The OnePlus 8 with some excellent features but an average camera.
OnePlus smartphones speak premium design, great hardware, and software at good prices. The company seems to have established itself a major game-changer in the market and is heading against some brands like Samsung, Realme, Apple, etc. Last year the OnePlus 7 series was launched where OnePlus 7 and 7T with their respective Pro models.
The OnePlus 7T is still a very solid offering now in the market now. The OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro have arrived with newer designs, Snapdragon 865 chipset, and mainly bring along the wave of 5G. Now the company is not a Flagship Killer due to an increase in prices of each model but delivers the right mix of everything and more at a good price tag.
Here the OnePlus 8 has bought in a newer design, powerful hardware, and a decent set of cameras and isn't a huge upgrade over the OnePlus 7T. With all these and more, does the OnePlus 8 feel like a proper flagship, and is it worth buying?
OnePlus 8 5G Design:
OnePlus smartphones have always impressed when it comes to build and design from the past. As usual, both the front as well as the back of the smartphone is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
On the front, there is a punch-hole display with the cutout in the top left that houses the 16MP camera. This design looks better than the OnePlus 7T which had a teardrop notch.
The OnePlus 8 has a curved display that we had seen on some Samsung smartphones in the past. This does make the smartphone look premium and is a bit slippery.
The screen remains the same at 6.55 inches from its predecessor. The pop-up camera implementation on the OnePlus Pro models was good but still, this punch hole looks good.
The OnePlus 8 has a curved display that we had seen on some Samsung smartphones in the past. This does make the smartphone look premium and is a bit slippery.
The screen remains the same at 6.55 inches from its predecessor. The pop-up camera implementation on the OnePlus Pro models was good but still, this punch hole looks good.
At the back, there is a similar vertical camera setup that is seen on many OnePlus smartphones and looks better than the circular design setup of the OnePlus 7T. The back of the OnePlus 8 has a glass matte finish which looks premium.
The OnePlus 8 comes in very attractive colors: Onyx Black, Glacial Green, and Interstellar Glow. The Interstellar Glow looks attractive with the mirror finish and changes color shift with a rainbow pattern just like the Galaxy Note 10 series.
The triple camera setup with the LED flash sits in the middle and the OnePlus logo under it.
Coming to the sides, there is the power button with the alert slider to the right which has been moved slightly up and to the left lies the volume controls.
On the top, there is only a secondary noise-canceling microphone and at the bottom is a loudspeaker, main microphone, a SIM tray slot, and a USB Type-C port.
The speaker grill just sits above the tiny bezel of the smartphone which together with the loudspeaker vent acts as stereo speakers.
At 180grams, the smartphone does not feel heavier as the weight distribution has been done well and now especially the IP rating has come but only reserved for Verizon and T-Mobile variants. Like the OnePlus 8 Pro, there is no support for wireless charging.
The build and design feel premium but the lack of an IP rating on all models is a big miss.
Check also: OnePlus 8 Pro 5G Review: Crafted in perfection and the flagship that was much needed by the world.
The OnePlus 8 comes in very attractive colors: Onyx Black, Glacial Green, and Interstellar Glow. The Interstellar Glow looks attractive with the mirror finish and changes color shift with a rainbow pattern just like the Galaxy Note 10 series.
The triple camera setup with the LED flash sits in the middle and the OnePlus logo under it.
Coming to the sides, there is the power button with the alert slider to the right which has been moved slightly up and to the left lies the volume controls.
On the top, there is only a secondary noise-canceling microphone and at the bottom is a loudspeaker, main microphone, a SIM tray slot, and a USB Type-C port.
The speaker grill just sits above the tiny bezel of the smartphone which together with the loudspeaker vent acts as stereo speakers.
At 180grams, the smartphone does not feel heavier as the weight distribution has been done well and now especially the IP rating has come but only reserved for Verizon and T-Mobile variants. Like the OnePlus 8 Pro, there is no support for wireless charging.
The build and design feel premium but the lack of an IP rating on all models is a big miss.
Check also: OnePlus 8 Pro 5G Review: Crafted in perfection and the flagship that was much needed by the world.
OnePlus 8 5G Display:
OnePlus 8 has the same 6.55 inches full HD+ Fluid AMOLED display (1080x2400 pixels) as the OnePlus 7T. It has a screen to body ratio of 20:9 and this time OnePlus has put a brighter panel on both the 8 and 8 Pro. The curved display looks good makes it stand out from the crowd. The optical in-display fingerprint scanner sits under the display is very accurate and fast.
There is the 90Hz refresh rate which is seen on most smartphones in this price range. So scrolling, multitasking, and gaming all feel smoother to use. The OnePlus 8 Pro has a higher 120Hz refresh rate but still, there will not be any difference in day to day usage.
The OnePlus 8 has good viewing angles and colors look punchier and vibrant on the display. The screen has good visibility under direct sunlight as it has 1100 nits of brightness. The brightness can go very much lower during the night and there is the reading mode which is an additional feature useful during the night.
The smartphone supports HDR10 content and has the support for Widevine L1 to stream HD content from Netflix, Amazon, etc. The curved display with the punch hole cutout looks striking on the OnePlus 8.
The OnePlus 8 has good viewing angles and colors look punchier and vibrant on the display. The screen has good visibility under direct sunlight as it has 1100 nits of brightness. The brightness can go very much lower during the night and there is the reading mode which is an additional feature useful during the night.
The smartphone supports HDR10 content and has the support for Widevine L1 to stream HD content from Netflix, Amazon, etc. The curved display with the punch hole cutout looks striking on the OnePlus 8.
OnePlus 8 5G Performance:
The OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset which is the latest powerful chipset for flagship smartphones in 2020. This chipset is almost identical to last year's Snapdragon 855+ chipset but has the newer ARM Cortex A77 cores which provide a 25 percent increase in performance and as well in power efficiency. The Snapdragon 865 has: 1x2.84 GHz Prime Kryo 585 Gold core + 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Gold cores and 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 585 Silver cores (ARM Cortex A55) and is coupled with an Adreno 650 GPU.
This is built on the same 7nm process as the Snapdragon 855/855+ and brings in support for 5G as there is an integrated 5G modem and also supports 5mm signal wave with the sub-6GHz band for the network. It is shipped with 6GB/8GB/12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128/256GB storage (UFS 3.0).
Unfortunately, there is no LPDDR5 RAM support which is present on the OnePlus 8 Pro which is slightly faster but you will notice any difference as such.
All small to heavy games are played smoothly with their highest resolution. The back does tend to get a warmer a bit but the heat is well managed. The 90Hz refresh rate does provide good gaming experience in demanding games supporting a higher refresh rate.
On Geekbench 5.1, the smartphone scored 3385 which is highest among all the Android smartphones in the market.
This is built on the same 7nm process as the Snapdragon 855/855+ and brings in support for 5G as there is an integrated 5G modem and also supports 5mm signal wave with the sub-6GHz band for the network. It is shipped with 6GB/8GB/12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128/256GB storage (UFS 3.0).
Unfortunately, there is no LPDDR5 RAM support which is present on the OnePlus 8 Pro which is slightly faster but you will notice any difference as such.
All small to heavy games are played smoothly with their highest resolution. The back does tend to get a warmer a bit but the heat is well managed. The 90Hz refresh rate does provide good gaming experience in demanding games supporting a higher refresh rate.
On Geekbench 5.1, the smartphone scored 3385 which is highest among all the Android smartphones in the market.
OnePlus 8 5G Software:
The OnePlus 8 runs OxygenOS 10.5 which is the latest version of the UI. As seen earlier, the beauty of OnePlus smartphones is the software i.e. OxygenOS which provides Stock Android-like experience. It runs Android 10 out of the box and there are regular features like System-Wide dark mode, Android 10 navigation gestures, and the GameTurbo feature which is seen on most OnePlus smartphones.
There is still no Always-On display but you can view the content by tapping on the screen when it is locked.
There is still no Always-On display but you can view the content by tapping on the screen when it is locked.
OnePlus provides Shelf when you swipe from the left of the home screen but with the OnePlus 8, you get Google Feed which lets you get all information around the world. The new OxygenOS brings along something called the deep battery optimization feature which is a good feature that enables the battery to charge the smartphone efficiently.
The OxygenOS continues to impress with the OnePlus 8.
The OxygenOS continues to impress with the OnePlus 8.
OnePlus 8 5G Cameras:
The OnePlus 8 sports a triple camera setup at the back which isn't a huge upgrade over the OnePlus 7T as you get the same 48MP camera sensor and this time there is no telephoto camera which is a big disappointment which the OnePlus 7T had.
This time, OnePlus has gone for a 2MP macro camera for the OnePlus 8 which seems good but the competition offers a telephoto camera at this price range. As usual, the 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor remains unchanged from the OnePlus 7T and there is a similar 16MP ultrawide camera.
The 2MP macro camera is a new addition here. In terms of rear cameras, the OnePlus 8 doesn't feel any sort of upgrade.
The photos taken from the main camera come out good with punchier colors and the contrast in the photos works well. The details look good in photos and the dynamic range is wide enough. With HDR on, the photos come out sharper but there is some amount of noise present in the photos.
The 48MP photos resulting in 12MP photos come out well detailed but when zoomed in, the sharpness takes a hit slightly.
During the night, the 48MP camera takes photos with good detail but lacks sharpness as there is much noise present. However, with the Night Mode, the photos turn out much better detailed especially the highlight in the shadows. The noise is no more present and the dynamic range also improves.
The 16MP ultrawide camera does take some very good photos with good details and the dynamic range is also good with a wider field of view. The noise in the photos is barely noticed and when it comes to low-light or night, the ultrawide camera struggles to capture light, though having an OIS.
The details are good but a lot of noise is prominent.
Switching on the Night Mode, masks out the noise and brings the highlights in the shadows and the photos come out with punchier colors and the sharpness level works well.
Since the OnePlus 8 does not have a telephoto camera, it uses the main 48MP camera for zoom capabilities. At 2x zoom, the photos have good detail but still, the level of details cannot be compared to the photos taken from a regular telephoto camera.
It can also zoom up to 10x but at that level, the photos have barely any details as the colors look washed out and are of no use.
The 2MP macro camera does a decent job of taking average detailed photos. It can focus very close as 2cm but the colors look washed out in most scenarios and the edge detection needs to be improved.
Coming to portraits, the 48MP main camera takes very photos with a good amount of detail, colors look punchier and the edge detection works well. There is no noise in the background but some over sharpness takes place. However, the main camera does a great job when it comes to portraits.
On the front, there is a similar 16MP f/2.0 Sony IMX471 camera which remains unchanged from the OnePlus 7T. The dynamic range is good and the skin tones look natural. Similarly, in portraits, the front camera takes good photos with proper background blur but in some cases tends to oversharpen things a bit.
The OnePlus 8 supports 4K video at 60fps which is the highest. Though it is having the Snapdragon 865 chipset which is capable of 8K video recording, it does not have this feature. (Samsung S20 series and Xiaomi Mi 10 5G have). The videos come out stable with good color saturation and the dynamic range works pretty well.
The OIS helps maintain stability and also at 1080p at 30 or 60fps works pretty well.
The 4K video with the Super Stable video mode is available on the ultrawide camera. The Super Stable video mode works well at 1080p both for the main and ultrawide camera but tends to crop some details in the photos.
On the front, sadly there is no support for 4K video recording, and you are restricted at 1080p videos only. However, the videos have a good dynamic range and well stabilized and similarly for the portrait videos also.
Overall, the cameras are decent but the lack of a telephoto camera is a big miss at this price range. The 48MP main camera does a decent job but has been around in the market for quite some time.
There is no 8K video recording which will not make a big difference. But the cameras as a whole when compared to the competition do feel a bit short.
This time, OnePlus has gone for a 2MP macro camera for the OnePlus 8 which seems good but the competition offers a telephoto camera at this price range. As usual, the 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor remains unchanged from the OnePlus 7T and there is a similar 16MP ultrawide camera.
The 2MP macro camera is a new addition here. In terms of rear cameras, the OnePlus 8 doesn't feel any sort of upgrade.
The photos taken from the main camera come out good with punchier colors and the contrast in the photos works well. The details look good in photos and the dynamic range is wide enough. With HDR on, the photos come out sharper but there is some amount of noise present in the photos.
The 48MP photos resulting in 12MP photos come out well detailed but when zoomed in, the sharpness takes a hit slightly.
During the night, the 48MP camera takes photos with good detail but lacks sharpness as there is much noise present. However, with the Night Mode, the photos turn out much better detailed especially the highlight in the shadows. The noise is no more present and the dynamic range also improves.
The 16MP ultrawide camera does take some very good photos with good details and the dynamic range is also good with a wider field of view. The noise in the photos is barely noticed and when it comes to low-light or night, the ultrawide camera struggles to capture light, though having an OIS.
The details are good but a lot of noise is prominent.
Switching on the Night Mode, masks out the noise and brings the highlights in the shadows and the photos come out with punchier colors and the sharpness level works well.
Since the OnePlus 8 does not have a telephoto camera, it uses the main 48MP camera for zoom capabilities. At 2x zoom, the photos have good detail but still, the level of details cannot be compared to the photos taken from a regular telephoto camera.
It can also zoom up to 10x but at that level, the photos have barely any details as the colors look washed out and are of no use.
The 2MP macro camera does a decent job of taking average detailed photos. It can focus very close as 2cm but the colors look washed out in most scenarios and the edge detection needs to be improved.
Coming to portraits, the 48MP main camera takes very photos with a good amount of detail, colors look punchier and the edge detection works well. There is no noise in the background but some over sharpness takes place. However, the main camera does a great job when it comes to portraits.
On the front, there is a similar 16MP f/2.0 Sony IMX471 camera which remains unchanged from the OnePlus 7T. The dynamic range is good and the skin tones look natural. Similarly, in portraits, the front camera takes good photos with proper background blur but in some cases tends to oversharpen things a bit.
The OnePlus 8 supports 4K video at 60fps which is the highest. Though it is having the Snapdragon 865 chipset which is capable of 8K video recording, it does not have this feature. (Samsung S20 series and Xiaomi Mi 10 5G have). The videos come out stable with good color saturation and the dynamic range works pretty well.
The OIS helps maintain stability and also at 1080p at 30 or 60fps works pretty well.
The 4K video with the Super Stable video mode is available on the ultrawide camera. The Super Stable video mode works well at 1080p both for the main and ultrawide camera but tends to crop some details in the photos.
On the front, sadly there is no support for 4K video recording, and you are restricted at 1080p videos only. However, the videos have a good dynamic range and well stabilized and similarly for the portrait videos also.
Overall, the cameras are decent but the lack of a telephoto camera is a big miss at this price range. The 48MP main camera does a decent job but has been around in the market for quite some time.
There is no 8K video recording which will not make a big difference. But the cameras as a whole when compared to the competition do feel a bit short.
OnePlus 8 5G Battery Life:
The OnePlus 8 sports a 4300mAh battery which is 500mAh more than the OnePlus 7T. This is due to the Snapdragon 865 having 5G, consumes more power which seems true. With normal usage, the smartphone can last easily up to 1.5 days with 15-20 percent left. The screen on time with the normal 60Hz is 6-7 hours which is very impressive.
Switching to 90Hz display, the screen on time rests around 4.5-5 hours. With extended gaming of PUBG Mobile for 2-3hours, browsing, and consumption of social media, the OnePlus 8 easily lasted for a day with the display set to 90Hz set.
The Warp Charge 30T charges the OnePlus 8 from 0 to 100 percent in 63mins. The first 30 mins take the smartphone from 0 to 70 percent which is quite impressive. The Realme X50 Pro is still faster than the OnePlus 8 with its 65W SuperDart charger. It also lacks support for wireless charging which is present on the OnePlus 8 Pro as it will compete with many flagships like Samsung, Apple, etc.
The battery life seems to be a good improvement over its predecessor.
OnePlus 8 5G Sound Quality:
The OnePlus 8 sports stereo speakers which are louder enough and also has Dolby Atmos that enhances sound further. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack like most flagships. The sound through the USB Type-C is good.
Verdict:
Well, OnePlus 8 seems to create mixed feelings. It has a great build and design and a gorgeous display with that 90Hz refresh rate. It brings along the flavor of 5G and sports the Snapdragon 865 chipset which very power efficient and has the best overall performance and gaming experience.
OxygenOS makes the smartphone beauty to use.
The battery life is also very good as the 4300mAh battery provides better battery life compared to its predecessor and also supports the faster 30W Warp Charge 30T but the Realme X50 Pro which also has the same chipset as the OnePlus 8, has a better faster-charging speed at 65W.
However, the cameras make the whole package a bit let down as there is no telephoto camera at this price point and the main camera, the ultrawide camera does a good job in taking photos and videos but doesn't seem to be an upgrade over the OnePlus 7T. The macro camera is also decent in taking photos.
Like the Samsung S20 series, Xiaomi Mi 10 5G, there is no support for 8K video recording. It also misses on IP68 rating which most flagships offer in this price range and there is no wireless charging support either.
The OnePlus 7T is still a very strong offering which is priced comparatively lower compared to the OnePlus 8 and has almost the same features as it still has the powerful Snapdragon 855+, 90Hz display and a great set of cameras that includes a telephoto camera which the OnePlus 8 lacks.
The OnePlus 8 may have average cameras, lack of IP rating, and also lacks support for wireless charging but as a whole provides good build and design with that curved display supporting 90Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 865 chipset that provides excellent performance and gaming with support for 5G. The larger 4300mAh battery provides a very good battery life.
Does this smartphone feel like a proper flagship when compared to others? If you keep the cameras and some features aside like IP rating and wireless charging, with an attractive price of Rs.41999 for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage and Rs.44999 for 8GB RAM and 128GB storage and Rs.49999 for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, the OnePlus 8 is a good smartphone to consider in the market.
2 Comments
I think the OnePlus 8 Pro is better with IP rating, better cameras and has a nice display.
ReplyDeleteThe OnePlus 8 is not a good upgrade but the older OnePlus 7T is a better buy at Rs.37999 in Amazon having great specs in 2020.
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