OnePlus 8, complete analysis with opinion

The OnePlus 8 is one of the most anticipated terminals this year, coming to compete with the best. This new version is not lacking in attributes, with specifications that place it at the forefront, as well as a design and manufacturing that lives up to expectations, but will it be enough to take the definitive leap? We tell you about it in our review

With each edition of the OnePlus that comes out, the same idea assails us, if it will be a great phone, with great power, good manufacturing and a lot of good things, although we will see if this time they have found the key to compete in everything with everyone.

OnePlus 8 Data Sheet

Screen: 6.55-inch Fluid AMOLED, 1,080 x 2,400 pixel resolution (FullHD+), 90 Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, and 402 pixels per inch.
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.
RAM memory: 8/12 GB.
Internal storage: 128/256 GB.
Rear camera: main 48 MP (Sony IMX586), f/1.75, 0.8 µm, 6P lens, OIS, PDAF and laser AF + ultra-wide angle 16 MP, f/2.2 and 116º + macro 2 MP, f/2.4 and 1.75 µm.
Front camera: 16 MP (Sony IMX471), f/2.0, 1.0 µm, EIS and autofocus.
Connectivity: 5G, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, aptX HD, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo and NFC.
Ports and sensors: USB Type C 3.1, fingerprint sensor under the screen, face unlock sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor and compass.
Battery: 4,000 mAh with 30W fast charging.
Operating system: Android 10 + OxygenOS 10.5.1.
Price: from 709 euros.

Continuous design

In the design of the OnePlus 8, originality has not been one of the keys, since it is reminiscent of the previous generation on the back, except for certain details such as that the flash is now outside the flash module the camera and the circular highlight has been removed.

On the front we find two substantial differences compared to the previous generation.

The screen now comes with curved sides, which blends seamlessly into the frame of aluminum and gives it a much nicer appearance, although for practical purposes it is not very useful. In addition, the front camera is no longer in the central notch, but has become a hole in the screen, located in the upper left.

OnePlus 8, complete analysis with opinion alt=

The back with glass finish is spectacular in construction and attractiveness, something that is helped by the blue color of the unit that they have sent us. It is not a back excessively prone to fingerprints nor have we noticed that it is very slippery.

The rear camera protrudes slightly from the assembly, something that can cause a few scratches in the long run, but it is true that By placing a cover this problem disappears.

It is not a particularly heavy terminal (180 grams) nor does it feel like it when we hold it in our hands, quite the opposite.

The curvature of the screen is not excessive enough to remove the side buttons, something that did happen in the Huawei Mate 30 Pro of which we did its corresponding review.

OnePlus 8, complete analysis with opinion

On the right side it has one of the hallmarks of OnePlus, the Alert Slider button, which is responsible for changing the phone tone profiles.

If we leave it all the way down, the smartphone will have sound as normal, but if we leave it in the intermediate position it will only vibrate and if we raise it, we will enter silent mode.

On this right side we also have the on/off button of the terminal.

On the left side there is a double keypad to control the volume.

Above we only have the noise canceling microphone.

The bottom of the smartphone is full, since it has the slot for the SIM that it can carry, since it is a terminal dual SIM, the call microphone, a USB Type C to charge the phone and the multimedia speaker.

The screen is good, but not exceptional

The screen is a 6.55-inch Fluid AMOLED panel, with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 pixels (FullHD+) that gives the OnePlus 8 a density of 402 pixels per inch, compatible with HDR10+, a refresh rate of 90 Hz and Gorilla Glass 6 protection.

Now that we know the numbers we can talk about what we thought of the screen of this phone. The OnePlus 8 has one of those screens that denote quality on all four sides, with some very well achieved colors, some angles of very good vision and an exceptional sharpness

90 Hz can work at all times without interruption, although we can set the screen to 60 Hz whenever we want, in order to save some battery.

It's a big screen, but after having tested screens with 120 Hz refresh rate, and more if we put one next to it on the other, we miss that rate. 90 Hz works very well, but 120 Hz is noticeable, especially playing games or watching the odd music video with a lot of movement. The 120 Hz rate is reserved for the OnePlus 8 Pro.

What we have noticed is that we are not facing a screen with too much brightness, remaining below the brightness that it obtained, for example, the Oppo Find X2 Pro.

Although it is not something we really miss, we wish the brand had opted for a QHD+ screen instead of this FullHD+ that it incorporates, even though the refresh rate remained at 90 Hz.

Quad HD resolution and 120 Hz are reserved for the Pro version of this OnePlus 8.

The sound is launched through the speaker that is at the bottom of the terminal and through the same one we use for calls, so we are facing a sound stereo.

It has the Dolby Atmos system that we can configure in three levels of enhancement:

Dynamic: It is based on the sound itself that we are listening to manage the quality.
Movie: To enjoy a purely cinematic type of sound.
Music: where the bass intensity is accentuated to give the sound more packing.

The sound quality of the OnePlus 8 is at the height of its range, it may not be the best exponent in this regard, but it is at a good levelIf we can fault it, it would be the bass, since a little more power would not have been a bad thing, since we liked the body of the sound.

Another aspect that we like is the good sound volume, since we can turn it up a lot and the quality is not noticeable diminished at no time, achieving the same audio as when we have it at 50% of its capacity.

With headphones the experience has been much more than satisfactory, since the sound is really good. Listening to Spotify with headphones is a really highly recommended experience with the OnePlus 8, we also have 4 audio modes with headphones: one balanced, another warm style, one nuanced and, finally, the possibility of deactivating the improvements.

Without power it would not be a OnePlus

The first thing before getting into the performance of the OnePlus 8 is to know what moves it. This is the smartphone hardware:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 as processor.
Adreno 650 as GPU.
12 GB RAM memory.
256 GB UFS 3.0 internal storage, no expandability.

It is quite evident that with the Snapdragon 865 and 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, the power and speed are going to be his two maxims in this section.

What we have experienced is the same thing that we have told you about, power and speed in everything this OnePlus 8 does.

We have executed powerful programs and top-level games, without the terminal being disheveled at any time. With a lot of multitasking the result is the same, power in all aspects and speed when executing any action.

We have been playing with Asph alt 9 or F1 Mobile, two of those games that demand power from any mobile and our experience has been a delight The loading times are good and when it comes to playing we enjoy it without having the slightest problem in terms of performance.

Thanks to the Adreno 650 GPU of the Qualcomm processor, we make any game run smoothly, in addition to being extremely difficult, not to mention Impossible, that any type of lag appears.

In addition, the terminal comes with a “ Game space ” signed by the eSport Fnatic team Inside we have the Fnatic Mode, where we get all the processor and RAM to work to offer the best possible performance. It will also eliminate any type of distraction, by way of notification or calls, while we are playing.

We have a tab " Graphics optimization" in which we can improve the graphics of the game in general, with special dedication to details in the shadows.

It is a terminal with the new 5G technology, which unfortunately we have not been able to test due to the limited coverage it currently has outside certain cities from Spain.

Along with 5G connectivity we will enjoy WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo and NFC to complete connectivity.

OxygenOS: simplicity made interface

Despite the power that the OnePlus 8 possesses, if it did not have software to match it could be wasted. Well, that doesn't happen here.

OxygenOS is based on Android 10 and we can say that we are facing one of the customization layers best integrated right now in the Android world. It is an extremely light layer of pure Android with the occasional minor modification.

Perhaps it is a less customizable layer than MIUI or EMUI, but in return we notice a less overloaded interface and with extreme fluidity.

Bloatware is practically non-existent except for an application belonging to the OnePlus forum, another to transfer data and contacts from our old smartphone and, finally, a weather app.

It also incorporates a Dark mode, which is very efficient and makes the terminal use less battery, and aZen Mode , which is responsible for providing us with 20 minutes of digital rest, with the sole exception of calls from a previously configured contact, or if we have to make an emergency call ourselves.

To unlock the terminal we have both optical fingerprint sensor under the screen and facial sensor.

Both work really well, the fingerprint sensor is fast and extremely accurate, although the speed also depends on the unlock interface that we choose, since the drawing that the terminal shows when placing the finger can be changed and some are faster than others.

The facial unlocking continues in the same line of speed and efficiency, yes, in low light it costs a little more if we don't bring the screen very close so that it illuminates our faces.

The photos still do not jump

Photography is one of the things where OnePlus often falls a bit short of the best, year after year. This means that the photos of the previous OnePlus were very good, but they did not manage to make the leap to compete with the bigger ones.

There are 3 sensors in the rear camera:

Main Sensor: 48 megapixel (Sony IMX586), f/1.75, 0.8 µm, 6P lens, OIS, PDAF and laser AF.
Ultra Wide Angle: 16 megapixels, f/2.2, 116º.
Macro: 2 megapixels, f/2.4 and 1.75 µm.

The first surprise we got when we observed that the main sensor is the same one that was already equipped in the previous generation, the Sony IMX586, and we are already assailed by doubts as to whether the brand really wanted to take a leap or keep what they already had.

The main sensor shoots 12-megapixel photos if we don't tell you otherwise through the OnePlus Camera app.

It's an application that we found to be quite correct and with several operating modes that could be useful depending on the situation. We have a panoramic, slow motion, timelapse, portrait, night landscape or pro mode, among others.

Photos with the main sensor in standard mode we found quite good, although we could expect a little more color. Regarding the sharpness and contrast, they seem correct to us, although we have the same feeling that happened to us with previous OnePlus models, they are good photos, but without being able to fight with the best.

If we use the 48 megapixels we don't notice much difference, except in the detail which is much greater, as one would expect, although the photo also weighs a lot more.

If we use the ultra wide-angle sensor at first we didn't notice much difference between the main one and this one, since color and contrast is extremely similar. But as soon as we look at the sharpness we see that this sensor behaves worse and the photos do not have as much detail as with the main one.

A sensor that we liked a lot and that surprised us is the macro, since the photos come out much better than we could have expected.

If we use the zoom we can get up to a 10x digital zoom, which is quite disappointing.

If we use the portrait mode (bokeh effect) it will take photos where the cutout in solid areas, for example clothing, is really good, trimming to the millimeter. Another issue is in less solid areas such as hair. There it gets more confused and it is not as precise, although we accept that it has done better than we expected at first.

As for the blur itself, we liked it because it looks quite natural, but it is not very intense and too light in certain occasions.

When we want to take photos at night without using the "Night Landscape Mode" (night mode) we have photos that capture light well, something we already saw in the previous generation by having the same sensor. That offers us some photos that are not bad at all, although noise appears in very intense points of light.

When we use the Night Mode the capture of light is greater and we notice superior sharpness, a much more realistic color and a more limited noise in the photos, although it still appears. For example, a strong point of light such as a street lamp still has noise, although the light beam is better resolved.

It may not be the best night mode on the market, but it does manage to improve photos in low light, which is its goal.

The photos with the 16 megapixel front sensor signed by Sony seem enough to us to take our selfies and post them on social networks, although the color and sharpness of our face are excessively linear, so it is convenient not to have any of the 3 levels of beauty mode activated.

If we use the portrait mode we notice that it doesn't get along well with hair trimming and that it isn't as precise in the cutout in the clothes as if it was the rear camera. It has more glitches here, as well as being unable to detect, as you can see in the photo below, that the fingers are part of the main blur.

True fast charging

This OnePlus 8 has a 4,300 mAh battery with 30 W fast charging system.

We have subjected the OnePlus 8 to several tests to see what the result is, especially depending on whether or not 90 Hz is used.

The first test has been to keep the screen at 90 Hz constantly. The use of the mobile has been more or less the normal thing that we can dedicate ourselves to on any day, that is, browsing, emails, social networks, some YouTube video and all this connected by WiFi. The result has placed the OnePlus 8 in almost 7 hours of active screen

When performing the complete PCMark test on the terminal, the battery has stood at just over 6 hours, corroborating our measurements.

If we remove the 90 Hz from the screen our tests have placed the battery life, in the same conditions, slightly exceeding the 8 hours of active screen.

This means that we have the full day guaranteed at all times. If we talk about days, the battery life is between a full day and a day and a half, depending on the use of the terminal.

Regarding the charge, we have verified that it is capable of charging from 0 to 50% in about 25 minutes approximately, a very good, completing a full charge in just over an hour.

OnePlus 8, price and conclusion

There is no doubt that we are facing one of the premium terminals of the year because it is capable of standing up to everyone in all areas, as the brand has accustomed us edition after edition.

There are still manufacturers like Samsung or Huawei that are more famous among the general public and OnePlus will have to fight against that in the first instance, but it is much better to fight with a great terminal like theOnePlus 8 than with other types of arguments.

This smartphone, despite being excessively continuous in its design, has an exquisite construction, great power (beats the powerful Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra in the benchmarks) and with an interface that works better than Samsung's, to continue with the comparison.

The price of the unit that we have been given to do this review is 809 euros, something that also becomes an asset important in favor of the OnePlus 8 with respect to its competition, although the cost has been rising as new generations have appeared.