- It's a Short Circuit kind of afternoon
here at home, in self isolation, and...
this is it!
My reviewer's package of the OnePlus 8,
and all the associated information about it.
So what are your focuses, OnePlus?
This is the OnePlus 8.
90 Hertz display, color accurate display,
TUV eye comfort certification, good stuff.
Bunch of different colors, it's eight millimeters thick.
Neat!
Triple camera, optical stabilization for video recording.
Let's crack this puppy open!
So I've got a couple of their cases, there's a nylon bumper,
as well as their sandstone bumper in cyan,
and the phone itself.
So unlike last time around,
here in the North America region,
OnePlus is launching both the 8 and the 8 Pro,
rather than giving one phone to some regions
and one phone to other regions.
I'm really glad to see that, just because, hey,
it's nice to have choices!
Yes, I understand they have the same hardware,
and most people don't upgrade on a yearly cycle,
but depending on what your budget is,
you might just be someone who prefers a Pro,
and doesn't want to buy a last generation processor.
And no matter which of these devices
you go with this time around, you will not
be getting a last generation processor.
Just like the OnePlus 8 Pro, the OnePlus 8 is running
the Snapdragon in 865 SOC, so you're...
Wow! Okay.
I have no idea if the ancient, black magic, cinema camera
that I am using to record the close up in this video
is capturing this very well, but that has to be
the sexiest back of a phone that I have ever seen!
I love the colors.
So first you get kind of, like a subtle purple.
Then you get, like a salmon.
Then it's like, kind of a blue.
And then you get these really cool light blue,
kind of highlights that...
Wow, that is really pretty.
And then the darker the thing that's reflecting off of it,
the darker that blue goes,
but you still get that salmon color.
I mean, if you're just trying to get noticed,
this is a lot cheaper than a Galaxy Fold, you know?
You got your volume rocker over here,
you got nothing but a microphone port up here,
you got your notification toggles,
so there's your vibration,
and then you got your lock button here,
and finally, your warp charge port, speaker, and SIM tray.
While these updates run, let's look at what's included.
They've got a warp compatible charger,
so this is using their Warp 30T technology,
so they say 22 minutes to get half of your,
I think it's a 43 hundred milliampere battery charged up.
There's an included charging cable and that's about it.
Which is fine, because I don't know about you guys,
but I buy electronics for the electronics,
not for the extensive accessory packages.
Except in cases where you really need a lot of accessories.
In which case, it's nice to have those included.
Now this is interesting, so unlike last time,
these phones are not differentiated by the
pop-up selfie camera on the Pro model.
So for the higher price,
and thicker, sort of meatier feeling phone,
you get a better camera, you get bigger display,
and other than that they're kind of shockingly similar.
I will say the 8 feels noticeably slimmer
and more svelte in the hand, aside from
at least the color variance that I have,
looking, to my eye, quite a lot better.
I mean, not everyone's going to be into this
kind of flash and dash, but they're going to have
other colors as well, don't worry.
Very curved display, if you're into that sort of thing,
and if you're not, well then, it's still got a very
2-and-a-half D curve display.
Like their previous devices, OnePlus has included
their lightening-fast, under screen fingerprint sensor here.
And they've got it in a really ergonomic spot.
I like this.
It's a really comfortable spot to reach up to,
not too low, not too high.
And there we are.
Now, honestly, I don't find the difference between
90 and 120 Hertz that noticeable in day-to-day use,
but that is one of the other big differences
between the 8 and the 8 Pro, is this display,
when you go into the advanced settings,
runs at either 60 or 90 Hertz,
whereas the Pro runs at 120 refreshes per second.
Something to notice, that unlike Samsung's S20 series,
OnePlus has opted to go with a dynamic refresh rate.
So when you adjust it up to 90 Hertz, there will be times
when it might fall down to 60 Hertz
in cases where there wouldn't be any benefit to that.
Before I go any farther, I do want to do
a quick fingerprint sensor speed test, though.
I did say it was going to be fast,
so I want to make sure that it's actually fast.
Go ahead, hey, that is fast!
I tend to be a bit picky about these things,
and I'm at the point in my life now
where I feel like I'd almost rather have
a rear fingerprint sensor that's fast,
than an under screen one that's not fast enough,
but if you can have the best of both worlds...
I don't know.
It's just one of those little creature of comfort things
that makes a big difference to how it feels
when you first pick it up.
Like, yes, I'm using my phone now, immediately.
As opposed to, okay I'm waiting...
Now I'm using my phone!
Just like on the Pro, OnePlus has included HDR 10+ support,
so if you're watching an HDR video it should
(snapping)
automatically kick into HDR mode.
You can see here Austin's review of the iPhone 10
is looking pretty spectacular.
You can see, especially on these reflections and highlights.
And as for the camera, it's a fairly
optional-looking sensor that's missing, compared to the Pro.
It's going to take a little more time with these cameras
to determine just how important it seems,
but initial impressions of this one are,
if you're just a casual photo snapper,
you're going to be pretty darn satisfied with it.
Because they've taken their usual approach to processing,
which is kind of what you see is what you get,
they seem to try not to guess too much with their AI.
You know, ooh, that green should be like,
way more green, right?
Is that what you want?
No, no, I actually just want it to look like
what it looks like, it's looking pretty darn good to me.
Oh, I did find another difference!
So instead of a 3x zoom, you actually only get a 2x zoom.
Okay, that is a noticeably different image
coming out of the 2x zoom lens, yeah.
That is a lot closer to true to life colors.
This is kind of washed out looking.
Curiously, I was getting some really weird judder
out of the video recording on the OnePlus 8 Pro
when I did the same test, and this seems a lot better,
so I have to assume that was just
some weird software behavior on that one.
Yeah, this is way better.
I haven't felt something with this kind of sex appeal
since the first time I picked up the Galaxy S8,
it really has that kind of, slim, thin look and feel to it,
and without compromising on battery,
since you end up with a
48 milliampere power battery in this thing,
with OnePlus's excellent Oxygen OS now running Android 10.
Ooh, let's make sure this has stereo speakers too,
before we're quite wrapped up here.
That would be a crying shame.
That's something that I'd go pro for.
- (Male voice through phone) Hold on,
couldn't take the heat.
- (Female voice through phone) What are you talking about?
- (Linus) Oh yeah, all good.
So guys, subscribe to Short Circuit for more unboxings
and first impressions like this one!
Now it's time to spend some real quality time
with these phones for the video
on the Linus Tech Tips channel.