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00:00Hey what's up guys, MKBHD here, and this, this is OnePlus 8.
00:10Now if OnePlus didn't just also come out with a OnePlus 8 Pro, this is the phone OnePlus
00:15would market as flagship killer, right?
00:19But we all see OnePlus slowly moving away from that direction, now they have a different
00:23slogan, fast and smooth, and you can tell they're getting away from the flagship killer
00:27thing now that they actually make a flagship, but this is exactly what I would expect from
00:33the OnePlus that I feel like we've always known.
00:35So this Interstellar Glow OnePlus 8 starts at $699, and it has the bleeding edge high-end
00:40specs you'd want for fast performance, Snapdragon 865 with the 5G modems in there, 8 or 12 gigs
00:48of fast RAM, UFS 3.0 storage, Wi-Fi 6, like that's all nice.
00:52It's a fast phone, definitely, love that.
00:55But there are a few things here cut down to save cost, and I'll compare this a lot
01:01to the OnePlus 8 Pro, so if you haven't watched that, it's the previous video, first
01:04link below the like button if you want to watch it to catch up, that's there.
01:07But the story is, if you worked for OnePlus, and you started off with this $900 to $1,000
01:13phone, and you were like, alright, what are we gonna cut out of this phone to get the
01:17price way down, but still give people a pretty close to a flagship experience?
01:23What would we do?
01:24Well, this is what they did.
01:26First of all, it's overall a bit of a smaller form factor, now it's by no means a small
01:31phone, it's definitely still big, it has a 6.55 inch display, which makes it still
01:36a little taller than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, so it's not small, but it is a little bit
01:42smaller than the 8 Pro, and it's also definitely lighter.
01:45It's noticeably lighter to me, it's 180 grams on paper to be exact, and to me it feels comfortable
01:50in the hand.
01:51And then, there's that display.
01:53It still has the optical fingerprint reader underneath, it's still HDR 10 plus certified
01:57and still super color accurate, and much brighter than last year, which is key, so it's super
02:02visible outdoors.
02:04But now, it's a 1080p resolution instead of 1440.
02:08That's a smart move that they've done in the past, and it's also now high refresh rate
02:13at 90 hertz instead of 120 hertz.
02:16I'd love to get blind tested on this, but I've said, I can personally see the difference
02:20between 90 and 120 hertz, but it's small, and you have to be looking for it.
02:26But I'll definitely prefer either of those to 60 hertz, because that difference is visually
02:31huge.
02:32So this is still high refresh rate.
02:34So this is a cost-saving trade-off that makes perfect sense.
02:37It's still a really smooth, responsive screen.
02:40We've seen other phones bring high refresh rate down in price, so it doesn't really make
02:44this one stand out anymore like it used to, but that's not a complaint at all.
02:48I'm clearly a fan of high refresh rate, and I'm glad to see it everywhere.
02:51Plus, if you're still in the mindset of you work for OnePlus, and you're trying to cut
02:55down on things, you get to say, high refresh rate and high resolution are nice, but if
03:01you go too high on those things, you cut into battery life.
03:04So we're giving you 90 hertz and 1080p, and that's a good balance to still give you fast
03:09and smooth, while being friendly to your battery.
03:12And that's turned out to be absolutely true.
03:15This phone has a 4300 mAh battery, and it's been impressively good on battery life, lasting
03:20me easily through the end of every day I've tested it, with like 15 to 20% left over.
03:26So it's honestly slightly better battery life than the 8 Pro, which I've been running maxed
03:31out, so I guess I should expect that.
03:32So then there's three more trade-offs, IP68, wireless charging, and the cameras.
03:38The OnePlus 8 doesn't have an IP68 water and dust resistance certification, but this is
03:43another one of those instances where OnePlus would probably claim they've put the necessary
03:47seals and pieces inside the phone and tested it themselves, but then passed on the savings
03:52of not getting it officially tested.
03:55I don't know about that, I haven't tested mine, I'll wait for the JRigEverything test
03:59to see those seals, thank you very much.
04:01But then this phone straight up doesn't have wireless charging, at all.
04:04Same deal as last year, it has a glass back, but it doesn't have the wireless charging
04:08coil to take advantage of that glass back.
04:11Now at 700 bucks, there are a way lower number of phones at this price that don't have wireless
04:17charging, so it's much harder to justify.
04:19But that's always been, I guess, OnePlus' thing, you know, saying wireless charging
04:23isn't fast enough for their standards.
04:24So again, there's still fast wire charging here, still warp charge 30T, so 0 to 50% in
04:3125 minutes, and it's included in the box too, so all that good stuff, but yeah, no wireless
04:36charging.
04:37Now you wonder how much per unit like that would cost, like could they have just swallowed
04:42their pride and put in just an ordinary wireless charging coil on the phone and just been like,
04:47you know what, finally, we added it, probably, but you know, then again, they are trying
04:52to save money.
04:53But anyway, last but not least, there is a different and lesser camera array in the OnePlus 8.
04:58On paper, it's a 48 megapixel main sensor and a different one from the Pro, then a 16
05:04megapixel ultra-wide camera and a dedicated 2 megapixel macro.
05:09No telephoto, and to me, that's the correct one to leave out, but it's funny, there's
05:12still a telephoto button in the camera app, which punches into 2X, but like LG did with
05:17the V60, that's just a digital crop in from the main sensor, which honestly looks just
05:23as good, if not better than a cheap telephoto would have.
05:26Now this dedicated macro camera, it's kind of fun, but honestly, not very good quality,
05:32and I'm not just saying that because it's 2 megapixels, like, it's just lacking quality,
05:36it's not a great dynamic range and not great color, overall quality is pretty lacking,
05:41so you know, I had some fun taking some macros with it, but I think it's one of those cameras
05:44that you'd forget about after the first week.
05:47And then the main camera, it does have a 48 megapixel number attached to it, but again,
05:51it's a step down from flagship quality in sharpness and detail and in colors and just
05:57overall performance.
05:58And it feels like the classic OnePlus of the past, amazing everything else on the phone,
06:03subpar camera.
06:04Honestly, if you're serious about camera quality, you probably shouldn't be looking at this
06:07phone, you should check out something like the Pixel 3a, or even the brand new, air quotes,
06:12brand new iPhone SE, which looks like it'll have a flagship quality camera for $399, an
06:18iPhone quality camera for $399, so definitely stay tuned for the video when I can get my
06:22hands on that phone very soon, should be a fun video.
06:25Also, in case you've been wondering what color this phone is, just because it's, it's
06:30looked like a different color in like every shot in this video, this interstellar glow
06:35is a nightmare, honestly.
06:37It's definitely unique, I'll give it that.
06:40This finish underneath the glass gives it a different refraction index from different
06:44angles, so you get all kinds of wild colors reflecting off of it, but it's 100% one of
06:49those phones that looks better on camera and in promos than it does in real life.
06:53This thing catches more fingerprints than the CSI agent of the month.
06:57Do I even, do I even have to make this segue?
07:02Dangerously close to Linus territory.
07:04Look, you should, you should consider something a little more low-key, channel sponsor dbrand
07:08will help you clean up your act if you accidentally pull the trigger on this colorway of the phone.
07:12Personally, I think this black camo looks pretty tight.
07:15So alright, here's my summary for OnePlus 8.
07:18Aside from the crazy color, I really like this phone.
07:21It's got a great display, it's great performer for the price, obviously really high-end specs.
07:26It's not the king for this price, but it's great performer.
07:29It's got fast charging, it's included in the box.
07:31It's got OxygenOS 2, which I've talked about in the past as one of my favorite Android
07:35overlays, and they frequently get software updates too, so it's a clean package.
07:40I could daily this phone right now and I'd probably be super happy.
07:43It also happens to be one of the absolute cheapest 5G compatible phones on the market
07:49right now.
07:50I don't know why I would buy it, but that is a nice bonus for longevity, having the
07:54phone for 4 or 5 years.
07:56But it's not amazing, it's not some special phone like it used to be.
08:02And really it's the stratification of phone prices over these past couple years that has
08:06caused this situation.
08:07Like I remember this, just a couple years ago, maybe it was longer than I think, but
08:11high-end phones used to just be like 5, 600, maybe 650 bucks, 700 bucks, and so it felt
08:17like you were either racing for the top, for the absolute highest end, bleeding edge,
08:23best phone, or racing to the bottom for the cheapest phone, the best budget phone.
08:29And so OnePlus came along and they sort of slipped right in the middle, they were undercutting
08:34the flagships, they positioned themselves as flagship killers because they were somewhere
08:39in the middle.
08:40But now today, we have what, like 200 to 300 dollar budget phones.
08:45We have our 400, 500, 600 dollar mid-range phones, then we have our 7, 8, 900 dollar
08:53premium phones, then we have our 1,000, 1,100, 1,400 dollar ultra-premium flagship phones.
09:01And so there's more chaos, there's more activity than ever at all of these different
09:05price ranges.
09:06So today, at this price, for 699, you could get this, or you could get, if you wanted
09:11a smaller phone, you could get Galaxy S10e, or if you absolutely had to have 120 hertz,
09:17you could get the Pocophone X2, or if you had to have a gaming phone, you could get
09:21the Red Magic phone, or if you absolutely wanted the best camera quality, you should
09:26go for Pixel 3a, or even the new iPhone SE plus AirPods Pro plus a wireless charger.
09:33I usually don't go super in-depth with price in my reviews, just because that is one of
09:38those things that usually changes over time.
09:41But I think that's something I'm going to be changing now, just because the positioning
09:45of these phones, maybe ever since the essential phones, sometimes is the reason why they live
09:52or die.
09:53But yeah, OnePlus 8, it's a nice phone, it's not special anymore, but it is one of the
09:56favorites in this awkward middle child price point of 699 to start.
10:02But yeah, look around, there's a whole landscape out there, thanks to the stratification of
10:07pricing, I guess, but maybe you can watch other videos about those other options too.
10:11Either way, thanks for watching this one, catch you guys in the next one very soon.
10:16Peace.