Phone fans borrowed a phrase from the Dark Knight that perfectly sums up the story of the OnePlus 8 Pro: “You either die a flagship killer or you live long enough to see yourself become the flagship.”
OnePlus has long been known for producing high-quality phones that sacrifice a couple key features, like camera quality for instance, to deliver performance phones at cheaper prices than flagships.
They flipped the script with the OnePlus 8 Pro. This phone is by all definitions OnePlus’ first real flagship, with no feature or performance sacrifices and other flagship hallmarks like wireless charging and IP68 water and dust resistance ratings.
It also means a big price increase from the OnePlus 7 Pro. At $899 for the base model, it’s more than $230 more than the previous model. But is the pricing competitive?. We’ll get to that later.
In short, a lot of our experts called the OnePlus 8 Pro one of the best Android phones on the market. The boldest claim came from Kevin The Tech Ninja, who called it the best phone of 2020 so far, period.
Kevin the Tech Ninja on the OnePlus Pro 8 being the “Best phone of 2020”
Let’s take a closer look.
Fast Phone, Slick Design
The OnePlus 8 Pro comes with a spec sheet you’d expect from the best phones on the market. It sports a Snapdragon 865 processor, 8 or 16 GB of RAM and 128 or 256 GB of storage, which is a great specs package as NothingButTech points out.
NothingButTech on Specs
The phone has a 6.78 inch display and weighs 7.02 oz (199 g), making it a large phone and a bit heftier than others in its class. It’s available in three matte finishes (Ultramarine Blue, Glacial Green, Onyx Black) and it received high marks from reviewers for its overall build quality.
The only real gripes about the design were rather the large camera bump and the curved infinity display (more on that later). The camera bump becomes a non-issue if you use a case. But, as Dave Lee points out, it’s a bit of an annoyance if you don’t.
Dave Lee on the Camera Bump
No Compromise Display
One of the most exciting features of the phone is its 120hz display. We’ve seen 120hz refresh rates before (notably in the Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup), but the OnePlus Pro 8 is the first phone with a 120hz refresh rate AND a 1440p resolution.
More from TheTechChap on the great screen.
TheTechChap on the Great Screen
Clocking in at over 900 nits in some tests, it’s also bright enough to use comfortably in direct sunlight as Kevin the Tech Ninja demonstrates.
Kevin the Tech Ninja on Screen Brightness
The only real downside to the phone is its curved infinity display, which most reviewers thought should OnePlus should move away from like Samsung has. Many of them reported that it can lead to annoying accidental palm touches, as shown below by Jared Busch. (Note: this issue seems to have significantly improved after firmware updates from OnePlus).
Jared Busch on Accidental Palm Touches
A Great Camera, Finally
Historically, most OnePlus reviews would go something like this: This phone has great performance and a wonderful build, but the camera sucks. That’s not the case here.
OnePlus has finally built a flagship worthy camera. The OnePlus 8 Pro comes with a quad camera array with the following specs:
- 48 mp ultrawide f/2/2
- Camera 2: 8Mp telephoto f.2/44
- Camera 3: 48P Main f/1/7
- Camera 4: 5MP Color Filter
There’s a lot to take in here, so we’ll let Marques Brownlee walk you through the details in this long-ish clip:
Marques Brownlee on the Camera
Most reviewers, like TheTechChap in the clip below, noted that the new 5mp color filter camera on the back serves no clear purpose, other than to shoot grey-scale photos and offer a baffling “x-ray esque” effect on some images. Interesting, but a tad weird.
TheTechChap on the 5MP Color Filter Camera
All Day (and then some) Battery
The battery life on this phone received rave reviews across the board. Everyone reported that with the 4510mAh battery they were able to easily make it through the day and still have juice left over, even after heavy usage.
Here’s UrAverageConsumer with more on the battery.
UrAverageConsumer on Battery Life
And So Much More
There’s a lot more to this phone than we can pack into the article. The stripped down Oxygen received huge praise from almost everyone.
The new 30W wireless charging feature (which also requires a $70 accessory), warp charging, face unlock, in-screen fingerprint reader and motion graphic smoothing are other features that are worth a closer look.
But the Price…
All of this brings us back to the price. At $899 for the base model, it’s easily the most expensive phone ever released by OnePlus. Is it worth it?
The consensus among reviewers is that when comparing the specs and performance of this phone to other flagship phones, it’s still great value for the money. Check out Dave Lee’s take on it below.
Dave Lee on Price
See each of the expert reviews below: