OnePlus 8 Pro And OnePlus 8 Review: Disruptive 5G Flagships
by
Dave Altavilla
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Wednesday, April 29, 2020, 01:21 PM EDT
OnePlus 8 Pro And One Plus 8 Camera Software And Performance
First, here's a quick peek at the camera software setup of the OnePlus 8 series and various single-shot and video capture modes. The software here is intuitive and clean and for the most part easy to manage on the fly when trying to capture the moment before it slips away.
In terms of high resolution video, there's a lot to work with, including 4K 60fps shooting and 4K CINE shot modes with a 21:9 aspect ratio. CINE video captures do look better on the OnePlus 8 series' 20:9 aspect ratio displays, without any letter boxing on the left and right sides. Video shooting in the standard modes for use off-device are probably best, but CINE shot modes do fill these wide aspect phone displays nicely. For still image modes, the usual features are here, from Portrait mode shooting to Nightscape (aka Night Sight in Google speak) and a nicely-equipped Pro Shot mode. OnePlus does a good job of keeping things familiar and only mucking with Android to add the extra hooks needed for the special features of its cameras.
OnePlus 8 And OnePlus 8 Pro Camera Results Comparison
So, let's get down to some pixel snobbery, shall we? All of these shots were captured in Auto mode with auto HDR on, unless otherwise stated. The first shot we have is a reasonably well-lit indoor scene that offers a lot of tells.
Shot On OnePlus 8 ProShot On OnePlus 8Shot On Google Pixel 4 XL
Talk about stark contrast (and colors). First, Google's Pixel 4 XL delivers super sharp rendering with excellent contrast, but its colors are obviously drab and not accurate for this scene. This scene is lit behind our shot position with warmer hue LED lights, but the Pixel desaturates the heck out of most of it, except for the greens in the plants. Moving up the stack, the OnePlus 8's color balance is way off, with an overly-warm, slightly green hue and a touch more noise than the Pixel or OnePlus 8 Pro shots. The OnePlus 8 Pro, however, renders this shot as close to the real thing as we've ever seen, however. Color balance is spot-on, the shot is crisp and generally noise-free. Well done, OnePlus; it's clear you've upped your camera game already but let's keep moving.
Shot On OnePlus 8 ProShot On OnePlus 8Shot On Google Pixel 4 XL
Our Portrait mode comparison can lean either way, depending on your preferences. This shot is lit by an overhead lamp and ambient outside light through the windows. The OnePlus 8 shots are both fairly similar, with good separation of our ornamental flower target and background bokeh blur. However, the wood on the table is just a touch drab with a very slight greenish tint. The Pixel 4 XL captures colors closer to reality here, but is slightly under-exposed with less definition around the edges of the flowers in this shot. In reality, it's a virtual tie, depending on your preference. All of the phones did pretty darn well.
Shot On OnePlus 8 ProShot On OnePlus 8Shot On Pixel 4 XL
Our usual shot of Michael the Archangel on this intricate tiled table really challenges phones, with bright ambient light from an adjacent window and tons of detail all around to capture. Starting with the Pixel 4 XL again, we get super crisp detail, but muted colors and under-exposure. Moving up to the OnePlus 8, we get better saturation, but that ever-so slight green tinge again and it's slightly under-exposed too. Then we get to the OnePlus 8 Pro and once again, the reality of the shot comes better into view. At this time of day the scene is well-lit for an indoor shot, with windows on each side in close proximity. Perhaps it's ever-so slightly over-exposed but that's debatable to us and its color balance, saturation, sharpness and low noise image quality are spot-on. Again, winner OnePlus 8 Pro, to our eyes anyway. However, you be the judge, as always.
Shot On OnePlus 8 ProShot On OnePlus 8Shot On Pixel 4 XL
Please excuse the slightly different aspect crops on these shots as the OnePlus 8 phones snapped pics in their 20:9 "Full" setting on NightScape mode, versus the Pixel's 16:9 crop in Night Sight mode. Either way, we see some similarities and a surprising result. The Pixel 4 XL actually had trouble with this one, as the fire throws a significant amount of noise into the shot up by the flower pot on the rail behind it. Looking at the firepit table itself and the martini glass, clarity is much better. Moving up to the OnePlus 8 we see much less noise overall, with good exposure and detail all around. The OnePlus 8 Pro perhaps is a touch less noisy, however, with better exposure in the background bushes behind the rail, but slightly underexposed chairs. Either way, we think the OnePlus 8 Pro wins again, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.
Shot On OnePlus 8 ProShot On OnePlus 8
As a follow-up to the "Full" aspect shot mode of the OnePlus 8 series, we've got just the OnePlus siblings at play here in this daylight shot, as it illustrates a small quibble we have with this shot mode. The Full aspect setting of OnePlus isn't particularly useful, in our opinion, with the exception of viewing shots on the phone itself, and even then there are issues. As you can see, our martini glasses and the flower pot look slightly squished and warped. That's because of the crop and resizing on the phone itself, even with lens correction enabled in the phone settings. We'd much prefer a more common 16:9 aspect crop mode like Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones have, but that's partly subjective. Our position is that 16:9 is more useful when you're pulling shots off the phone or uploading to some social media sites (other than Instagram of course). We don't quite get the 20:9 Full aspect shot mode of OnePlus phones to be honest, but then again, we're sort of special here at HH.
Shot On OnePlus 8 Pro (Portrait Mode)
Our final shot here is taken on the OnePlus 8 Pro and it illustrates just how great the phone's portrait mode shooting can handle outdoor shots. In two words, accurate and beautiful, even though the shot subject is dashingly handsome as well.
OnePlus 8 Pro Photochrom Shot
The OnePlus 8 Pro's extra 5MP Color Filter camera can provide some funky cool affects as well as black and white shooting, but all told it's a little gimmicky.
OnePlus 8 Pro Video Samples
As you can see, the OnePlus 8 Pro captures great video with excellent auto-focus and seriously crispy results, especially at 4K shot resolutions. Image stabilization is also excellent and OnePlus also offers a Super Stable mode for even better stabilization, but only at 30fps for 1080p and 4K shooting. We want to circle back here with some OnePlus 8 video clips as well, but suffice it to say that the OnePlus 8 Pro captures great video with ease. (Update - 1:58PM, 4/29/20 - added!)
