The OnePlus 8 Pro is the best smartphone that the manufacturer has ever made, but you already expected that. With a starting price of 899 euros, it is also the most expensive OnePlus phone ever. In this OnePlus 8 Pro review you can read whether the device is worth its money and what the differences are with the cheaper OnePlus 8.
OnePlus 8 Pro
MSRP € 899,-Colors Black, green and blue
OS Android 10
Screen 6.78 inch OLED (3168 x 1440) 120Hz
Processor 2.84GHz octa-core (Snapdragon 865)
RAM 8GB or 12GB
Storage 128GB or 256GB (non-expandable)
Battery 4,500 mAh
Camera 48, 48 + 8 + 5 megapixels (rear), 16 megapixels (front)
Connectivity 5G, 4G (LTE), Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, GPS
Format 16.5 x 7.4 x 0.85 cm
Weight 199 grams
Website www.oneplus.com 8.5 Score 85
- Pros
- Breathtaking screen
- Hardware
- Beautiful, waterproof housing
- Lightning fast wireless charging
- Software(policy)
- Negatives
- Zoom camera
- Color filter camera has limited use
- Final goodbye to OnePlus as a price fighter
OnePlus presented the 8 and 8 Pro on April 14 and will start sales on April 21. The entry-level model of the 8 costs 699 euros and for the cheapest version of the Pro model you pay 899 euros. I have been using both smartphones since April 8 and will soon publish a review of the OnePlus 8. First it is the turn of the OnePlus 8 Pro, the phone with which OnePlus is definitively separating from its image as a price fighter in the high-end segment. My test device with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage memory costs 999 euros and is therefore just as expensive as top phones such as the Huawei P40 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and iPhone 11 Pro (1100 euros). In this OnePlus 8 Pro review I find out how good the smartphone is compared to the competition.
Design
Starting with the outside. The OnePlus 8 Pro is made of glass and is available in three colors; black, green and blue. Those last two colors stand out from the competition, and I think my blue test model looks very nice. The device lies comfortably in the hand due to its curved back and rounded corners; in my opinion nicer than the iPhone 11 Pro. The front of the 8 Pro consists almost entirely of screen, with narrow bezels above and below the display. In the top left corner of the screen is a small hole for the selfie camera, a design change from last year's 7(T) Pro. It uses a retractable selfie camera to make a borderless screen possible. The camera module on the back of the 8 Pro protrudes slightly from the housing, so that the phone does not lie completely flat on the table. A case solves this.
With its 6.8-inch screen, the OnePlus 8 Pro is one of the largest smartphones of the moment, and is comparable in dimensions to the iPhone 11 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. You absolutely cannot operate it with one hand. The weight is also not bad at 199 grams: you clearly have something in your hand(s).
Previous OnePlus phones have the downside that they are not certified water and dustproof. The manufacturer claims that devices such as the 7T and 7T Pro are not broken by a rain shower, but could not support this with an independent IP certification. The 8 Pro is the first OnePlus device to have such a certification. The IP68 certificate means that the smartphone is (fresh) water and dustproof. So don't take it into the sea. Competing smartphones are also IP68 certified.
Two things that are missing from the OnePlus 8 Pro: a micro-SD slot (to increase the storage memory) and a 3.5mm headphone port (to connect an audio cable). The smartphone takes two SIM cards, has an NFC chip and can charge wirelessly – also a first for OnePlus. More on that later. The regular OnePlus 8 has no IP certification and cannot charge wirelessly.
Impressive display
As mentioned, the screen of the OnePlus 8 Pro measures 6.8 inches. That is large, and also larger than the display of the OnePlus 8 (6.55-inch). The screen comes from Samsung and is identical in features to the Oppo Find X2 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus – both 6.7-inch in size. Crisp clear image due to the qhd resolution? check. An OLED panel for very beautiful colors where black is really black? Of course. A maximum refresh rate of 120Hz for smoother images? Yes, and that feature needs a little more explanation.
Most smartphone screens refresh themselves sixty times per second, which means a refresh rate of 60Hz. A higher refresh rate consumes more power but also provides a smoother image. You notice this especially when reading text, playing optimized games and switching between apps and menus. Everything looks nicer, and the device feels faster. Last year a few smartphones with 90Hz screen appeared, including the 7T Pro. Admittedly: the difference between 90Hz and 120Hz is not very big, but you really notice 60Hz or 120Hz. Since there is a good chance that your current phone uses a 60Hz screen, you will be surprised by the screen of the OnePlus 8 Pro.
Below you can see the OnePlus 8 (green) and OnePlus 8 Pro side by side.
The best hardware
Since the first model in 2014, OnePlus smartphones have been focusing on the most powerful hardware for the best performance. That is no different with the OnePlus 8 Pro. The phone uses a very fast Snapdragon 865 processor with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, depending on the model. I tested the 12GB version, without a doubt the fastest smartphone I've ever used. The smooth 120Hz screen and near-stock Android software also contribute to this.
The storage memory measures 128GB (8GB variant) or 256GB (12GB model). You cannot increase the memory with a micro SD card.
The OnePlus 8 Pro supports 5G, the mobile network that will be activated in the Netherlands this summer. 5G will offer slightly faster and more stable internet in the first few years, and will make really faster internet possible from 2023. In terms of marketing, providers are already investing heavily in 5G, but don't expect too much from it yet. Nevertheless, it is nice that the OnePlus 8 Pro is prepared for the future.
Battery life and charging
The smartphone is powered by a non-removable 4500 mAh battery. Considerably larger than the 4085 mAh battery in the 7T Pro, but necessary because the size and refresh rate of the screen have increased. Looking at these characteristics, 4500 mAh is not particularly large. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a similar display that is slightly larger at 6.9 inches, and uses a 5000 mAh battery. I was therefore curious whether the OnePlus 8 Pro lasts a long day, and tested the battery life for nine days with the screen at full HD resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Only on days when I looked at the display for five hours did I have to grab a charger after dinner. On average, the screen was on for about 3.5 hours a day and I still had about thirty percent power left at bedtime.
The box contains a 30W Warp Charge USB-C plug, the same as the OnePlus 7T Pro. The battery charges very quickly, especially the first tens of percent. The OnePlus 8 Pro is the brand's first smartphone that can also charge wirelessly. OnePlus itself sells a 30W wireless charger for seventy euros, which I also received for this review. The charging dock feels solid and includes a small fan to keep the phone cool during fast charging. In thirty minutes, the battery counter jumps from 0 to 53 percent, which makes charging significantly faster than on the iPhone 11 Pro and Galaxy S20 series.
That built-in fan makes a soft buzzing sound when the charger is charging at full power. In the settings of the smartphone there is a night mode that you can set to your own liking. Charging via night mode is slower, so the fan stays off. Handy if you – like me – put the smartphone on the charger in the evening and only need it again in the morning. The main drawback of the wireless charger is that the cable and plug are attached to the charging station. Therefore, if a cable defect occurs, you must replace the entire charger. Don't want to spend seventy euros? Any wireless charger that supports the EPP 10W protocol will charge the 8 Pro at 10W, which is fast enough for the night.
Cameras
In terms of camera, OnePlus smartphones could never quite keep up with the (more expensive) competitors. Not in terms of image quality during the day and in the dark, and also not in terms of zoom function. Not a disaster considering the price difference, and the fact that OnePlus phones shoot 'just good' photos. But because the 8 Pro costs practically the same as its biggest competitors, you can also expect similarly good cameras.
OnePlus has made two major improvements on paper. The primary 48 megapixel camera uses the brand new Sony IMX689 sensor, which recently debuted in the Oppo Find X2 Pro (1199 euros). The camera should shoot better pictures during the day and in the dark than last year's OnePlus 7T Pro. It uses an IMX586 sensor for the primary camera. This sensor is also in the 8 Pro, but as a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera. An upgrade over the 7T Pro, which has a less good, 16-megapixel wide-angle lens.
The 8 Pro again features a zoom camera to bring the image three times closer with minimal loss of quality. However, the resolution of the camera has been reduced from 16 to 8 megapixels. The 5 megapixel color filter camera is new to take photos with effects. So much for the theory. How does the quadruple camera perform in practice?
Overall very good. With enough (day) light, the primary camera shoots very colorful and sharp photos that simply look beautiful. The pictures look more realistic than those of the Samsung Galaxy S20.
In the dark, the camera also holds its own, especially if you use the night mode. The Huawei P40 Pro does even better in the dark. Below you see three photo series with the automatic mode on the left and the night mode on the right.
I am particularly pleased with the wide-angle lens, which delivers neat results under all circumstances. The difference in quality with the primary camera is not large. That is certainly not obvious, because most smartphones have a wide-angle lens that takes significantly less beautiful photos than the main camera.
The zoom lens is less impressive. Getting the image three times closer works fine, but does not maintain the quality. Below you see two photo series with from left to right the normal camera (1x), wide-angle lens (0.6x) and zoom camera (3x).
Photos with zoom look less sharp and faded than reality, and there is a clear difference in quality with the primary camera. Too bad, especially because the competition is doing better. Finally, the color filter camera. OnePlus says it added it because there was a demand for it. Which can. In the six years that I've been testing smartphones, I've never felt the need for this feature, but that could just be me. After trying the camera a few times, I'm even less convinced. The five different effects across the images don't always work flawlessly and apart from that I doubt their usefulness. I would have preferred a Time-of-Flight sensor (TOF) on the OnePlus 8 Pro for a better depth-of-field effect in photos and Augmented Reality (AR) applications. Maybe you think differently.
Left no filter, center and right yes.
The 16-megapixel selfie camera in the screen takes great photos and videos, without striking in quality. I especially like that such a small camera does everything you expect.
Software
The OnePlus 8 Pro runs out of the box on Android 10, the most recent version. OnePlus puts its OxygenOS shell over the Android operating system. This software shell traditionally differs little from stock Android and many OnePlus users find that a plus. On the OnePlus 8 Pro, you use the software almost entirely as Google intended, with some handy additions from OnePlus. For example, the manufacturer offers handy settings to change the appearance and operation of the software to your own taste and a special game mode has been built in that pauses notifications and pushes the hardware to its limits.
OxygenOS also includes a handful of apps from OnePlus, including a gallery, file manager, and app to transfer files from your old phone to the new one. The Netflix app is also pre-installed. You can disable it, but not delete it. I'm not a fan of such commercial decisions, although the app disabled doesn't get in the way.
Update Policy
OnePlus's update policy has been clear for years: the manufacturer guarantees three years of Android updates and security updates. OnePlus phones will receive software support for as long and regularly as the Pixel devices from Google, the Android developer. The update policy is among the top Android brands and that deserves praise.
Conclusion: Buy OnePlus 8 Pro?
The OnePlus 8 Pro is without a doubt the best and most complete OnePlus smartphone ever. The device has a large 120Hz screen and contains the most powerful hardware of the moment, supplemented with innovations such as 5G, wireless charging and a water and dustproof housing. OnePlus' software (policy) remains excellent and the general camera performance and battery life of the phone are also fine.
All very nice, but the innovations and improvements push the sales price of the device to a new height for OnePlus. At 899 euros (or 999 euros for the 12GB/256GB version), the phone is almost as expensive as the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and Huawei P40 Pro. The cameras of the 8 Pro just don't make it to these three devices, but OnePlus also puts down a very solid competitor.
For example, the iPhone 11 Pro has a less attractive screen and no 5G, while the P40 Pro lacks a Google certification and therefore works moderately. The biggest competitor seems to be the Galaxy S20 Plus, which is very daring to the OnePlus 8 Pro but charges less quickly, gets two instead of three years of Android updates and – subjectively – uses Samsung's heavy software shell. Those looking for the best smartphone at the moment should therefore definitely consider the OnePlus 8 Pro.
