A segment from 2008’s The Onion Movie comes to mind as I am about to start this review. Here is how it unfolds:
An average Joe goes to a computer store to upgrade his PC. He asks the salesman for “something basic”. The latter, however, persuades him to get the Bates 4000, which he says, “is the absolute cutting edge.”
“Well, I have the Bates 1000. And, it works fi…”
“Those things are barbaric! The last time I checked, they didn’t even have a delete key on it… I am joking, of course. But this is the future. You get my point?”
The customer, finally, agrees to buy the Bates 4000. However, when he gets home, he watches a TV ad that calls the Bates 4000 ancient. So, he goes back to the store to buy the Bates 5000. On his way back, the radio in his car says the Bates 6000 is available in stores.
As he bills the 6000, the 7000 series arrives and the former ends up in garbage.
The exasperated customer heads to the Bates office to throw an axe at the founder, Gil Bates.
At least computer upgrades used to take over a year. With smartphones, the interval between two upgrades has drastically reduced. OnePlus 8, for instance, was released in April 2020 with OnePlus 8 Pro, but the lockdown led to the device reaching the offline market many months later. That said, we got our hands on the more recently-released OnePlus 8 Interstellar Glow edition, a unicorn-hued model. Three months later, the Chinese manufacturer released OnePlus Nord, a mid-range smartphone with some features of its flagship models. For about half the price of OnePlus 8, one could get OnePlus Nord, which is only slightly inferior to the former. Some OnePlus 8 owners must have felt as frustrated as the Bates customer when Nord released last month.
If you factor the price, it is a no-brainer that Nord will be a better buy right now. But how does OnePlus 8 fare on its own?
Tall, light and fast
OnePlus 8 is not a letdown by any means. It is tall, light and sits well on the palm (I even watched a movie, in bed, holding the phone for close to three hours).
I would compare OnePlus 7 Pro to Quicksilver from X Men: First Class , its swift-and-smooth functions are impressive. The OnePlus 8, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor and a 12GB RAM, is better than 7 Pro (Mind you, the laptop I am using to write this review has only 4GB RAM). I experienced no lag while playing games with 3D graphics. The pictures appear sharp and vivid on the HDR10+ certified, Fluid AMOLED display. Even on a sunny afternoon, it was easy to read e-books and watch video outdoors. The refresh rate, as with its predecessors, is capped at 90Hz.
The usual complaints
OnePlus phones have not come close to their superior counterparts in the camera department — iPhone and Pixel. OnePlus 8 does not either. You might not notice this in well-lit conditions — the triple-camera setup on the back does a good job. But when natural light is insufficient, the photo quality dips. The images appear less sharp and dull. (I also miss the pop-up selfie camera from OnePlus 7 Pro.)
The phone, like its predecessors, is not IP-rated for water resistance. But you need not be too worried about this unless you are someone with a proven track record for dropping expensive phones in pools and puddles. You can use the phone outside in a drizzle. And, the company claims it can withstand rain too.
OnePlus 8’s 4300mAh battery might not be better than some of the 5,000 mAh powerhouses you find in the ‘budget’ category. But with Warp Charge, you hardly have to be away from your phone. Even after watching a three-hour movie, gaming for two hours, and making a few calls and WhatsApp conversations, about 15% charge remained at the day’s end. Wireless charging, a feature that is becoming common in all flagship models, is a conspicuous miss.
Joining the flagship club
OnePlus, in its first few years, used to market their phones as ‘flagship killers’ — a threat to flagship phones, chiefly from Apple and Samsung. These phones were slightly more expensive than the ones in the ‘budget’ category but offered flagship-level features. But as Apple and Samsung improved their phones and increased their prices, OnePlus had to, too. At ₹49,999, OnePlus 8 cannot pretend to be a flagship phone. Even the manufacturers do not call their phones ‘flagship killers’ anymore.
The OnePlus ecosystem in India has been a loyal one with post-buy servicing and follow-ups always on a par even during the lockdown. That said, OnePlus 8 has all the good things of its predecessor, the 7T Pro, with a few minor refinements.
