OnePlus 8 Review - Android

The OnePlus 8 series is the third generation to include two variants. With the OnePlus 8 Pro being closer to other top flagships in...

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The OnePlus 8 series is the third generation to include two variants. With the OnePlus 8 Pro being closer to other top flagships in terms of price and features, the OnePlus 8 still embodies the company’s roots of providing premium, but relatively affordable devices.

With a bigger chunk of the attention since launch going to the Pro version, how does the standard OnePlus 8 fare? Find out here.

Design and Construction

Sleek and metallic, the OnePlus 8’s minimalist but functional approach to design is both pleasing to look at and to use. A couple examples of this include the minimized bezels in front thanks to the curved sides and punch-hole camera setup. Also that the matte glass back panel is more forgiving when it comes to fingerprints and doesn’t slide as easily on a smooth surface.

It clocks in at around the same size as last year’s OnePlus 7T with a 6.55-inch screen, but is actually lighter by 10g, despite having a larger battery.

They have also abandoned the circular rear camera module in favor of the center-placed, vertically aligned module that’s been around since the OnePlus 6.

For buttons, we get the volume rocker on the left side and the power button and three-way mute switch on the right. I’m somewhat partial towards the power and volume buttons being on one side to prevent accidental presses when laying the phone on its side when watching a video. However, I definitely can still live with having them on opposite sides.

The bottom contains the main loudspeaker, main microphone, USB Type-C port, and dual SIM card slot. The OnePlus 8 comes with plenty of internal storage, starting at 128GB, but the option for microSD expansion would have been nice.

The top houses the secondary noise-canceling microphone and the speakerphone, which is actually cleverly hidden along the top bezel. It also acts as a secondary speaker when playing media to make a stereo setup, which is nice.

In the hand, the OnePlus 8 certainly feels large, which may require smaller users to use both hands to reach the top of the screen. But for one-handed use, you can comfortably type on the keyboard and swipe around the UI.

Display and Multimedia

Taking a closer look at the display, we get a 6.55-inch Fluid AMOLED panel with a 2400 x 1080 resolution, support for HDR10+, and of course a 90Hz refresh rate. While there are 120Hz phone screens available nowadays, there’s no denying that even 90Hz is many times more buttery smooth than standard 60Hz.

For a phone with such an attractive design, the crisp animations on the UI further the experience. After all, OnePlus is the one who brought higher refresh rate smartphone screens to the mainstream.

Aside from the nice high refresh rate, the display shows crisp details, vibrant colors, deep blacks, and decent enough viewing angles for an AMOLED panel.

For display customization, you get the option to hide the punch-hole if you wish to do so, full custom screen calibration, color temperature adjustment, reading mode, and an optional vibrant color effect that enhances the colors in video playback.

When it comes to audio, again, the OnePlus 8 utilizes a combination of its bottom-firing loudspeaker and earpiece speakerphone to make a stereo setup. It gets pretty loud in a small quiet space, and has a pretty balanced sound output. Overall, decent enough for casual listening and gaming.

Camera

The OnePlus 8 has a total of four cameras — a triple setup at the rear consisting of a 48MP main sensor, a 16MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro. For selfies, a single 16MP shooter. Hardware spec-wise, this is a very simple configuration that will probably be just enough for most users.

While the images we get from this phone aren’t all that bad, I was honestly expecting a little bit more from a flagship device. But the first part of that previous statement still rings very true, as shots in good lighting conditions turn out pretty well.