The OnePlus 8 with some excellent features but an average camera.
OnePlus smartphones speak premium design, great hardware, and software at good prices. The company seems to have established itself a major game-changer in the market and is heading against some brands like Samsung, Realme, Apple, etc. Last year the OnePlus 7 series was launched where OnePlus 7 and 7T with their respective Pro models.
OnePlus 8 5G Design:
The OnePlus 8 has a curved display that we had seen on some Samsung smartphones in the past. This does make the smartphone look premium and is a bit slippery.
The screen remains the same at 6.55 inches from its predecessor. The pop-up camera implementation on the OnePlus Pro models was good but still, this punch hole looks good.
The OnePlus 8 comes in very attractive colors: Onyx Black, Glacial Green, and Interstellar Glow. The Interstellar Glow looks attractive with the mirror finish and changes color shift with a rainbow pattern just like the Galaxy Note 10 series.
The triple camera setup with the LED flash sits in the middle and the OnePlus logo under it.
Coming to the sides, there is the power button with the alert slider to the right which has been moved slightly up and to the left lies the volume controls.
On the top, there is only a secondary noise-canceling microphone and at the bottom is a loudspeaker, main microphone, a SIM tray slot, and a USB Type-C port.
The speaker grill just sits above the tiny bezel of the smartphone which together with the loudspeaker vent acts as stereo speakers.
At 180grams, the smartphone does not feel heavier as the weight distribution has been done well and now especially the IP rating has come but only reserved for Verizon and T-Mobile variants. Like the OnePlus 8 Pro, there is no support for wireless charging.
The build and design feel premium but the lack of an IP rating on all models is a big miss.
Check also: OnePlus 8 Pro 5G Review: Crafted in perfection and the flagship that was much needed by the world.
OnePlus 8 5G Display:
The OnePlus 8 has good viewing angles and colors look punchier and vibrant on the display. The screen has good visibility under direct sunlight as it has 1100 nits of brightness. The brightness can go very much lower during the night and there is the reading mode which is an additional feature useful during the night.
The smartphone supports HDR10 content and has the support for Widevine L1 to stream HD content from Netflix, Amazon, etc. The curved display with the punch hole cutout looks striking on the OnePlus 8.
OnePlus 8 5G Performance:
This is built on the same 7nm process as the Snapdragon 855/855+ and brings in support for 5G as there is an integrated 5G modem and also supports 5mm signal wave with the sub-6GHz band for the network. It is shipped with 6GB/8GB/12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128/256GB storage (UFS 3.0).
Unfortunately, there is no LPDDR5 RAM support which is present on the OnePlus 8 Pro which is slightly faster but you will notice any difference as such.
All small to heavy games are played smoothly with their highest resolution. The back does tend to get a warmer a bit but the heat is well managed. The 90Hz refresh rate does provide good gaming experience in demanding games supporting a higher refresh rate.
On Geekbench 5.1, the smartphone scored 3385 which is highest among all the Android smartphones in the market.
OnePlus 8 5G Software:
There is still no Always-On display but you can view the content by tapping on the screen when it is locked.
The OxygenOS continues to impress with the OnePlus 8.
OnePlus 8 5G Cameras:
This time, OnePlus has gone for a 2MP macro camera for the OnePlus 8 which seems good but the competition offers a telephoto camera at this price range. As usual, the 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor remains unchanged from the OnePlus 7T and there is a similar 16MP ultrawide camera.
The 2MP macro camera is a new addition here. In terms of rear cameras, the OnePlus 8 doesn’t feel any sort of upgrade.
The photos taken from the main camera come out good with punchier colors and the contrast in the photos works well. The details look good in photos and the dynamic range is wide enough. With HDR on, the photos come out sharper but there is some amount of noise present in the photos.
The 48MP photos resulting in 12MP photos come out well detailed but when zoomed in, the sharpness takes a hit slightly.
During the night, the 48MP camera takes photos with good detail but lacks sharpness as there is much noise present. However, with the Night Mode, the photos turn out much better detailed especially the highlight in the shadows. The noise is no more present and the dynamic range also improves.
The 16MP ultrawide camera does take some very good photos with good details and the dynamic range is also good with a wider field of view. The noise in the photos is barely noticed and when it comes to low-light or night, the ultrawide camera struggles to capture light, though having an OIS.
The details are good but a lot of noise is prominent.
Switching on the Night Mode, masks out the noise and brings the highlights in the shadows and the photos come out with punchier colors and the sharpness level works well.
Since the OnePlus 8 does not have a telephoto camera, it uses the main 48MP camera for zoom capabilities. At 2x zoom, the photos have good detail but still, the level of details cannot be compared to the photos taken from a regular telephoto camera.
It can also zoom up to 10x but at that level, the photos have barely any details as the colors look washed out and are of no use.
The 2MP macro camera does a decent job of taking average detailed photos. It can focus very close as 2cm but the colors look washed out in most scenarios and the edge detection needs to be improved.
Coming to portraits, the 48MP main camera takes very photos with a good amount of detail, colors look punchier and the edge detection works well. There is no noise in the background but some over sharpness takes place. However, the main camera does a great job when it comes to portraits.
On the front, there is a similar 16MP f/2.0 Sony IMX471 camera which remains unchanged from the OnePlus 7T. The dynamic range is good and the skin tones look natural. Similarly, in portraits, the front camera takes good photos with proper background blur but in some cases tends to oversharpen things a bit.
The OnePlus 8 supports 4K video at 60fps which is the highest. Though it is having the Snapdragon 865 chipset which is capable of 8K video recording, it does not have this feature. (Samsung S20 series and Xiaomi Mi 10 5G have). The videos come out stable with good color saturation and the dynamic range works pretty well.
The OIS helps maintain stability and also at 1080p at 30 or 60fps works pretty well.
The 4K video with the Super Stable video mode is available on the ultrawide camera. The Super Stable video mode works well at 1080p both for the main and ultrawide camera but tends to crop some details in the photos.
On the front, sadly there is no support for 4K video recording, and you are restricted at 1080p videos only. However, the videos have a good dynamic range and well stabilized and similarly for the portrait videos also.
Overall, the cameras are decent but the lack of a telephoto camera is a big miss at this price range. The 48MP main camera does a decent job but has been around in the market for quite some time.
There is no 8K video recording which will not make a big difference. But the cameras as a whole when compared to the competition do feel a bit short.
OnePlus 8 5G Battery Life:
OnePlus 8 5G Sound Quality:
Verdict:
I think the OnePlus 8 Pro is better with IP rating, better cameras and has a nice display.
The OnePlus 8 is not a good upgrade but the older OnePlus 7T is a better buy at Rs.37999 in Amazon having great specs in 2020.