After numerous leaks and endless hyping, OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro. And as their monikers suggest, these are the latest sequels to last year’s OnePlus 7T and OnePlus 7T Pro. While most people have been heaping praise on the latter, the OnePlus 8 has been nothing short of divisive. Sure, both phones share the burden of convincing the user base to spend $200 more on their yearly upgrade. But, in my not-so-humble opinion, the OnePlus 8 can’t even come close.
Let’s start with the display. The OnePlus 8 features a 6.55” 1080p OLED display with 90 Hz refresh rate and HDR+ support on the front of an all-glass unibody design. Sounds familiar, right? Well, it does for a very good reason. These are the exact same specs of last year’s OnePlus 7T, with the caveat of the latter having a teardrop-style notch in the center. Sure, this year’s model might be slightly brighter and more legible under direct sunlight. But as far as upgrades go, this might be the only tangible difference. Add to that the numerous reports of the screen bearing a visible green tint at lower brightness levels, the OnePlus 8 might be even considered a slight regression in this area by some. And having a slightly more intrusive punch-hole on the top left corner is the icing on a very questionable cake.
Moving on to the elephant in the room — the camera. The OnePlus 8 features a triple-lens camera system, featuring a 48MP main camera, a 16MP ultrawide shooter, and a dedicated 2MP macro shooter for better close-up shots. Sounds good at first, until you recognize that last year’s OnePlus 7T featured a 12MP telephoto shooter, supporting 2X lossless zoom instead of the macro shooter on the OnePlus 8. And as for the main and ultrawide cameras, they almost share the exact same specs. Even the sensors used are exactly the same. Objectively speaking, the newer OnePlus 8 has a less versatile camera than its predecessor. It’s not like the OnePlus 7T was struggling with macro photography, to begin with. In fact, macro photography was already one of the strong points of the OnePlus 7T, which utilized the ultrawide camera. And according to recognized tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, macro shots taken by that 2MP macro shooter are not that great, falling short to the OnePlus 8 Pro’s macro shots taken by its ultrawide camera. To me, the omission of the telephoto lens renders the OnePlus 8’s camera a noticeable downgrade from the OnePlus 7T.
So where exactly could the OnePlus 8 try to justify its heftier price tag? Well, the OnePlus 8 features the latest flagship chipset from Qualcomm, namely the Snapdragon 865. Of course, the OnePlus 8 will be a tad faster than its predecessor, but I don’t think this will matter to a lot of people — the Snapdragon 855+ is plenty fast already. More importantly though, the OnePlus 8 features full 5G support. This means it supports both mmWave and sub-6 5G standards, though the situation is a little bit complicated, as explained here. Thankfully, OnePlus has bumped up the battery capacity from 3800 mAh to 4300 mAh. This means that the OnePlus 8 is almost certain to have better battery life than the OnePlus 7T. But then, lasting a full day was not one of the concerns of the OnePlus 7T. Still, a battery upgrade is always welcome, and OnePlus deserves full credit for that.
Would that be enough to offset the undeniable camera disadvantage and the stale overall hardware the OnePlus 8 bears? For a buck shy of $700 USD, that’s a tough sell. To be fair, Qualcomm should be blamed for the heftier price tag for the most part. The Snapdragon 865 and the X60 modem cost much more to incorporate. But then, trading the telephoto camera for a macro one is a decision I will never understand. And with not so much of improvements done anywhere else, the OnePlus 8 will struggle to make a case for itself. OnePlus clearly intended to retain the mold of an inexpensive flagship with the OnePlus 8. But instead of that, OnePlus might have just become a victim of its own success.
Featured-Image: MKBHD
