The OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Becoming The Flagship
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 29, 2020 10:00 AM ESTVideo Recording
Next up, some video sample comparisons between both phone’s different modules and capture modes.
OnePlus 8 Pro
OnePlus 8
Starting off with the colour renditions of the scene, both phones do ok but I feel that there’s something off with the tone curves as things either look a bit too oversaturated or some highlights are being flattened too much? It’s a weird look that more present on the main sensor of the 8 Pro than on its ultra-wide or on the regular 8. Both main camera sensors suffer from lens flaring in the sun, but the 8 Pro here is especially predominant compared to its other two camera modules.
Switching between the modules is fast when zooming in and out – naturally the regular OnePlus 8 doesn’t have a telephoto module so zooming in beyond 2x comes at a great loss of quality as it’s just digitally cropping the frame.
Electronic image stabilisation works great on both phones. Switching over to 60fps recording disables EIS and here we can see the OIS performance of both phones. The OnePlus 8 Pro has a significantly better stabilisation as the OnePlus 8 becomes quite a lot shakier.
OnePlus is still pretty nuts in regards to the video bitrate at 60fps as for a H.264 recording we’re jumping from 50Mbps at 4K30 to a whopping 160Mbps at 4K60, resulting in file sizes exceeding 1GB per minute. The quality is outstanding of course, but it far exceeds what you’d be able to upload and view on any video platform such as YouTube. I wish OnePlus would give the option to scale this down in its camera app as it’s a bit overkill for most use-cases.
OnePlus 8 Pro - 4K30
OnePlus 8 Pro - 4K30 HDR
Dynamic range can be an issue in bright scenarios, and the OnePlus 8 Pro offers HDR recording. This actually means it’s an HDR processed capture in an SDR recording. In the above frame captures between the two phones we see that this gives a significant boost to shadows and the effective dynamic range of the scene. Unfortunately, the phone is only able to record in this mode on its main camera module, and it’s not available on the regular OnePlus 8. I also noticed that the phone has big troubles focusing while in this mode.
Audio recording was recording on both phones, but there was wind noise present in both, but particularly prominent on the regular OnePlus 8.
Overall, I’d say video recording quality and experience on both phones is good, but the OnePlus 8 Pro is the clear winner, with the ultra-wide-angle recording experience in particular being the best.
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boeush - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Yup. People with expensive high-fidelity headphones want to be able to listen to their extensive, high-fidelity music catalogs on their expensive, high-fidelity flagship smartphone. I don't see what's so hard for designers/vendors to comprehend about this...Just because Apple decided to go full retard with deliberate omission of a headphone jack, doesn't mean the rest of the world has to voluntarily lobotomize itself in response. Even though it did, and continues to do so - it doesn't HAVE TO keep on doing it. Idiots....
wr3zzz - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
OnePlus8 pretty much makes the case that flagship killer is henceforth pointless. There is hardly any "need" that can only be possible on $1000+ phones for 99% of the usage cases. Since OnePlus7 Pro, the extra $300-500 tacked onto the flagship class phones are mostly for checklist and not utility. Rational consumer, i.e, the flagship killer demo, pay for need and not marketing.Quantumz0d - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Not a flagship at all when it lacks 3.5mm jack and no Micro SD slot. Esp with their proprietary bullshit charging and uber high speed, high current, high voltage battery destroying tech all for Samsung level of price with their bloated garbage Oxygen OS.And it's CCP powered. Only good thing about this phone is its Bootloader unlockability.
watzupken - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
"Not a flagship at all when it lacks 3.5mm jack and no Micro SD slot. Esp with their proprietary bullshit charging and uber high speed, high current, high voltage battery destroying tech all for Samsung level of price with their bloated garbage Oxygen OS."My question to you is whether you have used a OnePlus phone before to come to the conclusion that the Oxygen OS is garbage? I have not tested the OneOS from Samsung, but the Oxygen OS is leaps and bounds cleaner and smoother than the old TouchWiz OS from Samsung. Having used a OnePlus 7 Pro for some time, I feel the software support/updates from OnePlus is also better than Samsung. I am confident to say that Samsung probably included more bloatware than OnePlus, since OxygenOS is pretty much the closest to the stock Android experience.
The lack of micro SD slot is a bummer, but 3.5mm jack is pretty much missing in most of the new flagship phones.
Siva - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Coming from a pixel 3 to the OnePlus 8 this phone is incredible but the camera is straight trash.serendip - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
What's Samsung's secret sauce for the high CPU numbers on the SD865?Roph - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
Too bad both the headphone jack and MicroSD slot are missing, making it totally irrelevant to me. "Never settle", right?Also bizarre that the reviewer says good riddance to a pop-up camera. Having a piece of the screen missing is a negative.
Absolutely don't want these phones, I wouldn't use them even if they were free.
airdrifting - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
It's funny OnePlus's mainstream model beats their high end "Pro" mode practicality wise. I almost never considered the "Pro" model.Brane2 - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
After so many iterations, what does "flagship phone" even mean ?Does anyone even care anymore ?
When you need a toothpick, do you go for base model or check the sites for a "flagship" one ?
AsturzioAugias - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
Thanks for the detailed review, from a new op8pro user.In your opinion, in terms of battery drain what the difference will be between 90hz and 120hz?