After testing the OnePlus 8 Pro for several weeks, it's time to do more than just a typical analysis. And it is that here the important thing is to answer the million dollar question: which phone to stay with, the OnePlus 8 model or the Pro version? Well, make yourself comfortable: I'm going to get you out of your doubts.
(Almost) two drops of water
Although at first glance they seem traced, the truth is that the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro have subtle differences. And these, despite being small, are noticeable and felt more than what might be thought at first glance. The Pro model is something higher, thicker and heavier than his brother, not outrageously, as I point out, but enough so that experience in hand be that of a more "forceful" phone. It is not a terminal that is difficult to handle with one hand because it still has a narrow drawing, but on certain occasions you will feel that you do not reach everything. So much so that when I analyzed the OnePlus 8 I pointed out that it was not a phone for people who hate big smartphones and of course the Pro is even less so.
At the hardware level they are practically two exact copies. Both phones enjoy the latest qualcomm processor, a Snapdragon 865 chip that literally flies; They are accompanied by up to 256 GB of storage capacity and have 8 or 12 GB of RAM, depending on configuration. It is true that the memory of the Pro is better (LPDDR5 versus LPDDR4), but it will not be something that you really notice on a day-to-day basis, since the OnePlus 8 already offers fantastic performance, very well used also by Oxygen OS, the layer developed on Android 10, which is a real delight to use and today the most minimalist and complete of those on the market.
Where there is a clear difference is in the battery And, be careful, because not in the sense that you imagine. The OnePlus 8 Pro has more capacity (4.510 mAh compared to the 4.300 of the OP 8 model), but in my experience I have found that autonomy is less -it reaches the end of the day and nothing else. This is obviously related to its technology and screen size, which I will talk about a little later, but in short, what matters is that with the Pro you will be more limited in this regard.
At least the loads they have improved. It comes with the same 30-watt fast charge as the OnePlus 8 -which, well, it's not so fast anymore if we compare it with the competition- and also incorporates two new incentives: reverse charging, to give battery to other devices (for example True Wireless headphones, now so fashionable), and wireless charging. We had been asking for the latter for a long time and it seems that OnePlus has finally decided to incorporate a feature that we almost take for granted when we talk about high-end smartphones.
The screen, a turning point
The screen is a major difference between the two phones. It's no longer just because this Pro has a slightly larger panel (6,7 inches versus 6,55″) and more resolution (Quad HD+ vs. Full HD+) but because it enjoys a higher refresh rate. If in the OnePlus 8 we enjoyed 90 Hz in the Pro, the bar is raised up to 120hz. This, as indicated, indexes your battery, but in return you will have more smoothness and fluidity than ever in a panel in which you can also use a graphics smoothing mode (optional) that is in charge, as its name suggests, of "smoothing » The videos that we have in the gallery, those of YouTube and even those of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, so that they seem more fluid. It is not something that will determine your preference for this model by itself, but it is still an interesting quality to assess.
The edges of the panel of this model are also more curved than those present in the OnePlus 8, something that at first glance is more attractive (visually its aesthetics is more imposing) but that on a day-to-day basis you may find it less charming due to the accidental touches that you can have precisely because of this accentuation of the curve ( in his "little" brother he has the right measure in my opinion).
let's take pictures
We got to the cameras and here there are differences in clear favor of the Pro. In addition to the fact that the main sensor, of 48 MP, is better here (we are facing the recent Sony IMX689), it has a wide angle which also goes up to 48 MP, both cameras working really well.
Also, the third sensor is not a macro, as was the case in the OnePlus 8 (and which was one of the points that I liked the least). In its place is a 3x telephoto lens which equally offers fantastic performance and which is infinitely more useful than the first -first image below. In fact, if you want to take a macro photo, you can also do it through cropping (by software) and I assure you that the differences are conspicuous by their absence -second image below.
The fourth camera is a 5 MP sensor with color filter quite unexpected because it is not usual in a mobile phone. This has a glass in front of the lens that filters certain light waves. The result? Well, the famous images of the "x-ray" effect that circulated on the internet weeks ago and that have even caused the service to be prohibited in China, where it will be closed shortly by means of an update - it could even be seen under clothes. In the image below we are not going to that much, but you can see its effectiveness in the control of the Oculus Quest, whose internal sensors are exposed using the photochromic filter of this sensor.
With regards to frontal camera, no surprises: its 16 MP sensor, integrated through a hole in the screen, takes selfies that will leave you as satisfied as the OnePlus 8 already did - under these lines with portrait mode activated.
What about the IP68 certification?
The IP68 certification is one of the topics that have been curiously discussed the most about this phone. And not everyone knows exactly what happens with the OnePlus and its resistance to water. It has been announced to great fanfare that the Pro is IP68 certified, which guarantees its resistance to water and dust for a certain time and depth, but the OnePlus 8 also has this advantage.
The difference is that the Pro has gone through the certification process (which has an additional cost) and not his brother, so that only one of them can show the warranty label. What's more, the OnePlus 7 Series also enjoyed resistance to these elements, but in that case OnePlus chose not to pay certification costs for any of its models.
So which one to buy: OnePlus 8 or the Pro?
We are almost at the end of this review and that implies talking about prices. The Oneplus 8 Pro has been a great disappointment in this sense because it is the first phone of the brand that in its maximum configuration (12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage) exceeds 1.000 euros. It is true that we are talking about a phone that intends to play in the big league and with certain features that have to be paid for, but this at the same time misrepresent that “iPhone killer” identity with which OnePlus became known at the time.
Put things like that, which OnePlus to buy? Broadly speaking, I could say that if you give a lot of importance to the 120 Hz screen refresh, wireless charging or the fact of having a telephoto lens instead of macro, your model is the Pro (Its price starts at 909 euros with 8 GB and 128 GB of internal memory). For everything else (and it's a lot), I think that with the OnePlus 8 (whose cost starts at 709 euros for 8 + 128 GB) you will be quite satisfied if what you are looking for is to have a complete and round phone (except for some drawbacks, of course), you want to have the latest from the brand and you want to save 200 euro.
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