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Of the two flagship phones OnePlus announced in April, the OnePlus 8 isn’t just more affordable than the OnePlus 8 Pro, it’s also the phone I prefer. At $699 (£599) for 128GB of storage and $799 (£699) for 256GB, the OnePlus 8 is available to buy in the US at T-Mobile and, for the first time ever, Verizon; and it will work on other carriers (OnePlus and Amazon will sell it unlocked, as well). Note that Verizon is selling it at a higher price of $799 (128GB). (The newer OnePlus Nord is an even cheaper option, but it’s not available in the US.)
LikeCharges quickly90Hz displayRelatively more affordable high-end phone
Don’t LikeMacro zoom lens is unimpressiveNo wireless charging
On specs alone, the OnePlus 8 Pro is objectively the better phone. It has more features, like a 120Hz display and a telephoto camera (you can see the list of other main differences below). But the cheaper OnePlus 8 still maintains enough other specs like 5G, a 90Hz display, an enduring battery life and a top-of-the-line processor to deliver a premium Android experience.
While it’s true that the OnePlus phones aren’t cheap as they used to be — the iPhone 11 costs the same at $699 — the OnePlus 8’s premium experience comes at a relatively more affordable price than its other high-end Android competitors like the Galaxy S20 and likely the Pixel 5 when it launches later in the year, if Google goes with the same launch price as the Pixel 4. If you’re watching your budget closely but don’t want to sacrifice a lot in terms of hardware, the OnePlus 8 should be your top contender.
OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro 5G phones dazzle in vibrant new colors
See all photos
OnePlus 8 vs. OnePlus 8 Pro: Key differencesOnePlus 8 has a 90Hz display, the OnePlus 8 Pro has a 120Hz displayOnly OnePlus Pro has wireless and reverse wireless chargingOnePlus 8 is a tad smaller, thinner and lighter than the 8 Pro (see spec chart at the end for exact measurements)OnePlus 8 has three cameras; the OnePlus 8 has four, including a color filterThe unlocked version of the OnePlus 8 is not IP68 water resistant. The OnePlus 8 Pro is. OnePlus 8’s 90Hz screen still delivers
Like last year’s OnePlus 7 Pro, the OnePlus 8 has a 90Hz display. Compared to a phone with a more common refresh rate of 60 frames per second, the OnePlus 8 feels faster and smoother — scrolling through my social media news feed or paging through home screen pages felt zippier. This trend of higher refresh rates is likely going to be adopted by more phone makers. (Before we usually saw these in gaming phones, but the mainstream Galaxy S20 phones have 120Hz displays too.)
Surprisingly, because I could readily see the difference between a 60Hz display display and a 90Hz display, I assumed the OnePlus 8 Pro’s 120Hz would look even better. But when I navigated both of them side-by-side, the 8 Pro didn’t feel miles ahead of the OnePlus 8. So, if you’re leaning towards the OnePlus 8 between the two, don’t worry about “missing out” on a superior display.
I reviewed the iridescent variant of the OnePlus 8 called interstellar glow. It’s a flashy, delightful color(s?) that is, for lack of a better word, cute. But the glossy material attracts an incredible amount of fingerprints. If you don’t mind wiping down your phone every few minutes (or you just can ignore the prints), it’s definitely a fun-looking phone to carry around.
A quick note about the phone’s water resistance. T-Mobile and Verizon’s OnePlus 8 phones will be rated IP68 for water resistance. But the unlocked version of the OnePlus 8 is not rated (as in, the ones sold through OnePlus and Amazon). That doesn’t mean it’s completely vulnerable, though. OnePlus says the OnePlus 8 is as protected against water as past models. Last year, I submerged the OnePlus 7 Pro, which isn’t IP certified either, in a fish tank for 30 minutes and it survived without issues.
The OnePlus 8’s fun iridescent color.
Angela Lang/CNET
Some minor software differences
For the most part, the software features and OS on the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro are identical — you can read more details about them in my OnePlus 8 Pro review. But the 8 Pro does have a few goodies all its own. They include the 8 Pro’s “Comfort Tone,” which automatically changes the tint of the screen depending on the ambient light environment. Don’t worry, though, you can still adjust the OnePlus 8’s screen tone (and thus make it more comfortable for your eyes in the dark), through Night Mode in Settings.
The 8 Pro also has a “motion graphics smoothing” option, which is supposed to smooth out motion blur when watching videos. But when I turned on these options and watched videos, I barely noticed any improvement.
OnePlus 8’s triple rear cameras
Like the OnePlus 8 Pro, the OnePlus 8 has a standard 48-megapixel camera and wide-angle camera that take excellent photos. Nightscape, OnePlus’ low-light camera mode, also brightened up photos well, but I noticed the mode worked a tad better on the 8 Pro. When I took a photo of a large plant in the dark, the OnePlus 8 Pro’s image had more detail.
I like how the camera handles the color contrasting between the blue building and yellow lemons.
Lynn La/CNET
A photo of a playground taken with the wide-angle camera.
Lynn La/CNET
This picture was taken in a dark yard with Nightscape mode on.
Lynn La/CNET
The OnePlus 8’s camera has a 2x lossless zoom, which is good for closing in on faraway objects. It can also digitally zoom up to 10x, but objects looked a lot blurrier at this level.
A lakeside photo with no zoom.
Lynn La/CNET
Zooming in on buildings at 2x.
Lynn La/CNET
The Oakland courthouse at 10x zoom.
Lynn La/CNET
Instead of sharing a telephoto camera or a color filter camera with the OnePlus 8 Pro, the OnePlus 8 has a macro camera. I was excited at this prospect, as I find a macro camera to be more useful than the color filter camera. But when I went up close with a rose, the image was muddy and the colors looked flat. Instead, zooming in with the regular camera produced photos that, while perhaps not as sharp, were more aesthetically pleasing and colorful. Keep in mind that the phone can still take portrait photos without a telephoto camera, as well as good portrait photos with the selfie camera.
This closeup shot of rose pedals using the macro feature is sharper than the one below, but colors are flatter.
Lynn La/CNET
This image was taken without macro. Though it’s blurrier, it’s more vibrant and pleasing.
Lynn La/CNET
The OnePlus 8 can still take portrait photos without a telephoto lens.
Lynn La/CNET
The camera also has OIS and shoots 4K video that’s sharp and steady. There’s an extra “super stabilization” mode to further smooth down motion blur from hand shaking, but when I looked at both videos side-by-side, the effect or improvements seemed minimal.
OnePlus 8 performance and battery
The OnePlus 8 has the same processor as the OnePlus 8 Pro, so for more details on performance, head to the 8 Pro review. For the most part, both phones performed similarly on benchmark tests and the OnePlus 8 remains competitive among other Android phones that also share the same Snapdragon 865 chipset, like the Galaxy S20 and the LG V60.
Note that while I included the Pixel 4 for comparison, Google’s phone is equipped with last year’s Snapdragon 855 processor.
3DMark Slingshot Unlimited
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
Geekbench v.5.0 single-core
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
Geekbench v.5.0 multicore
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
I conducted battery tests on continuous video playback on Airplane mode. The 4,300-mAh battery inside the OnePlus 8 ran for an average of 18 hours, 48 minutes on both its 90Hz and 60Hz screen setting (because the video I played was shot in 30fps, it makes sense that the times were close). By comparison, the 8 Pro’s 4,510-mAh battery clocked in 18 hours, 52 minutes. I’ll update this piece with final results and ratings when we finish running streaming video tests.
As with past generations of OnePlus devices, the OnePlus 8 has super-fast Warp Charging. From a 0% battery level, 15 minutes of charging powered up the phone up to 35%, at 30 minutes it was at 65% and after an hour the battery was nearly completely replenished at 98%.
OnePlus 8 spec comparison
OnePlus 8 5G
OnePlus 8 Pro 5G
Samsung Galaxy S20 5G
Google Pixel 4
Display size, resolution
6.55-inch AMOLED; 1,080×2,400 pixels
6.78-inch AMOLED; 1,440×3,168 pixels
6.2-inch AMOLED
5.7-inch OLED; 1,080×2,280 pixels
Pixel density
402ppi
513ppi
563ppi
444ppi
Dimensions (Inches)
6.3 x 2.8 x 0.31 in
6.51 x 2.93 x 0.35 in
2.72 x 5.97 x 0.311 in
2.7 x 5.7 x 0.3 in
Dimensions (Millimeters)
160 x 72.9 x 8.0 mm
165 x 74.4 x 8.5 mm
69.1 x 151.7 x 7.9 mm
68.8 x 147.1 x 8.2 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)
6.35 oz; 180g
7.02 oz; 199g
5.75 oz; 163g
5.7 oz; 162g
Mobile software
Android 10
Android 10
Android 10
Android 10
Camera
48-megapixel (standard), 16-megapixel (ultra-wide), 2-megapixel (macro)
48-megapixel (standard), 48-megapixel (ultra-wide), 8-megapixel (telephoto), 5-megapixel (‘color filter’)
12-megapixel (wide-angle), 64-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide)
12.2-megapixel (standard), 16-megapixel (telephoto)
Front-facing camera
16-megapixel
16-megapixel
10-megapixel
8-megapixel
Video capture
4K
4K
8K
4K
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
64-bit octa-core processor (Max 2.7GHz + 2.5 GHz + 2.0 GHz)
2.84GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
Storage
128GB, 256GB
128GB, 256GB
128GB
64GB, 128GB
RAM
8GB, 12GB
8GB, 12GB
12GB
6GB
Expandable storage
No
No
Up to 1TB
No
Battery
4,300mAh
4,510mAh
4,000mAh
2,800mAh
Fingerprint sensor
In-screen
In-screen
In-screen
No
Connector
USB-C
USB-C
USB-C
USB-C
Headphone jack
No
No
No
No
Special features
5G enabled; Warp Charge; 90Hz refresh rate
5G enabled; Warp Charge; reverse wireless charging; water resistant (IP68); 120Hz refresh rate
5G enabled; 120Hz refresh rate; water resistant (IP68)
Soli motion sensing and touchless gestures; 90Hz refresh rate; water resistant (IP68); dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); wireless charging
Price off-contract (USD)
$699 (8GB RAM/128GB), $799 (12GB RAM/256GB)
$899 (8GB RAM/128GB), $999 (12GB RAM/256GB)
$999 (5G)
$499 (64GB)*, $599 (128GB)*
Price (GBP)
£599 (8GB RAM/128GB), £699 (12GB RAM/256GB)
£799 (8GB RAM/128GB), £899 (12GB RAM/256GB)
£799 (4G), £899 (5G)
£519 (64GB)*, £599 (128GB)*
Price (AUD)
UK converts to: AU$1,570 (8GB RAM/128GB), AU$1,770 (12GB RAM/256GB)
UK converts to: AU$1,180 (8GB RAM/128GB), AU$1,370 (12GB RAM/256GB)
AU$1,349 (4G), AU$1,499 (5G)
AU$849 (64GB)*, AU$999 (128GB)*
Note: Pixel 4 prices as of April 14, 2020.
First published on April 14.
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