OnePlus held an online-only launch event for the global unveiling of its 2020 flagship phones – OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro. Over the years, the company has managed to deliver premium experience while offering excellent value-for-money.
In 2020, OnePlus phones are more expensive than any of their predecessors – the OnePlus 8 starts from 41,999 INR in India, while the OnePlus 8 Pro starts at Rs. 54,999. The increase in prices is justified by the addition of “flagship features” like fast wireless charging and certified water and dust resistance rating.
And just as last year, OnePlus has put its muscle behind the display in order to stand out and to gain a competitive edge over other flagships.
OnePlus 8 Pro review in Indian context will only be possible once the coronavirus situation improves and the company decides to make its 8-series available in India.
In the meantime, we decided to take a note of global tech media and their finding in OnePus 8 Pro reviews. Let’s begin!
OnePlus 8 Pro Price and Specifications
| Phone | OnePlus 8 Pro |
| Display | 6.78-inch, AMOLED 1440 x 3120 pixels, HDR 10+120Hz Gorilla Glass 6 |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 |
| RAM | Up to 12GB LPDDR5 |
| Storage | Up to 256GB UFS 3.0 |
| Rear camera | 48 MP, f/1.8, omnidirectional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS48 MP, f/2.2 Ultrawide8 MP, f/2.4 3X Hybrid zoom, OIS5MP Depth |
| Front camera | 16MP |
| Software | Android 10 – based OxygenOS 10.0 |
| Battery | 4510mAh30W Warp charging30W wireless charging |
| Color | Glacial Green, Ultramarine Blue, Onyx Black |
| Dimensions and weight | 165.3 x 74.4 x 8.5 mm; 199 grams |
| Prices | 8GB + 128GB – Rs. 54,99912GB + 256GB – Rs. 59,999 |
OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Design
OnePlus 8 Pro isn’t a radical change over 7T Pro, but there are several refinements. Most reviews suggest that the most noticeable change here is the placement of the selfie camera. Instead of a mechanized pop-up selfie camera, the OnePlus 8 Pro features a 3.85mm small punch hole drilled on the top left corner of the screen.
Pocket-Lint reviewer Cam Buton notes the OnePlus 8 Pro shape and size is identical to the Oppo Find X2 Pro. Most reviews have praised the OnePlus 8 Pro glass back which is offered in both glossy and frosted matte finishes. The phone has an aluminum side rail with an anodized finish for a premium look and feel.
Like most previous generation OnePlus phones, the 8 also features the signature OnePlus alert slider, volume rocker, and a power button. Robert Jones of T3 calls the addition of IP68 water and dust rating as ‘a happy change’. Most of the OnePlus 8 Pro reviews gave the phone’s design and build quality a thumbs up!
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OnePlus 8 Pro Display
At the OnePlus 8 Pro launch, the company proudly boasted about its 120Hz QHD screen. The OnePlus 8 Pro ships with a 6.78-inch Fluid AMOLED screen which matches Samsung’s Galaxy S20 screen in both resolution as well as refresh rate.
Yes, there’s an option to choose between 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rate and scale down resolution FHD+ for battery conservatives. During the launch, OnePlus also boasted the 8 Pro display as the first 10-bit color display in any Android phone, 240Hz touch sample rate, 0.4 JNCD color accuracy, and 1,300 nits of peak brightness. OnePlus also spoke about MEMC, a dedicated chip for video interpolation.
Most reviews showered praises on the OnePlus 8 Pro display’s buttery smooth animations and scrolling experience. Tomsguide even called the OnePlus 8 Pro screen ‘dazzling’. In their testing, they even found it to be more color-accurate than the Galaxy S20 Plus and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
All that said, not everything is perfect here. Folks at Android Police and Droid-Life pointed out their discomfort under dim screen brightness. Droid Life finds the low point of brightness not low enough, while Andriod Police noticed uneven colors in dark theme backgrounds at night. Dylan Raga from XDA Developer also touched upon regressions in black rendering, grayscale consistency, and uniformity issues in his OnePlus 8 Pro review and has will be publishing a detailed display analysis soon.
Apart from these minor issues, the OnePlus 8 Pro display seems to be a treat for eyes. All most all reviews point to its near-perfect color accuracy, excellent brightness levels, smoothness. We are also intrigued to test it out to offer our analysis of the OnePlus 8 Pro screen.
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OnePlus 8 Pro Performance and Software
OnePlus phones often touted as the fastest Android phone in the market. The OnePlus 8 Pro seems to be living up to that title. It seems to have impressed most reviewers with its swift performance. The OnePlus 8 Pro rocks a Snapdragon 865 chipset with LPDDR5 RAM and USF 3.0 storage. Most reviewers were provided OnePlus 8 Pro’s 12GB variant.
None of the publications mentioned any performance-related issues with their OnePlus 8 Pro devices. They all echoed similar sentiments suggesting that the phone felt zippy and fluid during their testing. The OnePlus 8 Pro benchmark results posted by Android Authority also sings in the same tone.
On Geekbench 4 test, OnePlus 8 Pro scores 4195 in single-core and 13,142 on the multi-core test. Similarly, on 3D mark benchmark test, OnePlus 8 Pro clocked 7,085 in Sling Shot Extreme – OpenGL Es 3.1 and 6,678 on Sling Shot Extreme – Vulkan parameter. Android 10 based Oxygen OS 10.5 is what drives this phone. Like always, the OxygenOS seems to be hitting the right notes.
OnePlus 8 Pro Cameras
Optics is one segment that used to be an Achilles heel for OnePlus phones in the past. So, does the 8 Pro manages to match the flagship counterparts this time around?
The OnePlus 8 Pro includes a quad-camera setup featuring a 48MP (Sony IMX 689) main shooter at f/1.7, a 48MP (Sony IMX 586) ultra-wide-angle at f/2.2, an 8MP telephoto at f/2.4, and a 5MP color filter lens. Also, there’s a 16MP selfie shooter on the front.
Well, reviews portrait a better picture in comparison to the OnePlus 7T Pro cameras. “Respectable — but not perfect — camera,” that’s how TheVerge summed up OnePlus 8 Pro camera in their review. The 48MP primary camera managed to impress most reviewers with the level of details and color accuracy. OnePlus’ new UltraShot HDR capabilities are said to be a reason for improved performance.
With long-exposure enabled night-mode, OnePlus 8 Pro low light performance is very much close to competition, at least that’s what most reviews point. Review from the Verge pointed dim lighting as a challenging condition for the OnePlus 8 Pro camera. Tomsguide review suggests that OnePlus 8 Pro camera falls short against the competition in portraits and close-ups.
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OnePlus 8 Pro Reviews: Takeaways
Every detailed review of the OnePlus 8 Pro posted so far suggests that OnePlus has managed to up its game a couple of notches to compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S20 and Apple iPhone 11 Pro. OnePlus aced in display, design, performance and software. As for the optics, it has managed to narrow the gap a little more but is still not at par with the Samsungs, Apples, Huawei’s, and Googles of the world.
The OnePlus 8 Pro India availability details are yet to be announced. As soon as the OnePlus 8 Pro India launch takes place, we will be posting our OnePlus 8 Pro review keeping Indian context and users in mind. So stay tuned for that!
Thanks for the valuable review…