ONEPLUS 8 PRO:NO MORE THE FLAGSHIP KILLER

ONEPLUS is no more a flagship killer because they now have a flagship of their own the ONEPLUS 8 PRO. It is a flagship in terms of specs as well as the price.To be honest the price is lower than the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra or the iPhone 11 ProMax but quite higher than its predecessors.

Here my personal opinion is that OnePlus has missed a trick since their popularity and growth in market was solely due to the fact that OnePlus phones gave everything a flagship gave but at an affordable price for all types of customers.Well without much adieu lets dive into the details.

DESIGN AND BODY

In terms of design OnePlus has made nothing too extravagant.It is almost like all other OnePlus phones except that this time it has curved displays.The rear camera is at the middle of the back which is generally to the left in all other devices.The 8Pro features a quad camera module at the back and the front houses a punch hole camera at the top left corner and minimal bezels.

The back and front are glass and the phone has an aluminium frame.It is protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 5.The back has a matte finish on the glass that accounts for better grip and less of fingerprint smudges.For the first time the OnePlus 8 Pro has IP68 certification for water and dust resistance.

The dimensions of the phone are 165.3mmx74.4mmx8.5mm(length x breadth x thickness).It weighs 199g.

DISPLAY

The display is 6.78″ fluid Amoled with aQHD+ resolution of 1440×3168 and~ 513ppi.The screen to body ratio is 90.8%and aspect ratio 19.8:9.As I mentioned earlier the display is curved over the edges.This may look better but comes with the disadvantage of accidental touches.

To top the features the screen refresh rate is 120Hz a spec becoming largely popular which will make your touch,video playing and multitasking smoother.Infact just swiping up or down will feel much faster.The 8Pro gives you the option of running the phone on the customary 60Hz as well to save battery.

Video watching on a 120Hz Amoled display is usually very eye soothing but the OnePlus has taken it a step further. The 8Pro boasts of their new MEMC chip which boosts up the frames per second of any video.

The display also comes with DisplayMate certified A+ display and SGS eye care certified screen.It also has an advertised maximum brightness of 1300 nits in bright sunlight.

OS,PROCESSOR AND STORAGE

OnePlus 8 Pro runs OxygenOS 10 based on Android 10.Oxygen OS is touted to be one of the best if not the best Android skin because of its similarity to pure Android,its customisation properties and the minimum bloatware it brings on unboxing.

Under the hood is the latest QualcommSM8250 Snapdragon865 vhipset with octa core processor(1×2.84GHz,3×2.42GHz,4×1.8GHz)and powered by Adreno 650 GPU.A main cause of the high price of the phone is this SoC with the 5G modem.All phones this year with the Snapdragon 865 is costly.

The phone comes with two variants of LPDDR5 RAM 8GB and 12GB with128GB and 256GB UFS3.0 internal storage(it ensures fast installation of apps or games).There is no option for expandable storage.

REAR CAMERA

    Phone cameras are slowly becoming the defining factor of how good a smartphone is.The 8Pro,as I already said is a flagship,has equipped itself with a quad camera setting which features a primary 48MP wide Sony IMX689 lens with f/1.8,a 48MP ultrawide sensor with f/2.2,a 8MP telephoto zoom lens with f/2.4 and a 5MPcolour filter lens.

The telephoto lens supports 30x digital zoom and has optical image stabilisation(OIS) along with the primary lens.The ultra wide 48MP lens is a Sony IMX586 sensor with 120degrees field of view and a 3cm macro mode. .The presence of the colour filter lens may raise some questions I feel.

Features like Pet Capture is present along with the usual HDR and Panorama.Nightscape 3.0 i.e. the night mode takes care of the night time images and you can also use the ultra wide lens for night mode.

You can shoot 2160p(4K)and 1080p(HD) videos at 30/60 fps.It comes with EIS(electronic image stabilisation).Dynamic Video is a feature which captures more detail in backlit scenes.

FRONT CAMERA

The front camera is a 16MP punch hole camera with f/2.5.It supports auto HDR and Portrait selfies as well.Videos of maximum [email protected] can be captured with the front camera.

Previous OnePlus phones had the pop-up selfie camera which has been got rid off in the OnePlus 8 Pro maybe to get the IP68 rating.

OTHER FEATURES

    The 8Pro has an under display optical fingerprint sensor.Face unlock is also available.

There is no place for 3.5mm jack which means RIP wired headphones a feature I personally dislike.The dual stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos ensures good audio quality.

NFC is supported along with Bluetooth and WiFi 6.USB Type C cable is also supported.

A dedicated Game Mode is present for immersive gaming experience.The high resolution and high refresh rate display ensures gamers specially of Pub G will be hugely satisfied.

BATTERY AND COLOURS

    The big screen with high resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate all asks for a bigger battery and OnePlus has not compensated on that aspect and comes with a 4510mAH battery supporting 30W fast charging or warp charging as company claims and 30W wireless charging.The phone also supports reverse wireless charging and you can charge any device like earpods if they support wireless charging by keeping it on the phone.

I need to mention that wireless charging of 30W is only possible with the OnePlus wireless charger which you have to buy separately.

Glacial Green,Ultramarine Blue and the Oynx Black are the colour variants available.

CONCLUSION

The OnePlus starts at 899$ for the 8GB/128GB variant and 999$ for the top 12GB/256GB variant.Indian pricing is reduced and the starting price will be Rs.54999 and the top model Rs.59999.Though the price is lesser than say the Samsung Galaxy S20 series but still for OnePlus fans the price is quite high.

Affordable flagship like features was the USP of OnePlus but this time it is not the case.Rest assured the OnePlus 8 Pro ( https://medium.com/@techknowsp/oneplus-8-pro-latest-flagship-from-oneplus-edc83889cabc ) is a very good phone with high end specs and Oxygen OS is an additional benefit.Yes there is room for improvement in the image processing segment but maybe that can be resolved with updates.

In my personal opinion the front camera and the telephoto lens could have been made better at least on the megapixel count.For many users thats what matters and when they are paying so much they may feel the need of more.

Anyways for those who have used OnePlus know it is one of the best out there.Will the OnePlus 8 Pro live upto its reputation?Let me know your thoughts in comments.