OnePlus 8 Pro has a Snapgragon 865 processor, 6.78-inch Quad-HD 1440P 120Hz AMOLED curved display, 8GB of RAM for 128GB storage model or 12GB of RAM for 256GB model,3 back cameras and one front camera.
At price tag of $899, OnePlus has definitely come a long ways from being a budget flagship killer to making actual flagship-worthy devices like the OnePlus 8 Pro. As far as specs go, you won’t be disappointed with OnePlus 8 Pro in comparison with other flagships. Honestly though, I feel like OnePlus is getting ahead of themselves by launching a premium phone at prices that are too high.
In this review, I probably won’t talk about everything that’s good as most things are really good on the OnePlus 8 Pro such as performance, full Quad-HD AMOLED display that can be great for outdoors, and its super-fast UFS 3.0 file transfer speeds. What I will talk about are the problems with it and why it’s just not worth $899. Heck, they even gave me a free phone to review, I am sure they won’t send me any more new phones but I want you to hear the truth and nothing but the truth from me.
First, OxygenOS has really gone downhill with release of OnePlus 8 Pro. OxygenOS has always been fast for me since OnePlus One, OnePlus Two, OnePlus Three, and up to OnePlus 6T, which is the last OnePlus phone I used before this one. The OxygenOS is still fast on the OnePlus 8 Pro but once or twice a day, I have some serious freezing issues. When using the browser on the OnePlus 8 Pro, you may end with freezing issues where the touchscreen becomes completely unresponsive, or the browser app just freezes. You can either wait like 10-20 seconds until it starts working or you can close the app then re-open it to get it working. It’s doesn’t happen so often but it does happen and I believe this is a huge bug in their OxygenOS code. You can however fix this software issue by rooting and installing a custom ROM on the OnePlus 8 Pro, which I will have a bunch of videos on. OnePlus phones really run even faster with root and custom ROMs. But for those of you who don’t know how to root and install custom ROMs, the freezing issue could get very annoying, especially when you are doing some time-sensitive stuff on your browser and everything freezes.
Second, while the 120Hz AMOLED screen is nice and bright, this is old technology pretty much from older Samsung Galaxy phones. Especially the curved screen is pretty annoying. While Samsung finally got rid of their curved screens, it seems like manufacturers like OnePlus buy their old stock and re-sell it for much more. Curved screens are useless in my opinion as they cause more glare than flat screens and they increase the chances of you cracking your screen when the phone is dropped. I don’t know the real details behind this but my guess is that companies like OnePlus is re-using old Samsung tech. 120Hz is great but I find the battery life terrible with it on so I just leave it off. For $899, I think it should offer a bigger battery if OnePlus wants users to enjoy 120Hz fully.
Third, battery life has been less than stellar. While its warp charge is super fast, I can never go a full day on it and find myself re-charging my phone with the OnePlus 8 Pro. Instead of putting every new feature, I would really like to see OnePlus giving consumers what we want, features we absolutey need at prices under $800. Remember a few years back when smartphone flagships were never above $800? Not sure why companies think people have more money now but I just feel $899 for OnePlus 8 Pro isn’t the best bang for your buck.
Fourth, while the OnePlus cameras are pretty decent, I find them slightly behind LG and Samsung flagships. You won’t have any problems with its excellent normal, wide, and zoom cameras but OnePlus STILL does not support 4K front camera video recording while all new LG/Samsung flagships do. Plus, with Snapdragon 865, you can record 8K videos but OnePlus did not bother to incorporate that feature while it is available for LG V60 and all new Samsung phones with Snapgradon 865.
Fifth, after using my OnePlus 8 Pro as daily driver for way too long now, like over 3 months straight, I find the 128GB model a huge problem as I am always dealing with out of storage error. I even made a video on how to fix storage error issues as that’s another problem but you can watch my video on it. It’s hard to understand why OnePlus would not put on a microSD card slow but they ALWAYS have a dual SIM card slot(for the official unlocked model), 120Hz screen, and other stuff not absolutely necessary. UFS 3.0 fast file transfers yet you are limited to 128GB of storage! At least Google offers free Google Photo backups in original resolution but with OnePlus, you have to do the OG method of copying your media to your computer to free space.
Sixth, WiFi seems to be weaker than all my other phones. Especially in my outdoor hut, this phone just fails to connect, gets really confused between WiFi and 5G, keeping disconnecting me from WiFi. Not the biggest issue but it is definitely an issue.
Overall, this is still an excellent smartphone but I am just saying I used to love OnePlus for the value it brought, the bang for your buck. While Google is going back to its roots and launching very affordable $350 Pixel 4a phones, it seems OnePlus is on a mission to play price wars with Samsung, which are also super overpriced. As I have told you before, my new reviews will not not only focus on the features but what kind of value a smartphone brings to you. And in my honest opinion, OnePlus 8 Pro is a bit overpriced for features it provides and some of the flaws it comes with as outlined in this review.
For year 2020, I feel like Google and LG have the best phones in terms of both features and price. Samsung is getting way too gimmicky selling foldable phones at thousand of dollars with crease in their display, maybe OnePlus is becoming the new Samsung with their curved displays. Seriously, get rid of the 120Hz or put a bigger battery, get rid of in-display fingerprint sensor, add micro-SD card, and offer a lower price.
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