OnePlus 8 Pro: the full Review

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Historically, OnePlus has always been the king of good value for money. The brand built its reputation on its ability to make "acceptable" concessions, where it felt that certain functions were not essential, such as wireless charging, waterproofing or the quality of the speakers.

With its OnePlus 8 Pro, the Chinese manufacturer completes the change of strategy initiated in 2019 with its OnePlus 7 Pro. No more concessions, make way for perfection. The objective of OnePlus is clear: to offer the best smartphone at all times and no longer the best value for money … even if it means getting dangerously close to the prices charged by competitors. Indeed, the OnePlus 8 Pro costs 899 euros (8 GB of RAM + 128 GB of storage) or 999 euros (12 GB + 256 GB). We tested the most expensive model for a long week.

Design: a pragmatic evolution

Take a OnePlus 7T Pro, take away its motorized pop-up camera and you will get a OnePlus 8 Pro. Yes, we force the line voluntarily but we can only note that the Chinese brand is not really reinventing itself this year. The design of the 8 Pro is almost identical to that of its predecessor, which is not necessarily a criticism. On the contrary, OnePlus smartphones are among the most successful on the market. We particularly appreciate the brand's choice to center the camera module on the back of the device rather than positioning it in the top left corner, like many other manufacturers. It’s much more beautiful and balanced.

The front camera of the OnePlus 8 Pro is therefore the main point of differentiation between this mobile and its predecessor. Like Samsung, OnePlus has decided to place it in an awl at the top left of the screen. With a diameter of 3.83 mm, it is extremely discreet, very easily overlooked. We really like this design, especially since the OnePlus 8 Pro is the brand's first waterproof smartphone (it meets IP68 certification). It is for this reason that OnePlus decided to eliminate its pop-up camera, it did not meet the conditions necessary for water resistance.

This change has another advantage, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a little lighter than the 7T Pro. We go from 206 to 199 grams which, in hand, can make a little difference. This decrease coupled with the curved edges of the mobile (on the back) makes using the OnePlus 8 Pro very pleasant.

Screen: extremely smooth navigation  

Last year, OnePlus was among the first to bet on a screen with a refresh rate of 90 Hz. Many manufacturers have since followed it (Huawei, Realme, Motorola…) while others, such as Samsung and Oppo, have chosen to go directly to 120 Hz. For those who do not understand what we are talking about, the refresh rate corresponds to the number of images displayed per second. A 120 Hz screen therefore doubles the refresh rate (60 Hz on most devices), which improves navigation fluidity. Scrolling a news feed on a smartphone equipped with such technology is really fun.

Unsurprisingly, the OnePlus 8 Pro therefore follows Samsung and Oppo. The smartphone has a screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz which is a feast for our eyes. Besides, unlike Samsung's Galaxy S20, the OnePlus 8 Pro can combine 120 Hz and Quad HD + definition. It is difficult to do better on a smartphone (even if this double configuration may strongly impact autonomy). OxygenOS, the overlay of OnePlus, also has new system animations that take advantage of 120 Hz. Everything seems very natural.

The OnePlus 8 Pro's curved OLED screen has one flaw: its size. Indeed, it measures 6.78 inches, which places it among the largest devices on the market. Note however that OnePlus had the good idea to bet on a ratio of 19.8: 9, for a rather narrow screen, all in height. Sufficiently narrow, so that this OnePlus 8 Pro can be manipulated with one hand without it becoming a torture. Of course, people who don't like big devices will benefit from turning to smaller competing products.

When it comes to brightness and color fidelity, OnePlus promises mountains and wonders. Unfortunately, due to containment, our laboratory was unable to perform any measurements. This Review will be updated soon with our full results.

OxygenOS: always the best experience

OnePlus has not only built its reputation on value for money. Since its inception, the company has been praised for the quality of its software. After a first smartphone running CyanogenMod, OnePlus has chosen OxygenOS, an overlay in addition to Android which, unlike those of many competitors, does not add a lot of additional elements (often not very useful) and mainly loads to simplify the experience. Still as effective today, the OxygenOS environment convinces with its comprehensive nature and easy to understand.

This year, let’s admit that OnePlus hasn’t made much effort. The only novelty of OxygenOS is a rapprochement with Google, which is increasingly anchored in this overlay. For example, the useless menu OnePlus Shelf located on the left of the health home screen bows out in favor of Google Discover, much more practical. The rest don't really differ.

However, we wanted to take advantage of this Review to send a note to OnePlus. For the past few months, most smartphones have been offering an easily accessible dark theme. It only takes one gesture to activate (or deactivate) it and thus benefit from a black background in its applications, which is less annoying at night (and very beautiful on an OLED screen). OnePlus also offers a dark theme, but its use is quite chaotic.

Indeed, to activate the dark theme in OxygenOS, you have to go to the application Settings, section Personalization (and not Display), to choose Tone and opt for the option Dark. To deactivate it, same procedure … There is no shortcut in the notification center. Hopefully a future update will make the transition from day to night easier. TOnePlus offers a "night mode" in the settings Display which actually corresponds to the reduction of blue light, which adds to the confusion.

Materially perfect

What would a OnePlus be without the latest features? Unsurprisingly, this is the latest generation Snapdragon 865 found in the 8 Pro, coupled with 8 or 12 GB of RAM. No need to tell you that performance is at the rendezvous and that everything is extremely fluid on this device. OnePlus has also chosen to use Qualcomm's X55 modem, which gives its smartphone 5G and Wi-Fi 6 compatibility. Besides, unlike some of its competitors like the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, the OnePlus 8 Pro does have a dual SIM slot.

The smartphone's stereo speakers, like those of the OnePlus 7 and 7T, are very powerful and allow you to watch a ehealth or play with great comfort. We also welcome the haptic feedback from the OnePlus 8 Pro which, in our opinion, is among the best on the market. OxygenOS has been particularly optimized to send light vibrations to different places of its interface, which makes the use of the 8 Pro very immersive. What more ? Apart from a jack and a Micro SD extension port, it lacks nothing.

Finally wireless charging!

The other major innovation of this new generation is the arrival of wireless charging. After years of opposition, OnePlus is finally adding to the specification sheet of its flagship smartphone this line that it missed so much. That's it, the OnePlus 8 Pro is as well equipped as a Galaxy S20 or an iPhone 11 Pro, if not better.

Better, because unlike its direct competitors, the OnePlus 8 Pro is compatible with ultra-fast wireless charging. With a compatible charger, such as Warp Charge 30 Wireless Charger marketed 70 euros, the OnePlus 8 Pro benefits from a power of 30W. This is much more than the 5 to 15W we are used to with wireless charging.

Result, in 1h21, the OnePlus 8 Pro recharges fully placed on its Qi support. It's a record. We are far from the charging time exceeding the three hours that wireless has accustomed us to. In just 10 minutes, we recover 17%.

Unsurprisingly, this remains worse than conventional wired charging, also 30W (but without loss). With it, the OnePlus 8 Pro recharges in 1h02. It's great, but not enough to integrate our top 10 smartphones that charge the fastest.

Autonomy still uncertain

What about autonomy? With its 4510 mAh battery, the OnePlus 8 Pro logically has enough to last a long time. However, 5G, the Quad HD + screen and 120 Hz consume a lot, which could affect the autonomy of the mobile.

Confinement requires, we could not achieve our three usual autonomy measures on the OnePlus 8 Pro. We will do them later and add them to this Review. In any case, know that in use (Quad HD + and 120 Hz activated), we find the autonomy of the OnePlus 8 Pro satisfactory without being breathtaking. The smartphone takes the day but its battery percentage drops quite quickly as soon as you start to use it actively.

Real photo enhancements

In the past year, we have been particularly harsh on the photographic quality of OnePlus smartphones. Truth be told, over the whole of 2019, we haven't seen anything slower than the OnePlus 7T in terms of photos. Pressing the shutter button twice in a row at night succeeded in crashing the cell phone, which did not know how to react to this request, which was too quick. No need to tell you that we are looking forward to the new OnePlus 8s.

Like the Oppo Find X2 Pro, the OnePlus 8 Pro uses the new IMX689 sensor from Sony. Of 48 Mpix, the latter has the main characteristic its size of 1 / 1.43 inch Associated with a lens opening to f / 1.8, it is much larger than the IMX586 of last year (1/2 inch, it also 48 MP). What to expect from a reduction in digital noise and an improvement in photos in low light? So, this is precisely the weak point of previous OnePlus …

Is the bet successful? The answer is yes, but with some reservations. The photos of the OnePlus 8 Pro are undeniably better than those of the OnePlus 7T Pro, especially at night when the smartphone manages to manage the different light sources better than before. This allows us to get crisp photos the first time much more often. The white balance also seems improved to us. On the other hand, the problem of slowness is still present. If there is anything better, switching from one lens to another or taking several photos in a row always results in a wait of one or two seconds. It is not a problem to take a picture of a landscape but much more to keep the memory of a show where the subject is moving. OnePlus has developed software called Smart pet dedicated to these kinds of situations, but we haven't figured out how to activate it manually. We suspect it will only work if it detects the presence of an animal.

At night, some elements located in the background are also a little too smoothed in our opinion. the result is still higher than that obtained with the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro.

The OnePlus 8 Pro also has an ultra wide-angle (f / 2.2) useful in Macro mode, attached to a 48 Mpix sensor (the same as last year) and a telephoto (f / 2.4) with x3 optical zoom attached to an 8 Mpix sensor. These two cameras fulfill their role well even if we notice some slight chromatic variations between them, especially at night. Besides, there is always the same problem of slowness. It takes too long to switch from ultra wide angle to the main camera or telephoto. The smartphone even has an annoying tendency not to respond to user requests. Sometimes you get haptic feedback after hitting the ultra wide-angle button, but nothing happens. You have to do it a second time.

Finally, the fourth 5 Mpix sensor of the OnePlus 8 Pro provides… color filters. We still haven't figured out what it was really for. Change colors like some well-known apps can do? We really doubt its usefulness. With its Pixels, Google has shown us that a good algorithm is often enough, rather than yet another sensor

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