Hello everyone,
My name's Mickey, and I'm thrilled to be back with the OnePlus Lab program, ready to bring you some great and informative content. My thanks goes out to the OnePlus community, staff, and especially @Zach X., for accepting me as part of this community tradition once more.
A little background before we begin; I'm a student in Industrial Design, a tech, DIY, and photography enthusiast, as well as a fan of never settling. I'm an avid user of my tech, often pushing it to the limits of their capabilities to fit my needs, be it overclocking my computer's CPU for faster rendering, or running my 3d printers a bit too hot and too fast to get my models fabricated quicker.
Some of you may remember me from the OnePlus 5T lab, and though it was a few years ago now, my expectations of OnePlus have remained tremendously high. As for what happened to my 5T, let's just say that perhaps it was too desirable of a phone, and one day while travelling it left my pocket.
I'll be meticulous and direct with my review, getting straight to what you want to know. However, words can only describe so much, so expect to see many, many pictures too.
Let's get started.
Contents
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First Impressions
Box Contents / Design
Display
Size & Form / Panel Specs
Performance
Hardware / Responsiveness / MEMC / Speakers / Haptics
Camera
Wide / Wider / Telephoto / Filter / Video / Software
Power
Longevity / Warp Charge 30T / Wireless
OxygenOS
Overview / Zen Mode / Optimizations / Customization
Summary
The Good / The Bad / The Neutral
I'll do my best to cover everything I can in my reviews, but if there's any you'd like to know about in more detail, feel free to ask me in the comment section.
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First Impressions
Tearing open the plastic wrap and separating the striking soft-touch scarlet halves of the box, a single thought struck me:
It's good to be back.
After using a vivo phone since the disappearance of my OnePlus 5T, I'd all but forgotten the feel of a OnePlus device. It was different, but a good different. More on this in a bit. First, what's in the box?
Box Contents
The invitation letter is a nice touch, establishing a personal connection right from the start. It's a wonderful nod to the community that's brought OnePlus to where it is now. The additional documentation is just as sleek and well-themed as the rest of the packaging, a striking contrast of red and white.
Well, you're hearing from me now. Thanks for the warm welcome, Pete!
The consistent colour scheme and design language continues over to the charger and cable, wonderfully minimalist yet visibly built for purpose. No tacky grips or texturing here, only two shallow scallops on the charger and a naturally grippy material on the cable to aid with handling.
Sleek and Smooth as the rest of it
An expensive investment demands protection, and the included case does well in fulfilling that need in style. A clear TPU case with a matte treatment around the sides and anti-bubble texturing on the inside, the case fits tightly and gives a decent amount of clearance to any vulnerable elements on the device.
Just uh, don't drop it on anything sharp.
Never Settle is embossed onto the case, giving it more character than just a clear one, although I'd have to say the font choice and typesetting is a little dubious. Especially with all the hype about Oneplus' new brand image, setting the standard typeface to be Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica), it's strange that the text seems to be in some form of Arial.
Also, it's not centred. :/
And the final item in the box, Stickers. Very nice.
Laptop Sold Separately
What's not so nice however, is the lack of any additional accessories to make use of the device's full capabilities. By this I mean a USB-c to 3.5mm adapter, and some sort of USB 3.1 Connectivity, be it an OTG dongle or a data cable.
Most users have dedicated headphones so it doesn't make sense for OnePlus to include a pair, and they haven't in the past. However, my bullets v2 along with several other wired headsets would've been nice to use with the device straight out of the box.
As for USB 3.1, the Oneplus 8 Pro features this blazing fast data transfer standard! However, it's not attainable with the standard Warp Charge cable, due to its proprietary USB 2.0 pinout. An included USB 3.1 OTG adapter would've been appreciated.
Maybe these aren't necessary inclusions, but at this price point, these luxuries would make for an even more spectacular unboxing experience.
That's probably enough appetizers, onto the main course!
Design
The OnePlus 8 Pro is sleek, smooth, and made of premium materials and finishes, but you already knew that. Far more important is how it feels, and with the Glacial Green variant in my hands, I'll try my best to describe it in full.
Product design is right in my wheelhouse, so get ready for a thorough list of enthusiastic observations.
Remember how I remarked the device felt different? Well, I believe it's down to contrast. All over the device, there's an elegant exhibition of contrast between colors, textures, and even geometry. It's this mastery in design of striking difference between parts that give the OnePlus 8 Pro such a unique and exciting visual and handling experience.
Perhaps these pictures will do a better job in explaining:
3 very different materials, colors, and textures unite beautifully
A textural disparity on the same sheet of glass is both eye-catching and utilitarian, letting through the flash, 3x camera, and sensors.
Contrast in the device's forms, rounded and hard edges, come out to play in light and shadow
The in-hand feel of the OnePlus 8 Pro Parallels the visuals, and the curved matte glass back goes a long way not only looking gorgeous, but also helping a great deal in keeping off fingerprints, and keeping the device planted in the hand.
I don't have very dry hands though, so your experience may vary.
The buttons and alert slider are very ergonomically placed, feeling natural to interact with in either hand. Aggressive texturing on the alert slider maintains its usability despite the reduction in size.
Everything's within reach.
Speaking of reduction in size however, looks like the design team went in the other direction with the cameras; the camera arrangement, though undoubtedly powerful, juts out unapologetically from the back. Measuring around 1.8mm tall and without filleted edges, this is no camera bump. It's a camera ridge.
Love it or hate it, this is a bold design choice.
Another bold design choice is of course, the hole punch front camera. With it come benefits and drawbacks, the main plus over a pop-up camera being added durability and water/dust resistance, with the drawbacks being screen real estate, and user interface and experience compromises. I was adamantly against the hole punch, but it’s understandable why they included it, and after a bit of actual use, its positioning in the top left corner doesn't seem to get in the way.
Think of it as a beauty mark?
Lastly, another controversial topic, the IP68 dust and water resistance rating. Though it's been an unofficial feature in past OnePlus devices, official certification and the peace of mind associated is a nice to have, and although I'm not the kind of person to be using my phone in a pool or in the bath, I'm sure fans that begged for this feature are overjoyed. Even for those of us not so water-inclined with our tech, a sudden rainstorm or getting splashed isn't something we can always avoid.
Pure Glacial water
Of course, no device is perfect, and though it's closer than most, I have a few somewhat subjective complaints with the OnePlus 8.
- Curved Display - A design following current trends, the curve presents more opportunities for damage and glare. However, it's not the curve I'm personally against - it's somewhat necessary on a phone this big - it's the aggressiveness of it that creates vignetting issues. More on this in the next section.
- Aluminum chassis - Now there's nothing wrong with aluminum, but several flagships in recent years have featured stainless steel and even titanium frames, being far more durable, rigid, and scratch-resistant, all at a premium price point, but it's not like this phone's cheap.
- Lack of screen protector preinstalled - though some users take it off right on unboxing, oneplus had provided the option of keeping a plastic screen protector on the device right out of the box in the past. That's absent on my OnePlus 8 Pro.
- Omission of the headphone jack - Personally, I wouldn't mind if a dongle were included. It was not.
There's a common sentiment going around that "all phones look the same nowadays" and from a fundamental standpoint, sure, that seems to make sense. Modern smartphones are often a sandwich of glass and metal that feature a screen on one side and a camera module on the other.
However, to say this is like saying all people look the same because we've all got heads, torsos, and limbs. It's really in the details that an impression is defined, and the designers and engineers at OnePlus have really hit it out of the park with this one.
Thanks for reading, and watch this thread for the next sections of my review!