to pay full sticker price for it. At the same time, users should still know exactly how much it will cost, whether it’s a hot phone or not. When I asked about the price of the unlocked phone, I was told that the only price they have is the one available on EE.
Comparing OnePlus phones
As we told you the other day, the preorder page recommends a 30GB 5G Smart Plan of £69 per month, and a down-payment for the phone of £50 — that’s a total of £1,706 over 24 months for the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G and the accompanying cellular service:
Since EE’s website is the only authority on the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G price, we used it to determine the phone’s cost. I simulated buying two different OnePlus phones, including the 5G handset and last fall’s OnePlus 6T with the same plan — a 60GB Smart Plan. The thinking here is that EE’s monthly service for the same plan has the same price regardless of hardware.
For the OnePlus 6T (8GB/256GB), you’d have to pay £59 a month for 24 months as well as a £10 down payment — or £1,426 over two years. The same phone sells for £579 unlocked, which means you end up paying £847 for service, or £35.29 per month:
The OnePlus 7 Pro 5G (8GB/256GB) on the same plan costs £69 per month after £30 down payment — £1,686 over two years. Since we already calculated the base service cost without overages or other gimmicks, that means the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G costs exactly £839.
If that’s accurate, then the 5G version is £140 more expensive than the OnePlus 7 Pro 4G (8GB/256GB) model which costs £699 in the region. But how can we be sure?
Comparing 5G phones
We expect the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G to be cheaper than the Galaxy S10 5G, which is also available in the UK. The Galaxy S10 5G costs £1,099 in the region, whether you buy it on EE, Vodafone, or straight from Samsung. I know what you’re thinking: isn’t it easier to simulate getting the Galaxy S10 5G and the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G on the same EE 5G plan to find out the price of the latter? I went down that route as well, but the results were a bit different.
The Galaxy S10 5G on the same 30GB 5G Smart Plan I mentioned above cost £79 a month and £10 down. That’s a total of £1,906 over two years, which is £200 more than the total for the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G.
Subtract the price of the S10 phone, and you end up with £807 for cellular service over the period. After all the math, you end up with an £899 price tag for the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G.
The bottom line
The OnePlus 7 Pro 5G costs between £839 and £899 in the UK. I’ll remind you none of this is official, and carrier pricing isn’t as simple as I make it sound. The moral of the story seems to be that the 5G OnePlus phone is the cheaper option compared to the Galaxy S10 5G if you’re looking to use 5G in the UK right now. And if you want the OnePlus phone, then EE is the only place to buy it.
