Oneplus 8 pro long term review (10 months)

I was planning to buy the Oneplus 8 pro around November last year. I could not wait, and I got it mid July 2020. I bought the European variant (IN2023) black color with 128GB (UFS 3.0) Storage & 8GB LPDDR5 Memory

I will try to summarize my experience for my first Oneplus phone for anyone coming from a Samsung device (S8+ specifically) or interested in this device. 

1.     Design

• This is a big phone 6.67"
• I like the new form factor 20:9 where more content can be seen
• I’m using it with the original sandstone case
• Hard to use by one hand
• I like the slider on the side, very easy to reach

2. Display

• I was using the phone on 120Hz on QHD settings all time
• Amazing color
• No brightness issues under direct sunlight
• There are a loooot of auto brightness levels

    3. Network

• Even though it is 5G mobile phone and my network & plan support 5G but Oneplus still need to work on 5G driver for some countries like Ireland and providers (Vodafone). I’m disappointed that I haven’t experienced 5G yet while I have 5G phone and paid for 5G feature. In contrast, Samsung 5G phones have 5G connectivity out of the box. I found a thread on how to activate 5G on Oneplus community

• No problems with making calls. No support for VoLTE so voice calls are using 3G (HD)

• My network & plan have VoIP and VoWifi activated but both are not supported by my Oneplus device. I made a lot of research, Oneplus and network provider need to work together to provide those services. I really miss these features specially VoIP, voice calls were much better on my S8+. I used to have LTE while making phone calls.

• Oneplus 8 pro supports Wifi 6, but I didn’t test it. Wifi Network speed is up to 866 Mbps on Wifi 5. Snapdragon 865 supports higher speed. However, seems Oneplus chose to fix the speed at 866 Mbps to cut SoC price. I was getting 1Gbps on my 3 years old S8+

• Same for LTE speed, Oneplus fixed the speed at LTE-A (5CA) Cat18 (1200/150 Mbps) while this SoC supports LTE-A (7CA) Cat20 (2000/200 Mbps) - available on S20 Series

    4. Network

• Oxygen OS was for me the first reason to think about Oneplus. It is clean, very fast and simple. My Samsung Galaxy S8+ was full of apps and features that I do not use, and I cannot get rid of. It started to slow down in 2020 after three years of use.

• In 2020 I used to receive software updates every 1-2 months. Oneplus 8 Pro was the first Oneplus mobile to receive Android 11 (November 2020). In 2021 it becomes slower, 1 update every 2 months.

• Sometimes I feel that I miss the extra customization options that I can get in One UI (Samsung). 

    5. Battery

• To extend the life span of Li-Ion batterie in mobiles that is 300-500 cycles, I always keep the battery level between 25%-75%. I rarely fully charge my mobile battery since that will count as 1 cycle. Because of the pandemic, I was most of the time at home. I was charging my mobile regularly. I did not have the chance to test how the battery will stand for a full day.

• For anyone who’s interested in keeping mobile battery healthy, I recommend buying Chargie. Chargie is small device that connects to mobile charger and will stop charging the mobile when it reaches a pre-set level (controlled using Bluetooth). I’m using it since January this year and I like it. I may add more details in a different post on the blog.

6. Camera

Camera lenses (main and wide) on paper should offer high quality photos. I was satisfied with the results at the beginning. When I tried GCam app I was shocked by the details, colour processing and the dynamic range. I highly recommend using GCam as the primary camera app.

I miss the consistency in photos and videos that Samsung phones offer.

Final word

There is no doubt that Oneplus 8 pro is very good phone, it ticks all the boxes. In my opinion the first reason to get Oneplus device is the software, Oxygen OS, other specs can be seen is any flagship mobile.

For someone who is coming from long experience with Samsung devices, Oneplus device can be boring. Also, camera performance might not meet user expectations.