OnePlus unveils the 8 & the 8 Pro phones and checks all the right boxes

The OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro have suffered no shortage of leaks in the months leading up to today, but they are now truly official.

The costlier OnePlus 8 Pro dons a new screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a quad-camera setup on the back. The company has achieved high framerate through MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation) chip, often used in TV for a smoother picture. 

However, unlike the OnePlus 7 Pro and 7T Pro, it loses the pop-up selfie camera in lieu of a punch-hole camera on the front fascia. The company has also added the IP68 rating, meaning it’s waterproof and dustproof.

OnePlus 8 Pro

• Screen: 6.78-inch QHD AMOLED display at 3168×1440 resolution
• Refresh rate: 120Hz
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 with 5G capabilities
• Memory: 8GB/12GB
• Rear camera: 48–megapixel sensor with f/1.78 aperture + 48-megapixel ultra-wide angle sensor with f/2.2 aperture(field of view: 119-degrees) + 8-megapixel telephoto sensor with f/2.4 aperture+5-megapixel color filter with f/2.4 aperture
• Video capability: 4K video 60fp; slow motion:720p video at 480fps
• The camera zoom: 3x optical zoom
• Front camera: 16-megapixel with f/2.45
• Battery: 4,150mAh
• Charging:  Warp charging at 30W (same as the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition, which juiced up the phone’s 3,700mAh battery in one hour); 30W wireless charging
• Software: Android 10 with OxygenOS
• Internal storage:128GB/256GB UFS 3.0 (that means data read/write operations are twice as fast as the previous generation of storage)
• Biometric security: Under the display fingerprint sensor, face unlock

Apart from a new screen, the flagship device also has a color filter camera for various light effects. It also has 4k video recording capabilities at 60 fps. Plus, the new camera has a dedicated pet mode. I’d be surely putting that to test.

After shying away from wireless charging for years, OnePlus has finally introduced 30W wireless charging — dubbed Warp Charging 30 Wireless — in the pro version.

The company also launched OnePlus 8 for someone who’s not looking for a cheaper option. This version has a 90Hz screen with three cameras on the back. The company has replaced the telephoto lens in the OnePlus 7T with a macro lens.

OnePlus 8

• Screen: 6.55-inch QHD AMOLED display at 1080×2400 resolution
• Refresh rate: 90Hz
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 with 5G capabilities
• Memory: 8GB/12GB
• Rear camera: 48–megapixel sensor with f/1.75 aperture + 16-megapixel ultra-wide angle sensor with f/2.2 aperture(field of view: 119-degrees) + 8-megapixel macro camera 
• Video capability: 4K video 60fp; slow motion:720p video at 480fps
• The camera zoom: 3x optical zoom
• Front camera: 16-megapixel with f/2.45
• Battery: 4,300mAh
• Charging:  Warp charging at 30W (same as the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition, which juiced up the phone’s 3,700mAh battery in one hour);
• Software: Android 10 with OxygenOS
• Internal storage:128GB/256GB UFS 3.0 (that means data read/write operations are twice as fast as the previous generation of storage)
• Biometric security: Under the display fingerprint sensor, face unlock

The OnePlus 8 is priced at $699 for the 6GB+128GB variant and $799 for the 8GB+256GB variant. The OnePlus 8 Pro is priced at $899 for the 6GB+128GB version and $999 for the  8GB+256GB version. Sales in the US begin on April 29, and in Europe on April 21.

However, with the global economy in decline and supply chain in disarray worldwide, we’ll have to see how OnePlus will manage to make and ship the phone. More importantly, who’ll be looking to dish out some bucks on anything other than grocery and medicines in these tough times.