After six weeks of aggressive teasing, reporting and marketing, OnePlus launched its this year’s lineup of premium, flagship smartphones – the OnePlus 8 series. The series includes the OnePlus 8 Pro and its watered down version, the OnePlus 8. The Chinese company said that its focus is to deliver the fastest, smoothest experience to its users at a price that does not burn a hole in their pocket. But this year’s flagships are much more than meets the eyes. Here are a few interesting facts about the OnePlus 8 Series of smartphones.
The OnePlus 8 Series is the company’s first line-up to use punch-hole displays. Both the phones debut with 5G which arguably makes them the cheapest 5G smartphone with flagship hardware in the world. Also, the launch itself was interesting. It was probably the first global smartphone event that was live streamed amid Coronavirus lockdown. The OnePlus 8 Pro is the first device from the company to sport a display with 120Hz refresh rate, a quad-camera setup and wireless charging tech.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is termed as the ultra-premium flagship phone by the company. The phone sports a 6.78-inch QHD+ Fluid Display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Having a 120Hz display means that the screen refreshes 120 times every second, making the animations and video playback more fluid than screens with less refresh rate. To give a perspective, a phone generally has a display with 60Hz refresh rate.
OnePlus says its unique optimisation system, the OnePlus Smooth Chain, has also added more than 280 enhancements to the display to make the screen more responsive. The display includes motion compensation (MEMC) algorithms, which makes it possible to watch videos at frame rate of up to 120fps with reduced motion blur. According to the company, the display has an industry-leading 1300 nits peak brightness and an A+ rating from professional display review institution DisplayMate. It has set or matched 13 records, which is more than any other smartphone.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is among a handful of smartphones that are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 mobile platform coupled with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System. The OnePlus 8 Pro comes equipped with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM that delivers 30 per cent faster memory speed and improved power efficiency by up to 20 per cent. Only Samsung Galaxy S20 (US variant) has been able to match that spec-sheet, but the cost of the South Korean offering is much higher than the OnePlus.
As mentioned, the OnePlus 8 Pro is the first quad-camera phone by the company. It has two 48MP sensors. The primary 48MP camera features a custom-made Sony IMX689 sensor with a large 1/1.4-inch sensor size. This lets the phone capture more light for bright photos. The camera also features dual native ISO and a 2x2 on-chip lens for clearer photos. The second 48MP sensor is coupled with an ultra-wide lens with a 120-degree field of view -- a first in a OnePlus device.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is the first OnePlus device with Warp Charge 30 Wireless charging solution. The company claims that it can wirelessly charge a 4510mAh battery 50 per cent in 30 minutes. There’s Warp Charge 30T that can charge the battery to 50 per cent in 23 minutes.
OxygenOS on the OnePlus 8 series now features a ‘Dark Theme 2.0’ tailored for OnePlus devices and optimized to be compatible with even more apps. OnePlus also announced its partnership with Google to offer Google One, which provides expanded storage across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos and automatic phone backup.
OnePlus 8 series now also has push-to-talk access to Alexa. Users just need to download the Alexa app and complete a setup to ask the assistant to make phone calls, open apps (for U.S. and India users), control smart home devices, access the library of Alexa skills, and more. In the coming months, OnePlus will launch new capabilities that let customers use Alexa to start a Zen Mode session and cast their phones to TVs.
