digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: The OnePlus 8 Pro is an easy phone to recommend as a true flagship, finally adding wireless charging, an IP68 rating, and a much-improved camera to its high-end specs. Its main drawbacks are the wireless charging limitation, a large camera bump, accidental edge touches, and the hole-punch selfie camera replacing the pop-up design.
Key Points
- The phone pairs top-tier specs (Snapdragon 865, 8 or 12 GB LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 3.0 storage) with a 6.78-inch 1440p 120Hz AMOLED display, which the reviewer finds very color-accurate and noticeably brighter than last year's model.
- Long-standing OnePlus criticisms are addressed: the camera now reaches flagship quality (roughly on par with Galaxy S20 and Huawei P40, just behind Pixel and iPhone), and wireless charging and an official IP68 rating are included.
- The 4,510 mAh battery delivers about six hours of screen-on time in the reviewer's use, with fast wired charging via Warp Charge 30T.
- Software remains OxygenOS on Android 10, which the reviewer praises as clean, with fewer setup tweaks needed than on other phones.
- The reviewer notes this is the most expensive OnePlus phone ever, yet it still undercuts rival flagships it's now at feature parity with, making it the one he'd recommend.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: To get 30-watt wireless charging, you must use the separately sold $70 OnePlus Wireless Charging Stand; on any other Qi charger the phone charges at only 5 watts. Wired Warp Charge 30T gets you from zero to half battery in about 25 minutes, while the wireless stand does zero to half in about 30 minutes. For the display, you can run 1440p at 120Hz, which uses more battery; step down to 1080p to save power.
- The camera setup is a 48 MP main with OIS, a 48 MP ultra-wide with macro mode (same sensor as the OnePlus 7 Pro's main camera), a 3x telephoto reaching 30x max zoom (usable mainly up to about 10x), and a 5 MP color filter camera the reviewer finds largely unnecessary.
- The reviewer notes accidental touches from the curved edges and suggests Samsung's flatter-edge balance is better; the large camera bump is also called out as a nitpick.
- The selfie camera still struggles with exposure, possibly more so for people with darker skin, though detail and 4K video stabilization are good.
- The reviewer suggests future phones could offer a 90Hz mode between 60Hz and 120Hz to save battery, and predicts a OnePlus 8T Pro with a Snapdragon 865 Plus.
Bottom Line
The OnePlus 8 Pro finally delivers a complete flagship experience, with its main trade-offs being the wireless charging accessory requirement and some design and usability nitpicks.