OnePlus 8 || Flagship Killer to Killer Flagship

OnePlus has always been well-known for delivering flagship killer devices within budget. But suddenly they are moving away from that direction and getting all ready to come up with some real flagships. And it seems like 2020 is the year as they are releasing their OnePlus 8 series which can actually be categorized in the flagship section in spite of being called the flagship killer. Well, OnePlus 8 is one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2020

 

• Price in Amazon
• Price in OnePlus Website

Our Short Review

Specifications

General

Body

Display

Platform

Rear Camera

Front Camera

Battery

Storage

Network & Connectivity

Sound

Features

Unboxing

OnePlus has always been surprising us with its unique types of packaging and this time it is no different either. The phone comes in a pretty tall red box with its branding on top. Inside the box you will get the following stuff:

• First comes the elegant OnePlus 8 handset itself
• A transparent silicon case with the branding “Never Settle” on its black
• A familiar red USB Type-C cable
• A 30W Warp charging brick
• A sim ejector tool which is attached to an invitation letter from the OnePlus CEO, Pete Lau
• A quick start guide along with some stickers
• Documentations regarding Safety Information, SAR value, Red Cable Club, etc.

Design & Build

Well the new OnePlus 8 comes in three very vibrant colors which are Glacial Green, Interstellar Glow & Onyx Black. The Glacial Green variant of the phone has got a matte glass finish to it which should help hiding the smudges. But if you are a fan of glossy finish, you can go for the Onyx Black or Interstellar Glow version despite having the risk of catching greasy fingerprints.

The phone weighs about 180 grams according to the official specs although you will get a very comfortable grip and premium hand feel aided by the curved edges made at the glasses of both front and back part of the phone which are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

As they meet together to a tapered metal frame in the middle it feels so compact and light in your palm instead of giving a cumbersome feeling. The phone is really solid and well-built we can say altogether. Although the design lineup of this phone is not that of changed compared to the previous phones from OnePlus.

The display of the phone is of 6.55 inches Fluid AMOLED panel which comes with the 3D curved edges, full HD plus resolution & a refresh rate of 90Hz. You will get a screen protector pre-installed on the phone.

The curves are very friendly in comparison to other curved phones out there as you will face an ignorable rate of accidental touch on the edges while operating this budget flagship.

On top of the screen, a sharp cutout has been made in order to place the single punch-hole camera. Going down on the screen, we get the Optical Fingerprint Reader underneath the display which is really fast and accurate at the same time, as usual.

Moving on to the back panel, we see the OnePlus tagged name on the downside and on top of that we get a triple camera setup along with an LED flash light and OnePlus branding below.

On the right-hand side of the phone you will get the power button on top of which lies one of the key features of OnePlus – The Alert Slider and on the left-hand side there is the volume rockers.

On the very top, there is the secondary microphone and on the bottom part of the phone, we get speaker grills, USB Type-C port, primary microphone, and a hybrid sim slot which uses dual nano sim only.

We do not get to expand the storage of the phone through any kind of micro SD card but this should not be a problem as the phone will be offering two humongous variants regarding internal storage which are of 128GB & 256GB.

The phone is going to create an ambient environment of music through its dual stereo speakers which is Dolby Atmos supported. And yes, there is still no sign of a 3.5 mm headphone jack as it seems like the time to say “Goodbye Old Friend” to this feature in OnePlus phones.

Also, there is no notification light on this device but OnePlus has introduced Horizon Lighting so that you do not miss any.

OnePlus has always been offering water and dust resistance in their phones unofficially but never actually certified them with an official rating. Thankfully, there has been a change this time because the carrier models (Onyx Black or Verizon’s exclusive Polar Silver)  in the US will be offering this feature although for most regions, the OnePlus 8 will remain without official resistance.

Display

The display on this phone is sort of the same as the OnePlus 7T & 7T Pro with some nice curves on the edges. It features a 6.55 inches FHD plus Fluid AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080×2340 pixels, 90Hz refresh rate, HDR 10+ support, 20:9 aspect ratio, 88.7 percent STB ratio and a pixel density of 402ppi.

The color reproduction, touch responsiveness and the smooth fluid-like the experience of this device are absolute stunners which can easily lead it to be one of the best displays out there at this price range.

The phone is having a sandwich design, built of metal & glass where both the front and the back panel are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and curved at a 90degree angle till they connect to the aluminum frame in the middle. And if we are to talk about the bezels, the phone is bezel-less on the sides but the head & chin area is having a little bit of thin bezels which is ignorable.

You will get some discrete features on this display such as night mode, reading mode and the 90hz refresh rate will be providing you with an ultra-smooth experience while multitasking. But you can change the refresh rate down to 60Hz anytime if you are intending to have a better battery backup from the device. In case you are wondering, the phone has a WidevineL1 support which will allow you to stream HD videos on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Camera

Well OnePlus is coming up with a different and lesser camera array on this device. The rear camera section is such as below:

• Primary Lens: 48 MP Sony IMX586, OIS, EIS (F/1.75, Pixel Size: 0.8 microns)
• Ultrawide Lens: 16 MP (F/2.2, 116 Degree FOV)
• Macro Lens: 2 MP (F/2.4, Pixel Size: 1.75 microns)

The main camera usually takes 12 MP images in Auto Mode using the pixel bending technology but you can also take High-res 48 MP images with the help of a quick tap option on the camera app. The primary camera supports Optical Image Stabilization. You can swap to the ultrawide angle lens from the icon menu of the camera app and if you want to fit a bit more into the frame, you have also got a 2x digital zoom.

For taking macro shots you just have to do a little tap on the flower type icon from the app which will allow you to capture a bit more detailed images when you get the device really close to the subject. But the quality of the images taken by the macro lens is quite disappointing whereas you will not get to see any telephoto action on this device either.

For video, you can shoot 4K videos at 60 frames per second with a bit of Super Stable Mode action on the go. As well as, the phone offers the option for recording slow motion videos of 720P at 480FPS and 1080P at 240FPS. Beside that, you will get the phone hosting some bonus features including portrait mode, panorama, time lapse, nightscape, a pro mode, super macro mode and so on. The phone has a Camera 2 API support so that you can easily install and use GCAM on this device.

Now, if we move on to the front camera, we get a 16 MP Sony IMX471 F/2.45 single punch hole camera on the top-left corner of the screen. The front camera takes decent photos on day to day usage but the one thing which has to be mentioned here is that it enhances your vlogging experience as it has got EIS feature.

So, the camera performance of the phone has not been looked after as the images do not feel like the delivery of a flagship-level device. Although it takes decent and sharp photos in daylight, the quality of the images on this phone could have been better comparing to the price range.

Performance

Software

Talking about the software, first, we have to go for one of the most user-friendly and clean UIs out there, which is OnePlus’s very own, Oxygen OS which is Android 10 based. People are fond of Oxygen OS since they do not get to see any bloatware or advertisement like other operating systems and it also comes with a lot of customization. In this OnePlus 8 series the company has presented a little bit of improved Oxygen OS for example you will notice some advanced toggles on the camera app.

The phone runs on the powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 octa core Processor which is integrated with 5G chipset (Snapdragon X55) and the GPU embedded into this chipset is Adreno 650. The funny part is that you can upgrade the GPU driver of this chipset like you do on your PC.

Overall, the chipset is one of most powerful chipsets of this time as it gets a 25% boost on its CPU & GPU from the previous Qualcomm SD 855 and thus, lets the device perform an AnTuTu Benchmark Score of around 564708. So, literally anything you throw at it, the device is going to run just fine.

 As for the storage section of the phone, there are two variants with the LPDDR4X 12GB RAM in 256GB UFS 3.0 (2-Lane) internal storage and the other with 8GB RAM in 128GB internal storage. But there is a specific Indian variant available of this phone which comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB ROM.

All the sensors are available on this phone along with the connectivity of Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6 and NFC support.

Gaming

If we talk about the gaming performance of the phone, you can play any type of game on this device in the highest graphics whether it is COD, PUBG, Fortnite, Asphalt 9 or graphic intensive games like Life After. The chipset embedded in this device is mostly prioritized for its gaming performance. Thus, the phone offers a really smooth gaming performance.

And the Graphics Optimization option from the Game Space of the phone is going to take your gaming experience to another level by enhancing the shadow and lighting in most of the games.

Therefore, we must mention that the phone heats quite a bit after some gaming sessions but you should not face any kind of thermal throttling or lagging issues resulting from that.

Battery

The phone comes with a large non-removable battery of 4300 mAh with the support of OnePlus’s specialized Warp Charge 30T (5V/6A) Fast Charging. OnePlus claims that the fast charging adapter they have included in their box, can charge the battery up from 1% to 50% in just 22 minutes. But the phone does not support wireless charging.

Apart from that, OnePlus has always been excellent for moderate battery backup. If you are a heavy user, you will get a battery backup of about 6 hours at 90Hz refresh rate but you can extend this lifetime for about an hour or more by just switching down to the 60Hz refresh rate.

Final Thoughts

After all these chitchats, we can come to a verdict that the performance of the OnePlus 8 is nothing less than a flagship device although some of the critics would deny placing it in the flagship section. Everything is amazing enough about this phone to take it on the flagship level except for the camera.

If you are up for a fast and butter-smooth experience from your phone then the new OnePlus 8 is surely your piece of cake to go for. But if you prioritize the camera quality of the phone that you are purchasing, you should check out something like Pixel 3A, Galaxy S10, or iPhone SE instead.

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