OnePlus 8 Pro hand on Review.

The OnePlus 8 Pro is the company's most expensive flagship phone to date. It was released in April alongside the OnePlus 8 in both India and the rest of the world. While the OnePlus 8 has been offered through a few flash sales, the OnePlus 8 Pro will go on sale for the first time on June 15th due to production delays. The Pro model comes with the most advanced hardware available in 2020, including the Snapdragon 865 5G chipset, 12GB of RAM, 120Hz frame rate, QHD+ resolution, 48MP quad cameras, and 30W fast charging capabilities, among other features.

In this OnePlus 8 Pro review, we'll examine every feature of the phone, from its display quality and battery life to its gaming and camera capabilities, to see if it's worth the high-end price tag of Rs 54,999.

The OnePlus 8 Pro is the company's first phone that truly deserves the "Pro" designation. With features like wireless charging (and a quick one at that), as well as an IP68 rating for water resistance, both of which are firsts for OnePlus, you won't mind paying a premium to get the best from the company.

ONEPLUS 8 PRO (12GB RAM + 256GB) SMARTPHONE FULL SPECIFICATIONS

OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Design

The flagships from OnePlus are appealing. This is true for almost every phone OnePlus has released in the past, and it is also true for the OnePlus 8 Pro. On the front and rear, you get a gorgeous AMOLED display that is protected by Gorilla Glass 5.

Given how it's used on the Galaxy S20 series, we're a little surprised OnePlus didn't go with the latest-gen Gorilla Glass 6. Onyx Black, Glacial Green, and Ultramarine Blue are the colours available for the OnePlus 8 Pro. The Glacial Green unit we received for review is a beautiful colour on a phone. It has an aqua green gradience that can appear blue under certain lighting conditions.

The front of the OnePlus 8 Pro is curved, giving it an edge-to-edge aesthetic with text and photos flowing down the edges. This is primarily an aesthetic decision, as curved glass isn't particularly functional. It can actually be a pain because your palm registers phantom touches frequently. Even Samsung is gradually phasing out curved displays, which should indicate something.

Because the OnePlus 8 is so enormous, reaching the top of the screen with one hand will be difficult. The Glacial Green variant's matte texture is wonderful for hiding fingerprints and smudges, but it also makes the phone very slippery to grasp. Fortunately, the box includes a silicone case for those with butterfingers. The phone is not particularly light, weighing 199 grammes. Having saying that, we thought the phone's balance to be excellent. The vertical camera arrangement at the back's centre protrudes quite a little. If the phone is kept on a flat desk, it will shake.

The right-hand power button is easy to reach, and you'll find the familiar alert slider, which provides a nice tactile feel as you move back and forth to mute or unmute the phone. The OnePlus 8 Pro features dual speakers and twin nano SIM card slots. Unfortunately, the phone lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack and does not support storage extension.

Instead of a pop-up camera, OnePlus went with a punch-hole cutout. On the one hand, this can be rather distracting when viewing material, but the benefit is that the phone can now receive an IP68 water resistance classification, something OnePlus fans have been requesting for quite some time.

OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Display

The OnePlus 8 Pro's display has a lot to recommend it. It has a large 6.78-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a QHD+ (3,168 x 1,440) resolution, 19.8:9 aspect ratio, and 513 ppi. A high 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, and a record peak brightness of 1,444 nits are also included. That's an incredible display specs sheet, and it's easily one of the best you'll find on a flagship phone in 2020.

It should come as no surprise that the screen becomes extremely bright, has superb viewing angles, and produces really deep blacks. On screen, the colours are bright and brilliant, and everything looks to be quite sharp. The OnePlus 8 Pro, unlike other flagships, allows you to set 120Hz at QHD+ resolution.

The OnePlus 8 Pro has an excellent display for watching videos. We watched 'Interstellar' on Amazon Prime Video, and it was a terrific experience. Deep blacks and sharp pictures made space vistas look spectacular, and the colour accuracy and contrast were excellent. The Dolby Atmos-enhanced stereo speakers boosted the television experience by clearly and forcefully delivering Hans Zimmer's pulsing music.

OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Cameras

OnePlus has historically failed in the photography department when compared to its competitors, but this time is different. The cameras on the OnePlus 8 Pro are excellent. A 48MP Sony IMX689 primary sensor, a 48MP Sony IMX586 wide-angle lens with 120-degree field-of-view, an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x lossless zoom capabilities, and a 5MP colour filter lens make up the quad camera configuration on the rear. The camera app is cluttered with many modes and choices, but it's simple to use once you have your bearings.

The main 48MP camera captures some stunning daylight photographs that are crisp, bright, and colourful. The photos have a strong dynamic range, and the colour accuracy is excellent. We never got any blurry images thanks to OIS. Simply put, you'll be pleased with the OnePlus 8 Pro's daytime photography. Although the high-resolution wide-angle lens shoots clear wide-angle shots, we noticed a distinct change in colour tone to a cooler temperature when compared to images taken with the primary camera.

The main camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro is also good in low-light situations, but it's not the best we've seen on a premium phone. Nightscape mode does a good job of reducing noise and boosting contrast and detail. With Nightscape mode, you can see the details in the wall and the colour of the trees better in the photo above.

 Nightscape, on the other hand, only delays the shutter for a few seconds, whereas phones like the iPhone 11 can slow the shutter for considerably longer, resulting in even better low-light photos. When shooting inside, the primary camera performs admirably, but we noted some softness and a loss of clarity.

The 48MP primary camera shoots 12MP photographs by default, with pixel binning used to make the images appear brighter and crisper. If you plan to zoom in on images or blow them up as a poster, you may easily shoot in raw 48MP mode, which will give you more detail. While the 48MP option supports HDR, the photographs will appear less colourful than the binned images.

The 8MP telephoto lens can record photographs with a 3x hybrid-optical lossless zoom, which isn't to be confused with genuine optical zoom. This means that 3x zoomed shots will have some software processing applied to them. Although we noticed some over-sharpening in the cactus snap above, images taken at 3x zoom appear quite excellent outdoors with a natural background blur of close-up items. Any time you go over 3x and up to 30x, the quality starts to deteriorate.

A 5MP colour filter is included in the camera setup, however it's only useful if you want to add some artistic effects to your images to make them Instagram-worthy. You may have heard about the X-Ray filter that has been making headlines due to its ability to see through thin black plastic and clothing. The filter will not be available out of the box for Indian phones, but OnePlus has reportedly stated that it would return via an OTA update after the privacy issues are resolved.

OPPO Reno4 Pro Review.

The OnePlus 8 Pro's 16MP front camera was also a hit with us. In the sunshine, we were able to get several clean selfies with natural colours and skin tones, as well as a lot of detail. The phone can also shoot video at up to 4K quality, and with the help of OIS, we were able to record some solid movies. Overall, the OnePlus 8 Pro comes with a really impressive set of cameras that should satisfy the photographer in you.

OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Performance and software

OnePlus phones have never disappointed in terms of performance, and the OnePlus 8 Pro is no exception. The Snapdragon 865 CPU is combined with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB UFS 3.0 storage on the phone. Unfortunately, storage expansion is not supported. The OnePlus 8 Pro is a beast when it comes to performance. Whatever task you give it, it completes quickly. You won't notice any lag thanks to the raw power mixed with the seamless 120Hz refresh rate.

The OnePlus 8 Pro achieves excellent benchmark results. The phone outperformed the OnePlus 7T Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus in Geekbench 5, scoring 889 in single-core and 3199 in multi-core. We also gave it a 11573 on the PCMark Work 2.0 performance test. In Manhattan and T-Rex, the phone delivered 3,733 and 3,372 frames at 60 frames per second, respectively, on GFXBench.

We had nothing to complain about in terms of real-world performance. On a 120Hz refresh rate, scrolling around social networking networks felt buttery smooth. We were also able to switch between apps fast and without stutters, and we were pleased to note that the phone did not kill off a large number of programmes in the background. Although the OnePlus 8 Pro supports 5G connectivity, you won't be able to utilise it in India for the foreseeable future.

The flagship also performs admirably in terms of gaming. Games with high graphics settings, such as PUBG, CoD Mobile, and Asphalt 9, operate on the highest graphics settings. On PUBG, the gameplay was extremely smooth and lag-free with HDR + Extreme visuals. The phone did get a little warm, but you can address that by turning down the graphics. A 30-minute game of PUBG at maximum graphics settings depleted the battery by roughly 12-13 percent.

With the latest Oxygen OS, the OnePlus 8 Pro runs Android 10. You won't find any superfluous third-party apps on OnePlus' custom skin because it has a rather clean UI. It's been fine-tuned to the point where every command seems quick and seamless, thanks to a high touch reaction rate. When it comes to software updates, the organisation is likewise quite swift and regular. During the review time, the phone received an update that included a number of camera and UI upgrades and optimizations.

OxygenOS is a light skin with some handy customization features like font changes, quick actions like "flip to mute" and "three-finger screenshot," system-wide dark mode, and the ability to cover the punch-hole cutout by placing a black bar on top. There are also some handy functions such as reading mode, zen mode, game mode, and digital wellbeing.

Although Oxygen OS is a highly clean and streamlined piece of software, it isn't without flaws and annoyances. The Always-On display feature is still missing, which is odd given the amount of OLED phones the OEM has released over the years. However, you won't have to wait long since OnePlus has confirmed that the functionality will be available soon.

The OnePlus 8 Pro features an in-display fingerprint sensor as well as face unlock, which are both quick and accurate. The fingerprint sensor has one flaw: it requires the user to wake up the screen in order for it to work. It doesn't respond if you pick it up or if it's resting on the table, which can make the unlocking procedure take longer than it should.

OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Battery life

The OnePlus 8 Pro boasts a 4,510mAh battery, and we found the battery life to be rather good during our testing period. On the first day, we watched a few hours of Netflix films, an hour of PUBG, and a lot of WhatsApp and social media browsing while using the phone at its maximum display settings (120Hz in QHD+). We got between 6 and 40 minutes of Screen-on-Time before the phone needed to be charged. Our usage was more natural the next day, and the phone lasted a little more than a full day with about 5 and 30 minutes of SoT.

The OnePlus 8 Pro supports Warp Charge 30T fast charging, and you'll get a charger in the package that will charge the phone from zero to 100 percent in about 62-63 minutes. Another interesting feature is that the phone allows quick wireless charging. We were unable to test this feature because we did not have the OnePlus wireless charger with us.

OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Verdict

In India, the OnePlus 8 Pro (12GB RAM + 256GB) costs 49,999 rupees. As of Sep 24, 2021, it was offered for the lowest price on Tata Cliq in India.

The OnePlus 8 Pro has a more premium appearance and feel than the OnePlus 7T Pro. As a flagship, it has one of the greatest displays on a 2020 phone, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, a blazing fast processor with enough of RAM, a useful set of cameras, and a respectable all-day battery life. Finally, OnePlus has integrated IP68 water resistance, wireless charging, and 5G support, ensuring that you get your money's worth.

The OnePlus 8 Pro has a few clear competitors, such as the Xiaomi Mi 10. The Mi 10 has yet to be reviewed, but it appears to be a fascinating flagship phone with a 108MP camera. The Xiaomi phone, on the other hand, misses a few flagships features that the OnePlus 8 Pro has, such as a 120Hz QHD+ display and an IP rating. In addition, if you want a flagship phone but have a limited price, the Realme X50 Pro 5G and iQOO 3 are worth considering because they both use the Snapdragon 865 SoC, however, they lack several flagship features.

We believe that OnePlus might have included an optical zoom lens, improved low-light camera performance, and expandable storage. We'd also want to see an always-on display option included out of the box, as well as a lower camera bump. However, these are minor niggles in what is otherwise a fantastic premium smartphone.