I’ll be sincere. When OnePlus first introduced the Eight and eight Pro, it felt just like the 7 sequence from final 12 months another time. The OnePlus 8 Pro obtained the next decision, larger refresh-rate show, higher cameras, and two extremely sought-after options — wi-fi charging and IP-rated waterproofing. The OnePlus Eight appeared considerably left within the shadow of the 8 Pro, and this time, it does not actually have a killer beginning worth. Of course, this was an preliminary response purely based mostly on what I’d solely seen and examine, because of the cancellation of the in-person launch occasion.
With the easing up of the lockdown and a glimpse of normalcy returning to our lives, I lastly managed to get my palms on the OnePlus 8. After my preliminary scepticism, it is time to see whether or not this telephone has sufficient benefit for me to alter my opinion about it. With costs beginning properly above Rs. 40,000, the OnePlus 8 is now bordering on flagship territory, which suggests it is truly competing immediately with older flagships from Samsung and Apple.
So is it actually value it? Should you be paying this a lot cash for a telephone that is nonetheless lacking two fairly important flagship options? We’ll get to that reply, however first, let’s take a fast take a look at what’s new.
What’s new within the OnePlus 8?
The OnePlus Eight is the religious successor of the OnePlus 7 (Review) and can go on to finally substitute the OnePlus 7T (Review). Compared to the 7T, the principle new options are 5G assist and a new-ish design. The OnePlus Eight options the Snapdragon 865 processor, which guarantees higher efficiency and effectivity over final 12 months’s mannequin. 5G doesn’t suggest a lot to us in India for the time being but it surely does not damage to have it.
OnePlus 8 Design: Subtle, but distinctive
I wasn’t a giant fan of the round digicam bump on the OnePlus 7T and I’m glad that is gone away. However, I do miss the frosted end of the glass again. The Onyx Black model of the OnePlus Eight has a shiny end, which picks up fingerprints very simply. It’s additionally very slippery, which did lead to unintentional drops once I had the telephone mendacity on a chair’s armrest. There’s a case offered within the field, which ought to assist.
The show now has a hole-punch cutout, within the higher left nook. OnePlus has mentioned goodbye to the notch and I believe it is for the most effective. The hole-puch is not the smallest I’ve seen but it surely provides the OnePlus Eight a recent look.
As I discussed in my first impressions, the OnePlus Eight is surprisingly comfy to carry given its show measurement. It’s additionally slim and never too heavy. The black model appears to be like high-quality, however I used to be actually wanting ahead to seeing the Interstellar Glow trim first-hand, as I really feel that that is the color to get.
As you’d anticipate, construct high quality is superb because of the curved-edge back and front glass sandwiching the steel body. The buttons are straightforward to succeed in, and the alert slider is helpful as all the time. The USB Type-C port, SIM tray, and primary speaker are lined up on the underside.
Overall, the brand new simplified design is welcome, and I like that OnePlus is not attempting too onerous to impress. This telephone may look a bit boring within the footage, but it surely’s immediately recognisable as a OnePlus system.
The OnePlus Eight has a easy, but distinctive design
OnePlus 8 Display: Bright and vivid
The show is among the most necessary elements of any smartphone, and the OnePlus Eight has an excellent one. It’s a 6.55-inch AMOLED panel with sloping sides, a large color gamut, and a hole-punch cutout within the higher left nook. OnePlus has used 3D Corning Gorilla Glass along with the pre-applied display protector. I discovered the latter to be extra of an annoyance than something since my finger grazed towards the perimeters when swiping in from the perimeters.
Other specs embrace a decision of 2400×1080 (full-HD+) pixels, HDR10+ assist, a 90Hz refresh price, and software program options like studying mode, night time mode, and the flexibility to spice up colors when taking part in movies.
The 90Hz refresh price makes utilization typically really feel fluid and snappy. You can drop right down to 60Hz if you wish to save a little bit of battery energy. HDR content material appears to be like excellent on the OnePlus 8. When taking part in appropriate exhibits by way of Netflix, the brightness and color saturation mechanically get a lift. This goes again to regular when you exit the app.
The OnePlus Eight has an in-display fingerprint sensor, which is tremendous fast at authentication. All it takes is a fast, agency faucet to unlock it. Face recognition is equally quick and works decently properly in dim lighting. You can allow the ‘double-tap to wake’ gesture, however what I actually wished was a raise-to-wake gesture, which continues to be not an possibility.
The ‘Ambient show’ characteristic provides a peek at which apps have despatched you alerts when the display is off, together with the time, battery stage, and so forth. However this is not always-on and solely exhibits up if you faucet the display or choose up the telephone. It even exhibits you the identify of the music monitor being performed, however you’ll be able to’t management playback from right here.
One factor to notice is that because the hole-punch cutout is not very near the highest edge, any app that should black out this space should create a thick black bar. This is most noticeable in some video games and video apps, when it’s good to maintain the telephone horizontally. You may also black out the world completely however that simply appears to be like odd.
The show is among the greatest options of the OnePlus 8
OnePlus 8 Performance: Keeping it cool
With its top-end {hardware}, it is hardly stunning that efficiency from the OnePlus Eight is spectacular. However, what actually caught our consideration is that it does not warmth up all that a lot within the course of. That’s not one thing lets say for the Mi 10 5G (Review), for instance. The OnePlus Eight aces by way of benchmarks too. In AnTuTu, we obtained 5,78,289 factors, whereas GFXbench’s Car Chase graphics take a look at returned 46fps, which is among the more durable scenes within the suite. The sides and some spots on the again, under the digicam, do get heat after continuous benchmarking, however by no means too sizzling. This speaks lots concerning the thermal administration design of the telephone.
We reviewed the top-end variant of the OnePlus 8, which has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, priced at Rs. 49,999. There’s additionally an possibility with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs. 44,999, and an Amazon-exclusive variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage at Rs. 41,999.
Gaming efficiency is top-notch. Fortnite can run at 90fps and the expertise is nice, however you will need to manually change this within the settings. Other equally demanding video games equivalent to PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile ran simply high-quality too. We tried a bunch of racing video games together with Asphalt 9: Legends and Metal Madness, each of which ran at their highest graphics settings and had been fairly enjoyable to play. The prime steel portion of the telephone did get sizzling in some video games, like Fortnite, however this wasn’t the case with most others. Game Space is a neat utility that permits you to briefly lock the brightness stage, disable incoming notifications, and cut back distractions when gaming.
Performance is nice because of the Snapdragon 865 SoC
Games and films are particularly fulfilling because of the excellent stereo audio system on the OnePlus 8. The earpiece and bottom-firing speaker work collectively to supply excellent, balanced stereo sound. Dolby Atmos enhancement additionally helps increase the low and mid-range frequencies, which supplies the sound added depth and readability.
Apart from 5G, the OnePlus Eight additionally options Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, a number of navigation satellite tv for pc techniques, and all the standard sensors. You can use two Nano-SIM playing cards within the OnePlus 8, however there is not any choice to broaden the storage.
OnePlus 8 Software: Clean and useful
OxygenOS is among the causes that followers maintain coming again to OnePlus smartphones. We acquired a couple of updates after unboxing the OnePlus 8, and on the time of this overview, it was operating v10.5.8. This relies on Android 10, with the May safety patch. The interface is clear and free from bloatware. You will not discover adverts or annoying alerts from inventory apps clogging up your notifications shade.
At the identical time, it is also properly outfitted with plenty of shortcuts and gestures ready to be found. The new launcher now provides a extra seamless multitasking expertise, there’s 5GB of free cloud storage for backups when you signal in with a OnePlus account, a built-in display recorder, and dynamic wallpapers.
OnePlus 8 Cameras: Going backwards?
Cameras have all the time been a little bit of a sensitive topic for OnePlus. While the 8 Pro will get some notable enhancements by way of sensors, the Eight has to make do with hand-me-downs from the 7T and one very notable discount. The 7T did seize high-quality images, however contemplating the massive bump in worth, I anticipated higher.
The cameras on the OnePlus Eight are good, however not particularly spectacular
The OnePlus Eight has the identical 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor with optical stabilisation because the 7T. However, it has a barely narrower aperture of f/1.75, in comparison with the broader (learn: higher) f/1.6 aperture of the 7T. The wide-angle digicam has the identical 16-megapixel decision, however once more, with a touch narrower area of view of 116 levels (117 on the 7T).
However, the largest change, or moderately downgrade in my view, is the introduction of a paltry 2-megapixel macro digicam rather than the 7T’s telephoto digicam. The outgoing mannequin shot macros utilizing its wide-angle digicam, which signifies that a devoted sensor wasn’t even actually essential. This in my view, is a wasted alternative, and OnePlus ought to have caught with the telephoto digicam. We’ve seen 2-megapixel macro cameras in loads of price range telephones, and actually, I did not wind up utilizing all of it that a lot.
OnePlus Eight normal daytime digicam pattern (faucet to see full-sized picture)
OnePlus Eight wide-angle daytime digicam pattern (faucet to see full-sized picture)
OnePlus Eight close-up digicam pattern (faucet to see full-sized picture)
In daylight, the OnePlus 8’s major digicam captures detailed photos with vivid colors and balanced HDR. I used to be shocked at how intently the wide-angle digicam matched the colors and general tone of the principle one, as we have usually seen a mis-match with different telephones. Close-ups appeared good too, with loads of particulars and saturated colors. Portrait mode works properly, though you’ll be able to’t alter the extent of blur earlier than or after you’ve got taken a shot. OnePlus additionally claims that face recognition for portraits works on cats and canine.
OnePlus Eight portrait pattern (faucet to see full-sized picture)
OnePlus Eight low-light digicam pattern (faucet to see full-sized picture)
OnePlus 8 wide-angle digicam pattern utilizing Nightscape (faucet to see full-sized picture)
Low-light images are first rate, and the app mechanically brightens photos when capturing with the principle digicam, with out the necessity to change to Nightscape mode. In truth, I discovered little or no distinction between a daily photograph and one shot with Nightscape. This doesn’t apply to the wide-angle digicam although, which captures horrible low-light pictures in auto mode, however delivers higher outcomes with Nightscape enabled.
OnePlus 8 selfie digicam pattern (faucet to see full-sized picture)
The 16-megapixel entrance digicam will not be unhealthy so long as you give it sufficient mild. During the day, selfies had good element and HDR was dealt with properly too, when capturing towards the sunshine. Low-light selfies appeared closely processed, and relying on the situation of the sunshine supply, the outcomes diversified wildly. Portrait mode usually did not detect our define appropriately too.
One neat element I preferred is that when capturing selfies, just a little ring across the entrance digicam lights up so you understand the place to look. I discovered this very useful at night time, when it may be tough to see the digicam, particularly for others within the photograph.
The OnePlus Eight can report as much as 4K decision video at 60fps, which is not as flashy as having 8K 30fps like on the Mi 10, however I do not foresee many complaining about this. The high quality at 4K is superb, footage is stabilised properly, and the color tone is retained even if you change to the wide-angle digicam. In low mild, noise is suppressed fairly properly however there is a nagging focus searching subject each time the body modifications even just a little bit.
You can change between the wide-angle and primary digicam whereas capturing, however solely at as much as 4K 30fps. This will not be attainable at 60fps. The OnePlus Eight additionally brags about one thing referred to as ‘4K CINE’ at both 30fps or 60fps. At first I believed this was a Cinema 4K mode, which ought to report at a 4096×2160 decision, however all it does is crop the footage to a 21:9 facet ratio, leading to a decision of 3840×1644.
The most annoying factor concerning the video mode on the OnePlus 8, is there is not any straightforward technique to change the decision or framerate from throughout the viewfinder. You need to faucet the Settings menu, for which it’s good to maintain the telephone vertically, make your choice, after which change again to horizontal to proceed capturing. The decision toggle, which continues to be proven on older OnePlus telephones, has been changed by a filters button. I discovered this to be a giant annoyance and I hope OnePlus reverts this variation.
Other than this, the digicam app is fairly useful. The newest replace added an choice to report movies utilizing the HEVC codec for smaller file sizes. I additionally discovered the autofocus to be fast and responsive, which was particularly useful when switching between topics in video.
The OnePlus Eight is power-packed, with excellent battery life
OnePlus 8 Battery: Lasts lengthy, very lengthy
The OnePlus Eight has a decently massive 4,300mAh battery, which lasted me a day and half on common. My utilization wasn’t notably camera-heavy, however I did play lots of video games and watch lots of Netflix, and nonetheless simply managed to sail previous a full day. When utilization was mild, the OnePlus Eight even managed to final until the tip of the second day. Considering the show was at 90Hz continually, I’d name this gorgeous good. Our battery loop take a look at echoed this, operating for almost 22 hours.
Charging the telephone could be very fast, because of the Warp Charge 30T charger. Topping up a completely depleted battery took just a little greater than an hour, however in 30 minutes, you’ll be able to cost the battery as much as 61 %.
Verdict: Should you purchase the OnePlus 8?
The quick reply could be — sure, completely. At the beginning, I felt that the OnePlus 8 was a bit overpriced for what it provides, and that sentiment nonetheless stands after reviewing it. It’s not an enormous improve over the 7T like I hoped, however maybe OnePlus is saving some massive upgrades for the 8T, which ought to be due someday later this 12 months.
If you presently personal a OnePlus 7T, there’s completely no want to leap to the 8. However, should you’re nonetheless hanging on to your 6T or something older, the OnePlus Eight could be value switching to. Many are going to seek out it troublesome to pay greater than Rs. 40,000 for it, however if you take a look at different flagships such because the Samsung Galaxy S20 and even the iPhone 11 Pro, the OnePlus Eight nonetheless prices means much less.
I do really feel that OnePlus ought to have introduced IP-rated waterproofing and wi-fi charging to the 8, to make it an entire worth package deal. I’d have even taken a decrease IP67 ranking and common 10W wi-fi charging, moderately than having nothing in any respect. I’ve a sense that OnePlus will repair this with the 8T, however that is nonetheless a protracted wait away.
I do not assume the 12GB mannequin provides excellent worth, since at almost Rs. 50,000, I’d be tempted to pay a bit extra and get the OnePlus 8 Pro as a substitute. The storage might be the one cause somebody would contemplate it. Sadly, the Interstellar Glow color possibility is barely out there on the top-end variant. If you are okay with 128GB of storage, the 6GB and 8GB RAM variants undoubtedly provide higher worth.
Will OnePlus Eight sequence be capable of tackle iPhone SE (2020), Samsung Galaxy S20 in India? We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly know-how podcast, which you’ll be able to subscribe to by way of Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button under.