After a week chock full of teasers and feature confirmations, OnePlus took the wraps off its newest flagship phones – the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro at an online event today. Almost everything about the two phones had leaked online prior to the launch but all of it has finally gone official. OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro share the same design DNA this time around, along with curved displays, Snapdragon 865, and well, an IP rating.

Right off the bat, you will notice that OnePlus has streamlined its phone design and is no longer pushing two separate offerings with the standard and Pro variant. OnePlus has carried forward the OnePlus 7T Pro design, with its dual-curved edge display and vertical camera array. But, the pop-up selfie camera that a ton of users adored on the 7T Pro has been swapped out for a punch-hole cutout on the top left.

90Hz AMOLED Display

The display here brings only minor upgrades over the 90Hz panel seen on last year’s OnePlus 7T. It’s only the dual-curved edges and punch-hole cutout, which houses the 16MP selfie shooter, that is different this time around. It’s trendy and premium – in line with what OnePlus promises.

Snapdragon 865 + 5G

Under the hood, OnePlus 8 Pro is powered by the flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset from Qualcomm. It comes equipped with the Snapdragon X55 modem onboard for 5G connectivity and supports both SA/NSA 5G modes. The chipset is coupled with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage. OnePlus has, however, managed to boost speeds with its Turbo White and Host Performance Booster (HPB) technology.

New OxygenOS Features

IP Rating

The OnePlus 8 does not have an IP certification to keep it affordable but the OnePlus 8 Pro does. You can read all about it down below.

Triple Cameras

OnePlus 8 swaps out the circular camera bump on its predecessor for a vertical triple-camera system. It is great for design parity but it loses out on versatility in the process. The camera array includes a primary 48MP (f/1.8) Sony IMX586 sensor with OIS, a 16MP ultra-wide lens, and a macro camera. OnePlus has included an independent macro camera in favor of the telephoto lens. But, I would have preferred versatility over better macros because the latter could’ve been combined with the ultra-wide lens itself.

Connectivity

OnePlus has baked all the essential connectivity options into the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro. This includes support for WiFi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0, and a USB Type-C port for charging. You also get NFC for payments and dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, NavIC and GALILEO for improved location services. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack onboard but you get dual stereo speakers to make up for it.

  • Battery

OnePlus 8 Pro comes equipped with a 4,300mAh battery with Warp Charge 30T fast-charging support. Yeah, the company hasn’t upgraded the wired charging speeds, which is saddening. I mean, 30W is super fast and good enough but it would have been great to see 50W SuperWarp fast-charging support (same as the Realme X2 Pro) this time around. Maybe OnePlus is reserving that for the T-series refresh later this year.

Battery

120Hz QHD+ AMOLED Display

OnePlus 8 Pro sports a slightly taller 6.78-inch QHD+ Fluid AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. This is an upgrade over the 90Hz 2K+ panel that we saw on the OnePlus 7 Pro. This new panel also supports 3168 x 1440 pixel resolution, JNCD ~ 0.4, 513ppi, HDR10+ playback, 40% less blue light, and a lot more. I would also like to point out that you will be able to experience the 120Hz refresh rate at QHD+ resolution – unlike the Galaxy S20 series, which caps this setting.

The company has also baked a dedicated MEMC chip inside the OnePlus 8 Pro. This will enable the device to upscale 24fps content to 120fps to offer a far more immersive experience. It helps video content look less choppy by inserting additional frames into a video file. You can check out the apps that will support the MEMC chip right here.

Quad-Cameras

  • IP Rating

OnePlus always touted that its phones can withstand some water splashes and dust at previous launch events. It didn’t get IP certification to keep the prices of its phones in check. However, this changes with the OnePlus 8 series. OnePlus 8 Pro boasts an IP68 rating, which means it can withstand dust or stand, and submersion in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes.

Wireless Charging

Yeah, you must already know this. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed wireless charging support a couple of days prior to launch. OnePlus 8 Pro comes equipped with a 4,510 mAh battery that can not only be charged with the Warp Charge 30T wired charger but also with the Warp Charge 30 wireless charger. This means you can juice up this huge battery from 0% to 100% in around 70 minutes via either wired or wireless charging, which is great. Image Courtesy: Patreon/evleaks

OnePlus 8 Pro will be available in three attractive colorways — Glacier Green, Onyx Black, and Ultramarine Blue.

OnePlus 8 has been priced at $699 (around Rs. 53,000)  for the 8GB+128GB base variant. You will be required to shell out $799 (around Rs. 60,500) for the 12GB+256GB high-end variant.