Back in April, when most tech firms had been suspending new product launches, OnePlus was one of many few that went full-steam forward and launched its 8-series smartphones. With the India pricing being considerably lower than international costs, many had been wanting ahead to those new telephones. Ironically, regardless of being early to launch, we have nonetheless needed to look forward to greater than a month earlier than the primary sale, as native manufacturing has been impacted as a result of ongoing pandemic.
OnePlus has opened gross sales of the OnePlus 8 in small batches in the intervening time, and now that we have lastly received our fingers on our evaluation system, it is time to take a better take a look at it. This is the successor to the OnePlus 7T (Review), and expectedly prices a bit greater than final yr’s mannequin. Unlike with the OnePlus 7 (Review) and 7 Pro (Review) collection, the OnePlus Eight shares many design cues with the 8 Pro, which is honest contemplating that its beginning value is above Rs. 40,000.
The packaging is kind of enticing, just like that of the OnePlus 7T collection. Inside, you may see the usual set of equipment. Some of the stickers appear new, and the silicone case now has daring ‘OnePlus’ lettering on it. OnePlus nonetheless does not present any headphones within the field.
We had been stunned at how mild the OnePlus Eight felt after we first picked it up. It’s solely 10g lighter than the OnePlus 7T, however that is fairly noticeable. It’s additionally slim, and the curved glass on the back and front makes it very snug to grip. It’s well-balanced for one-handed use too. One factor that we did not like was the pre-applied display protector. It’s fairly an eyesore because it does not cowl the entrance glass edge-to-edge, and grazes in opposition to your finger each time you carry out a navigation gesture.
The OnePlus Eight ships with the same old set of equipment
All the buttons and ports on the cellphone are the place you’d count on them to be. There’s no headphone jack, however this has been a pattern for some time now on OnePlus gadgets. The OnePlus Eight offered in India does not have an official IP ranking, nevertheless a rubber lining across the SIM tray signifies that it might very effectively have some extent of water resistance. The Verizon-locked model of the OnePlus Eight offered within the US boasts of an IP68 ranking.
The total design may not be so totally different from final yr’s fashions, however the huge change is within the show. OnePlus has embraced hole-punch cutouts, and the one right here appears good. The diameter of the cutout is not the smallest we have seen however because it’s tucked away within the left nook, it hasn’t been a lot of a hassle for us.
The show itself is similar measurement because the OnePlus 7T’s, measuring 6.55 inches. It’s an AMOLED panel, with a full-HD+ decision, HDR10+ compatibility, and a refresh fee of 90Hz. OnePlus additionally brags in regards to the panel’s excessive color accuracy. From what we have seen to this point, the show is unquestionably vibrant, with good daylight legibility and punchy colors. You additionally get a lot of choices within the Settings app to tweak the colors to your liking.
The OnePlus Eight feels well-made and has a snug measurement
It’s been lower than two days since we started utilizing the OnePlus 8, and to this point, issues are wanting good. OxygenOS feels snappy, apps load in a short time, and we’ve not seen any heating points but. The OnePlus Eight makes use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip, and our check unit is the variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. We can be testing quite a lot of video games on this cellphone, and we’ll have a full report on how effectively the OnePlus Eight handles stress in our full evaluation.
We have not spoken about this cellphone’s cameras but, however we’re anticipating related efficiency to what the OnePlus 7T delivered. That’s as a result of OnePlus has used kind of the similar {hardware} from that cellphone on the 8, barring the telephoto digital camera, which has been swapped for a macro digital camera. We’re not too thrilled about this, given the restricted use case for a macro digital camera.
The OnePlus 8 begins at Rs. 41,999 for the Amazon-exclusive 6GB RAM variant with 128GB of storage. There’s additionally an 8GB + 128GB model at Rs. 44,999, and a 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model at Rs. 49,999. The OnePlus Eight will compete with the newly launched Mi 10 5G (Review) from Xiaomi, the Realme X50 Pro 5G (Review), and in a approach, the Samsung Galaxy S10e (Review) and Apple iPhone XR (Review) — all of which price across the similar.
We can be testing the OnePlus Eight completely within the coming days, so keep tuned for an in depth breakdown of its efficiency, digital camera high quality and battery life evaluation within the full evaluation.
Will OnePlus Eight collection be capable to tackle iPhone SE (2020), Samsung Galaxy S20 in India? We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly know-how podcast, which you’ll subscribe to through Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button under.