When the big brand OnePlus launched its most premium and expensive phone, the OnePlus 8 Pro in the market, it created ripples. The flagship space which only consisted of iPhones and Galaxy S and Notes now had a worthy contender.
Apart from being the best phone for its price, OnePlus 8 Pro is offering the best from the android side.
Earlier this brand, used to manufacture cheaper flagship-like phones with few corners cut. This was done to ensure the cheaper price tag and was called the flagship killers and is now making a proper flagship Phone.
Let’s see How this OnePlus 8 Pro has been for me in this past 1 month.
Overview
I bought this OnePlus 8 Pro from the store because it wasn’t available online and many other fans, like me were left disappointed. But never the less, this phone was actually worth the wait.
The specifications that this phone offers are top of the line. It comes with a 6.78″ 1440p 120hz AMOLED Curved display with a 10bit display with HDR10+ and MEMC technology. You have Snapdragon 865, 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM, and UFS 3.0 Storage.
On the Camera front, we have Sony IMX 689 48MP main camera and IMX 586 Ultra-wide lens along with 8MP telephoto and 5MP colour filter. On the front, we have a 16MP camera.
I must add that this Phone is an overkill. Other features include an IP68 rating, wireless charging, 5G support which are new for OnePlus and the pretty loud dual front-firing speakers.
(OnePlus 8 Pro store package.)
Build and design
The build is the normal Glass sandwich-type with an aluminum frame that has flat edges on top and bottom. We have this curved display which falls and blends really smoothly.
At the bottom sits the USB-C port, speaker grill and SIM card tray. You will find the volume rocker on left, the power button and the signature notification slider on the right.
The back has a matte finish and doesn’t attract fingerprints with ease. The design language is like the signature style of Oneplus, which has been observed from OnePlus 6 and afterward. The phone feels premium and solid.
There was one con, that I faced. I found the phone to be slippery. The matte finish along with the curved display makes it super slippery and hence I recommend you to get a cover as soon as possible if you plan to buy this. Also, the weight distribution is a little bit top-heavy, which means that it tends to fall back if you’re using it with one hand and not holding it properly.
Performance
It won’t come as a surprise if I say that this phone is the fastest phone in the market because it is! Period.
It’s not just due to the fact that it has one of the fastest processors we have in the market. But due to the fact that the entire experience you get with oxygen OS and 120hz display is not something you will get on any other phone at the moment.
The animations are smooth and fluid. Apps open without any hiccups and obviously no lag while playing any game. I have tried playing PUBG for over 2 hours on this at HDR + Extreme and it ran with no frame drops at all. Though it got warm but didn’t heat a lot.
The experience of using a 120hz display is very amazing if you have not used it before. And the fact that you can have a QHD+ display and 120hz at the same time (unlike Samsung S20 series, where you have to choose higher refresh or higher resolution) shows the power of this phone.
One thing I noticed was that when you’re using FHD+ with 120hz, the experience is much more smooth compared to QHD+ and 120hz, you can feel the minor drag. The memory speed is very fast, you can notice this while transferring files from your computer.
PUBG at HDR and extreme settings
Camera
On the camera front, OnePlus was never good, to be honest. Their older phones had just a decent camera and nothing special. But this time, they have hit the ball out of the park.
This is one of the best cameras out there for sure.
The main sensor has a high dynamic range. The colours are pumped up when you click the picture. For example, when you shoot a portrait, the image may not be true to life which is often a bit dull, but a bit more vibrant and the background doesn’t have blown away highlights. The images are crisp and colours are really good.
Normally when we shift from wide to the ultra-wide lens on phones, the quality is night and day but with this phone, the quality is very consistent. Thanks to the IMX 586 sensor, the ultra-wide images are superb. Probably the best ultra-wide camera. The main camera struggles with focusing on closer objects since the camera sensor is very large and hence can’t focus properly and to fight this problem, the ultra-wide lens act as a macro lens and now you have the best macro lens in the market because of the sheer level of details you can capture.
Now coming to the controversial Colour filter camera, it was already disabled by the time I got this phone which is sad.
Telephoto lens offers 3X zoom and does its work pretty good but not as good as the other two lenses. The images are soft, colours aren’t consistent like you get with the other two but you can zoom up to 30x digital zoom. Though you can’t do crazy zoom like galaxy S20 ultra. But why do you even need 100x zoom in your phone apart from being a creep?
The front camera captures good pictures that are sharp and colour accurate but when going out on an extremely bright day, the background is completely blown out and hence the dynamic range is limited. The punch hole is really very small though.
Main Camera sensor showing excellent dynamic range. Notice the shadows and the highlights are well preserved.
3x Telephoto Camera. The images are bit soft but colours are on point.
Histogram of the macro image.
Display
Let’s come to the main highlight of this Phone which is this gorgeous curved display. This QHD panel is great for viewing content be it Netflix or Youtube. With 120hz display, you get this option to tune up your videos to higher frames, thanks to the Memc technology but no matter how cool this sounds, the result is kinda artificial and looks too smooth for the eyes. So, don’t turn that option, please.
Even though display is the biggest strength of this phone, it is also its biggest weakness. This phone suffers from a lot of display-related issues. One of them being green tint on the display which I had on the bottom half and it wasn’t just me, many others are complaining as well. You see shadows on the display near the camera cut outline when the brightness is very low.
Also, using this phone under lowlight is a pain. The display brightness doesn’t go too low. The lowest brightness limit was increased after an update because of the display issues people were facing at low brightness and similarly it doesn’t go too bright in the dark. Not a huge issue. You can live with the normal brightness but do get your phone replaced if you do see issues at low light.
Battery life and charging
The battery life on this phone is weird. It depends on how you use it. Keep it at 60hz and 1080p and this phone can give you a screen on time of over 7 hours. Keep it at 120hz 1080p, you will get over 6 hours. Keep it at 60hz 1440p and you will get near about 5.5 hours and tune it up to 120hz and 1440p and enjoy seeing your battery going down like water. Almost 4 and a half to 5 hours screen on time.
This 4500 mah battery is coupled with wrap charge 30T charger and it charges your phone pretty quickly. Goes to 50% in 23 mins And full charges in under 1 hour.
Also, now OnePlus has finally decided to have wireless charging capabilities. They also launched a 30w wireless charger that can charge up to 50% in 30mins.
OnePlus Warp Charging
OnePlus Warp wireless charging
Miscellaneous
The speaker quality on this phone is really good. The stereo speakers are pretty loud and don’t distort at high volume levels. You have Dolby Atmos which gives a really good headphone experience even though it lacks a headphone jack.
The vibration motor is pretty strong and gives really nice feedback. It may not be an iPhone level hepatic feedback but it is really good. The phone is quite long due to the 20:9 aspect ratio which makes it really good for viewing movies that were made to be seen on 21:9 resolution.
One thing I didn’t like was why does OnePlus not give a proper Always-on display. If we have an Amoled display, let us make proper use of it. The software Experience was typical OnePlus and hence why I didn’t cover it in this review.
Final thoughts
If you’re a rich guy/girl and wants to buy a new phone and your budget falls around ₹50-60K, don’t think twice. Just go for it.
Who this phone is for? It is for everyone who can afford it because it is the best offering from the Android side. Though it may not have the best camera, we have pixels for that. It may not be the best gaming phone, we have ROG for that. It may not be the most beautiful device out there, we have galaxy Note for that.
But it is the well-mixed allrounder which definitely ticks all the boxes and is definitely worth thinking for.
