OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro unboxing and first impressions By Neowin

Hey guys I'm Richard Neal Wynn, and today we're unboxing the one plus 8 and the one plus eight pro, as you can see, from the stacks of boxes around me and anytime, there's an OnePlus launch. They send out these media kits and, as you see this, there's quite a bit here. OnePlus really does a lot. So what each one of these boxes ones for the non-pro ones for the pro usually I just get one, because usually only one is available in the United States, for example, the OnePlus 70 came to the United States, not the 70 pro. Before that the pro came to the US and then not the non-pro. Things are a little different.

This time and I have a feeling that has to do with pricing because starts at $6.99. Now right, remember, OnePlus was the flagship killer. It's not really the case anymore. Now it's really just a flagship. You know when the OnePlus one came out, it was 350 dollars, and it had the Snapdragon 800.

You know top-of-the-line specs. Maybe it was an atoll one at the time- I don't remember, but um, and that's what I'm talking about with pricing, where you know you have that $6.99 is still a high tier, and then you have the $8.99 for the pro things have changed. A lot. Phones have gotten more expensive and then of course, it's more even more expensive this year, because Qualcomm Snapdragon 80-65 requires a separate purchase of the 5g modem. You know, but back, but the thing is back then: in the 1+1 days you weren't getting the best phone, it was a flagship killer, it wasn't necessarily a flagship.

It had a lot of flagship specs there. It was also a very problematic device. I had problems with mine and customer service sucks. They had no marketing and like, and that was the deal right. It costs half the price of a regular flagship, but they saved the cost by not having any marketing that you know.

They'd spent something like $20 on market. It's something ridiculously low on marketing. For that phone. You remember, you need an invitation to buy it stuff like that and then, but I like. If you had a defective unit, which a lot of people did, it was almost impossible to get it replaced, because you know that that startup type of thing you know- and then things got a little better from there and also prices went up as expenses started to go up, they started to market more starting with the one plus sixty skipping forward a few years.

The 60 is now on T-Mobile and then the seven pro 5g is now on Sprint. Now the eight is on Verizon, so this is a company. Now that has a football marketing budget they're sold on carriers, and so you know that they're trying to stick to that spirit of what they once were with the community and knowing their customers and giving their customers what they want. But it's at the same time, they're playing in that same flagship, ballpark is Apple and Samsung. This is the reviewers guide.

If you, if you want to talk about a marketing budget, this is a book. Okay. This is a full laminated premium book, with lots of specs in it and features and all kinds of stuff. Most companies send a PDF one plus in previous years, has sent like a newspaper type of thing like it's cool but yeah. It's just uncommon.

This slim comment as well, and I love it because they always send some goodies with the device, and it really completes the experience you know recently- I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy s, 20 plus and then and then the Huawei P 40 pro and as I noted in those reviews, I try to live in the ecosystem. When I do a review like with the Huawei I'm wearing the watch, gt2 was using the Huawei free buds, Samsung I was using Galaxy Buds and I would, plus and I was wearing the Galaxy watch active too. So the fact that OnePlus sends its accessories along is super helpful, because now I could wear the assume that there are galaxy bullets, Wireless Z earbuds in here, but we'll find out by the way you can see it is uh. It says, never settle on here with a little plastic sleeve and it kind of yeah never settle the silver slogan it has been. Since the beginning.

You don't hear flagship killer as much, because again it's not really the killer, so this is cool. All right. We've got a couple cases. They always send a couple cases along the sandstone bumper case cyan and then the carbon bumper case. Now this is cool.

This is really cool. Sandstone has been a texture that one plus it has used since the very beginning. It's almost like it's like a trademark for one plus, and it's always been that a black color. You remember the OnePlus one by the way, I had a lot of bed to say about the OnePlus one, but I love that phone III had the bamboo back and everything you know, but it shipped with the sandstone was the main one, and so now they're doing this cyan sandstone, which is really pretty yeah. It looks nice and I, take it out of the out of the box, because I do plan on using it, and then we've got the phone here.

This is the plus. Let's see, oh, it is glacial green, which is going to be a similar color as the case. So there are not bullets headphones in. Here, which is fine, you know only this out. I do have the bullets Wireless ? from last year, which was a great product, but what's cool about the bullets, Wireless Z is that the battery lasts longer, not that 14 hours wasn't long enough in outlast 20 hours supports war charge, so you get 10 hours and 10 minutes, and it costs half the price.

It's only 50 dollars. So now, let's see, what's in here, here's the eight, oh and here's, the reviewers guide for the eight that one actually came outside the box, and now we have another book. Alright, so I'll be reading through that. In my review process, we have the same Oh similar cases, another science and stone, and then we have a nylon bumper case. So we can just leave these out here and then pull the phone out.

Let's see what color we got, interstellar glow! That's the right there, so one accessory that they did send along is the new wireless charger. This is the warp charge, 30 wireless charger and yes, the pro not the non-pro which I'm getting these mixed up, because the boxes are identical by the way. This probably is in retail packaging, but the pro does support nice. The photo support 30 watt wireless charging, the non-pro no wireless charging and that saddens me I feel like any good phone should support wireless charging at this point. This is something that I'm seeing other Chinese manufacturers do, such as Huawei, where they still have like the p40 that just came out p40 pro as wireless charging pro does not, so they're doing.27 want wireless charging, 40 watt, wireless charging, the pro plus and then of course, 1 plus S 30, which is fine. You know it's like there's this race to get the highest wattage of charging.

You know, and- and it's like at some point- it's not necessary. Furthermore, you know like when you talk about getting a 50 percent charge on 3rd after 30 minutes, like doesn't really make a difference. If you get them two 50 percent in 25 minutes, I mean I, don't know. Well, this tab is done there we go so yeah. This is going to be the pro and the box is just say so: I love the 1 plus 7 for last year.

The 70 I mean not as much, but also it wasn't pro um. So the big story with the 7 pro was the 90 Hertz OLED display, and so it's just so smooth- and it was one of the first to do that. It became fairly common Google. Did the pixel 4 with the 90 Hertz, all LED display Samsung did 120 Hertz. So now we have 120 Hertz and in the Pro the non pro has 90 Hertz 1080p.

So this is 1440p 120 Hertz. So let's get this out of the box, and here we have it. This is the 1+8 throw glacial green and then that's pretty that that is that that is a beautiful looking phone and wow. That is a big camera bump, though so they did make some camera improvements, though they said that they said they used the custom, 48 megapixel Sony sensor, that's interesting to me and also a forty-eight megapixel ultra-wide sensor, also made by Sony. So what's interesting about that to me is, is that I haven't really ever cared for OnePlus as cameras, it's the one.

The only thing that I didn't love about the 7 Pro was the camera, because really you know what you have: companies like, Apple and Samsung and Huawei that are all doing these custom solutions for cameras, and they're all above anything, that's coming off the shelf. So on the other hand, you have companies like Motorola or any company that buys it's a regular Sony, IMF 586 or something, and they put it in a phone, and they'll get onstage they'll say it does 4x, pixel, binning and all this stuff, it's like you know what every other phone is doing, at least that, because that's the off-the-shelf part, so the custom parts are just doing better. So this is a custom part in it. Let's see inside the box, we have this never settle case. It says it on the on a clear, that's kind of cool.

You know, I'm, not a huge fan of clear cases that um I like the way they look, but they catch fingerprints, and it's yeah I'd honestly I'd prefer to not use a case of all you know. So, like I said it's a 120 year, it's display OnePlus made a big deal of saying that it's the best display in the world and I have no doubt actually, because the OnePlus 7 pro was that good and now, by the way last year, was when I said it that they went from being that flagship killer being an actual flagship. What they were always great at have been having flagship level specs and providing value for money, but they were never actually able to be the best until the one plus seven Perot. So I am excited about the eight pro here's, our cable type, a two type C warp charge. Thirty I assume they're still calling a thirty T, but you know here's your power, brick, alright, and so that's the pro now we're going to take a look at the one plus eight okays, so this guy is interstellar and glow.

Now this looks pretty, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in person all right. You have to take this place to go off anyway. Oh man, I can't believe it didn't put this color on the pro. This is so, so beautiful, like just look at that that weight like it's a chrome, color, it's its um, it's its like a rainbow-colored chrome wow. That is pretty.

How is this not a pro? That is why this is the best I mean they're they're, both lovely gotta, say: I, love them both but like this is just the winner. It's going to collect fingerprints, I'm sure, and this one probably won't because it's its more of a frosted color, but you can see that on the cameras, there's a much bigger camera bump on the pro and, of course, that's higher-end camera. You can also see this a quad camera on the pro triple camera. On the non-pro you know, I don't know that you're losing anything like this might be the winner here remember this is the $6.99 phone. This is the $8.99 phone and then, of course, if you want to bump up the storage, this is $7.99, so you're, also 90, Hertz, 1080p or F HD Plus is what we were calling it now, because screens are bigger and then 120 Hertz 1440p both have snapdragon 865. Both have 5 g sub 6 5g, unless you're buying the model from Verizon.

Now that one is called the OnePlus 8 5 g UW, which is ultra-wideband and that supports both sub 6 and millimeter wave everything else just like Verizon gets those exclusive units, there's no surprise there. They did it with the Samsung Galaxy S 20, which is sub 6 for everybody, except for Risen, not the plus of the ultra, the plus, and the ultra, to support both on every model, but also the LG v.60 is sub 6. Unless you get the Verizon model, which then it supports both. So just take a quick look same stuff in here: here's our art, cable, here's, the power, brick and um. I am going to use this because warp charge- and this is one thing I don't like is, that is that they don't use power delivery.

This is a proprietary charging standard which means that to get that fast charging you need to use OnePlus as charger. So that's why last year they sent me a warped charge, 30 car chargers, so that was nice. It's just um, you know, I have other 30 watt chargers and I. You know it'll charge the phone just not as fast same thing goes for wireless charging. If you don't use the work charge, 30 wireless charger, you're gonna, get I think they said 10 watts if you use just a regular QI charger and that and that's one reason that I do have to use that charger, because only the pro does support wireless charging, and I'll.

Tell you and that's why I'm so upset that this phone doesn't come on the probe. This color doesn't come on the probe because you know if all things were equal, if, if we had wireless charging on both phones, I'd probably end up picking this over that. But for me, I have to have that wireless charging. It's its to import and I. When I'm sitting at my desk, there's I have a wireless charger right there.

So I work at my desk, my phone just charges throughout the day. So that's you know I never have to think about charging my phone, but we can open this up as well. But that's why, whenever I'm reviewing a phone that doesn't have wireless charging, it becomes a pain point, and I'm a little more understanding when it's a phone like a Moto G that only cost three hundred dollars. But I'll tell you a lot of companies, and again it's been will see. Chinese companies that I've spoken to are one trying to hit a certain price point.

They don't include it and two they have a probably being so slow and that's why companies like OnePlus and companies like Huawei waited so long because they waited until they can actually get a fast wireless charging solution. Now. Does this box even oh all, right, oh okay! So that's just how it opens it's a wireless charging whoa! Oh no, this power cable is attached. What holds on oh, no, it's attached on both ends. What oh, my god that is, who approved that and though the reason I ask is like let's just see how long this cable is.

That's not a very long cable, so you can't go, and you can't go and bring your own cable, because it's all one piece, that's ah aha man who thought to do that! That's disappointing, but all right, it is what it is. I mean again, you can still use your own wireless charging pads. They just won't charge as fast, and you'll have to live with that. All right, so I went ahead and set up these devices. You could see there's already a couple of systems.

It was already big system update, whew OnePlus bullets wires eek. Now it's created with Dolby Admiral's for better sound quality. Camera updates, optimize the camera shooting experience, optimized fingerprint unlock all right. So that's a lot. A lot of cool stuff, we're gonna, download that and see this one should be mostly the same, and it is.

We can download that as well. Yes, so taking a look at the phones, this is the one plus eight. This is the one plus eight pro and what's interesting is that these are very, very similar devices, more so than I think they were. With the 70 series. We were like I said the 17 pro the 17 didn't come to the United States, but ended up coming the 70 pro 5g McLaren ended up coming to T-Mobile with me and launch their 5g network, so those weren't particularly similar devices, they had very different designs.

Remember the 70 had that circular camera module on the back, and now we have a similar design language across the -. You can see. This is already picking up some finger fingerprints, but also, if we look at the 1 + 8, the screen is curved on the edges. Now the with the 70, it was completely flat, and that was the big difference between the Pro and the non-pro are one of the big differences which was that it. You know you had the curved edges on the pro in the flat screen on the non-pro and I, didn't like it.

I, usually like flat screens, I think they're easier to handle, but, on the other hand, I what I just didn't care for was just um. The screen didn't look as pretty to me. You know and I think that I feel like the bigger improvement is in the 8 here, but I think the winner is gonna, be the pro just because it's going to have that better camera its it's going to have that um wireless charging. One thing we could see if we lighten up the screen, it has the hole, punch cutout in the display, both of them do by the way. That's not exclusive.

With the 70 I had a notch now we're doing a bunch cut out, but what's interesting is with the pro last year they had that motorized pop up camera. So there was no, not your hole. Punch at all, and I have to wonder why they ditched that idea if they thought it just wasn't worth doing, but really that one plus seven and 70 Pro that that had that motorized pop-up camera, they were the only phones out there that didn't have it not well only really means there were some other phones, but one of very few phones that didn't have a notch and still had very narrow, bezels. So I, don't know why they switch to this idea. But you know it's still pretty you can see they try to hide it.

With that background, and that's one of the nice things about OLED is that the black, in the background is true black and what that allows you to do is it allows you to hide things, because you can't really see where the screen ends, and the bezel begins, because that's the nature of OLED pixels can be turned off. It's not backlit like in, like an LCD, there's, still no always-on display. It will light up in the show notifications once in a while. You will see if we, if we turn it on. You, could see that smooth animation.

Again. This is the pro you get not always easy to tell the difference just by looking at them um but yeah. So this is 120 Hertz. It has one of the fastest fingerprint sensors that I've ever seen. Look at that smooth animation by the way when you unlock the phone they started doing that last year at the 90 Hertz screen, and it just looks awesome, and it's a really pleasant way to unlock your phone.

The non-pro will do it as well. It's 90 Hertz, yes, apparently by the way and always on display, is coming in a software update at some point. It's just not here right now, but honestly, I, don't think you can tell the difference between 90 Hertz and 120 Hertz I. Don't think you can tell the difference between Full HD and q. HD I've said this about phones.

As long as they've been shipping with Q HD displays. I, don't think you could tell the difference between 1080p and 1440p on a screen this size. You know at the time when this started happening. We were actually buying 1080p, TVs and 1440p phones. It's hang.

We could tell the difference. It's insane, but I still think 1080p is fine. I also I tend to think ninety Hertz is fine. Like last year, when they ship that 90 Hertz screen, you could start using this phone to like man that feels good to use and then um and and and I, don't know I. You know I'm just saying I, don't know if there's a real benefit to 120.

Okay. So a couple of things um like I, said apparently that always on display is coming. If we look, though we do have dark mode, which is always nice and for dark mode, you actually have to go into customization, preset theme, nuance dark and after a little yeah there's our dark mode. Okay, a couple other things notice is one thing that you can do here, that you cannot do with a Samsung Galaxy s 20. So if I go into advanced, you notice that it's set to full HD plus by default and 120 Hertz screen refresh rate.

We can switch it to HD+ and we're still at 120, Hertz refresh rate, there's no 90 Hertz refresh rate option. Surprisingly I kind of thought there would be a middle ground there, but there's not but yeah HD+ 120 Hertz is something that you cannot do on a Samsung Galaxy s 20 series device. We should be able to record video at 8k and if we go in here, no I take it back. It's just 4k 60, which is what you're allowed to do. That sends me a little.8K video recording is something that you was a feature unlocked by the snapdragon, 865, and I am surprised. OnePlus has always kind of been at the forefront.

Remember they were one of the first to kind of real innovation in video recording resolution and stuff with the OnePlus one and Cyanogen and stuff like that same thing is gonna, be the case over here. Obviously, we went to arc mode because only savages use light mode by the way. If you use light modes, I'm just messing around put it back to nuance: dark that's I mean to me for this reviewer, it's the way to go but yeah. So we go, and we'll see the options over here. Advanced screen, refreshes rate is 90 Hertz, there's no solution option, because this is a full HD phone.

So it's just 90 Hertz or 60 Hertz, and those options right, but yeah. So this phone, both of these phones are winners. I really like the pro just because it has so wireless charging. I know: I've said that a bunch of times already, alright guys that's about it. Furthermore, I am I'm, not sure exactly how I'm going to do this, because I do have to review two phones at once and me and those fingerprints.

You know I do have to review two phones at once. So I'm, probably gonna, do one week and then one the week after that, and I'm not sure which one I'll do first I do love them both and the color is what really knocks it out of the park for the one plus eight for me, but the wireless charging doesn't for me on the pro so yeah. Although I have to say this isn't picking up fingerprints, this absolutely is so yeah there's seems to be pros and cons to each I. Don't think that it's a miss to go for the lower price, one plus eight, the most important thing for me to test is going to be the camera that custom sensor that OnePlus talked about, because that's a big thing like if you're just using an off-the-shelf camera part. It's not good.

It's um, it's its! Furthermore, it's not gonna, be any better than what we're seeing from everybody else, and it's going to be a lot worse from the very popular phones that we see from Apple, Samsung and Huawei, so um. So that's like the one hurdle that they really do have to jump over with this phone. In my opinion, and also wireless charging did I say wireless charging. Absolutely so that's it you'll be hearing more about these over the next at least two weeks. Hopefully, maybe I can do one review in a week and one review the week after that we'll see, so that's it.

I'm Richard Neil win have a great night.

Source : Neowin