Now OnePlus didn’t just also come out with a OnePlus 8 pro. This is the phone one plus would
mark it as flagship killer right but we all see OnePlus slowly moving away from that direction.
Now they have a different slogan fast and smooth and you can tell they’re getting away from the
flagship killer thing now that they actually make a flagship but this is exactly what I’d expect from
the oneplus that I feel like we’ve always known.
So this OnePlus 8 starts from $699 and it has the bleeding edge high-end specs you’d want for
fast performance snapdragon 865 with the 5G modems in there. 8 or 12 Gigs of fast RAM, UFS
3.0 storage, Wi-Fi 6 that’s all nice, it’s a fast phone, definitely love that but there are a few things
here cut down to save cost.
If you work for OnePlus and you started off with this nine hundred dollar phone and you’re like
alright, what are we gonna cut out of this phone to get the price way down, but still give people a
pretty close to a flagship experience. What would we do?
Well this is what they did. First of all, its overall a bit of a smaller form factor. Now it’s by no
means a small phone, it’s definitely still big it has a 6.55 inch display which makes it still a little
taller than the iPhone 11 pro max.
So it’s not small but it is a little bit smaller than the OnePlus 8 Pro and it’s also definitely lighter
it’s noticeably lighter to me. It’s 180 grams on paper to be exact and to me it feels comfortable in
the hand.
Then there’s that display it still has the optical fingerprint reader underneath, it’s still HDR 10
plus certified and still super color accurate and much brighter than last year which is key.
So it’s super visible in outdoors but now it’s 1080p resolution instead of 1440 that’s a smart
move that they’ve done in the past and it’s also now high refresh rate at 90 Heartz instead of
120 Heartz.
I can personally see the difference between 90 and 120 Heartz, but it’s small and you have to
be looking for it. But I’ll definitely prefer either of those two 60 Heartz because that difference is
visually huge so this is still high refresh rate. So this is a cost-saving trade-off that makes perfect
sense, it’s still a really smooth responsive screen.
We’ve seen other phones bring high refresh rate down in price so it doesn’t really make this one
stand out anymore like it used to but that’s not a complaint at all.
I’m clearly a fan of high refresh rate and I’m glad to see it everywhere. OnePlus is trying to cut
down on things you get to say. You know high refresh rate and high resolution are nice. But if
OnePlus go too high on those things, OnePlus cut into battery life so OnePlus is giving you 90
Heartz and 1080p and that’s a good balance to still give you fast and smooth while being
friendly to your battery and that’s turned out to be absolutely true.
This phone has a 4300 mAh battery and it’s been impressively good on battery life, lasting me
easily through the end of every day. It’s honestly slightly better battery life than the OnePlus 8
Pro.
There’s three more trade-offs IP68, wireless charging and the cameras. The OnePlus 8 doesn’t
have an IP68 water and dust resistance certification. But this is another one of those instances
where oneplus would probably claim. They’ve put the necessary seals and pieces inside the
phone and tested it themselves, but then passed on the savings of not getting it officially tested.
This phone straight up doesn’t have wireless charging at all. Same deals last year it has a glass
back but it doesn’t have the wireless charging coil to take advantage of that glass back.
Now at 700$, there are a way lower number of phones at this price that don’t have wireless
charging, so it’s much harder to justify. But that’s always been I guess OnePlus thing, you know
saying wireless charging isn’t fast enough for their standards.
So again there’s still fast water charging here still Warp charge 30T. So zero to 50% in 25
minutes and it’s included in the box too. So all that good stuff, but yet no wireless charging.
There is a different and lesser camera array in the OnePlus 8 on paper it’s a 48MP main sensor
and a different one from the Pro. Then a 16MP ultra wide camera and a dedicated 2MP macro.
No telephoto and that’s the correct one to leave out, but it’s funny there’s still a telephoto button
in the camera app which punches into 2x like LG did with the V60 that’s just a digital crop in,
from the main sensor which honestly looks just as good if not better than a cheap telephoto
would have.
Now this dedicated macro camera, it’s kind of fun but honestly not very good quality and it’s of
2MP like it’s just lacking quality. It’s not a great dynamic range and not great color overall quality
is pretty lacking.
It’s one of those cameras that you’d forget about after the first week. Then the main camera, it
does have a 48MP number attached to it but again it’s a step down from flagship quality in
sharpness and detail and in colors and just overall performance.
It feels like the classic OnePlus of the past, amazing everything else on the phone. If you’re
serious about camera quality you probably shouldn’t be looking at this phone. You should check
out something like the Pixel 3A or even the brand-new air quotes, brand new iPhone SE which
looks like it’ll have a flagship quality camera for 399$, an iPhone quality camera for 399$.
The interstellar glow color of OnePlus 8 is a nightmare honestly, it’s definitely unique. Its finish
underneath the glass gives it a different refraction index from different angles. You get all kinds
of wild colors reflecting of it, but it’s a hundred percent one of those phones that looks better on
camera and in promos than it does in real life.
Aside from the crazy color of this phone it’s got a great display it’s great performer for the price
obviously really high in specs. It’s not the king for this price but it’s great performer, it’s got the
fast charging it’s included in the box, it’s got Oxygen OS.
We frequently get software updates too so, it’s a clean package and it also happens to be one of
the absolute cheapest 5G compatible phones on the market right now. This is a nice bonus for
longevity having the phone for four or five years but it’s not amazing, it’s not some special phone
like it used to be and really it’s the stratification of phone prices over these past couple years
that has caused this situation.
OnePlus 8 at price for $699 you could get or if you wanted a smaller phone you could get
Samsung Galaxy S10e or if you absolutely had to have 120 Heartz you could get the Poco
phone X2 or if you had to have a gaming phone you could get the Red Magic phone or if you
absolutely wanted the best camera quality you should go for Pixel 3A or even the new Apple IPhone SE 2020.
OnePlus 8 is a nice phone it’s not special anymore but it is one of the favorites in this awkward
middle child price point of $699 to start but look around there’s a whole landscape out there.