CRISP. Tech: Oneplus 8 Review

Standing Out Of The Pro’s Shadow

The Oneplus 8 series devices take the Chinese manufacturer to the next level, delivering premium specs, some top-flight hardware and slick display skills…but price points to match.

Whilst the Pro takes the limelight with bleeding-edge specs, the Oneplus 8 is no slouch either…but does it do enough to make a mark in its own right?

We take a look.

Design

Smaller, lighter, thinner is the mantra here, carving a svelte figure in the hand and feeling immediately both comfortable and premium.

The design is striking, but also strikingly similar to the Huawei P30 Pro…the curved glass, dimensions and lines bear a great deal of familiarity.

Packing a brand new Snapdragon 865 processor and DDR4 RAM the Oneplus 8 has certainly lost nothing versus the Pro in terms of raw power, arriving in 8GB and 12GB RAM models with 128GB and 256GB storage respectively.

(Pro tip: Opt for the glacial green models over the black variant for faster internals).

The device certainly looks the part, being able to brave the elements despite the lack of an official IP68 waterproof certification.

The display is a silky-smooth 90Hz refresh rate, the same as last year’s Oneplus 7 Pro.

Definitely an element which will see yet more manufacturers following suit, that faster frame rate makes such a difference in general navigation and hopping in and out of apps…you’ll find it hard to go back.

Moving images receive similarly special treatment with HDR10/+ support, making for vibrant and clear visuals, handling both native content and over streaming services like Netflix and Youtube with ease.

Also great to note is that the Oneplus 8 is fully 5G-ready, enabling blisteringly fast browsing and download speeds – definitely a plus at this price point when it comes to futureproofing.

 

Software

The Oneplus 8 sports their customised Android 10 offshoot in Oxygen OS 10.5, keeping the manufacturer at the forefront of optimisations with it remaining swift yet unintrusive, distinct without feeling alien.

It still remains eminently customisable, with everything from fonts and virtual buttons versus swiping to navigate.

It also has support for Google One to take your storage to the cloud, as well as Amazon’s Alexa for those who enjoy talking as well as typing to control their life.

 

Battery

Another minor shortcoming against the Pro, the OnePlus 8 features a smaller 4,300mAh battery.

The usual working day’s swiping, tapping and browsing will see it reduce significantly, but the famed Warp Charging with the included cable takes you from 1% to 50% in a mere 22 minutes.

A clever marriage of internals and software squeezes yet more from the battery with ‘Smart Charging Optimisation.’

The theory is that charging overnight to 100% unnecessarily early (as in most devices) leads to battery degradation, so the Oneplus 8 learns your usage, managing settings to reach the maximum levels at the right time.

On by default with the Oneplus 8, this ensures that it reaches full charge just when you need it most, and not before.

One last thing the Oneplus 8 doesn’t have is wireless and reverse wireless charging.

Camera

There is admittedly quite a bit of daylight between the 8 and Pro models on this front.

Rather than the quad-camera array sported by the bigger brother, a triple camera setup comprising of Sony’s IMX586 48MP sensor as main (which is the Pro’s ultrawide), a 16MP wide-angle effort and a 2MP macro lens for close-up moments are what you get on the Oneplus 8.

On a par is the 16MP front-facing effort, which is fine as opposed to fantastic.

Price

It’s easy to look up at the Oneplus 8 Pro and malign the missing – wireless charging, 120Hz display, IP68 rating – but when you’re talking £599 SIM-free for a 128GB variant which matches in every area where it really counts, the Oneplus 8 cements itself as an impressive flagship which doesn’t break the bank.