The OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Becoming The Flagship
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 29, 2020 10:00 AM ESTBattery Life
Battery life of the OnePlus 8 Pro was a big question-mark for a lot of users given the phone’s 120Hz refresh rate. Several weeks ago I had reported on my initial power draw investigation results covering the different display modes of the screen:
Much like on the Galaxy S20 series, the OnePlus 8 Pro incurs a large static power draw penalty when switching from 60Hz to 120Hz. This is a increase in the baseline power of the phone, no matter the type of content that you’re displaying, and will even incur on a pure black screen.
OnePlus 8 Pro Baseline Power usage (Black Screen)
Whilst OnePlus does include refresh rate switching mechanisms based on scenarios such as video playback, the lack of a true variable refresh rate (VRR) mechanism that works on the per-frame basis and is implemented on the deeper OS and GPU driver levels, means that current generation high-refresh rate devices will have to suffer from a larger than usual power and battery life penalty.
In our web browsing test, we see the clear impact of the 120Hz refresh rate on the OnePlus 8 Pro as it reduces the battery life of the phone in the test by 22% compared to its regular 60Hz mode. As a note- we’re testing at QHD resolution here as generally there’s very little power benefit from using lower resolutions.
In terms of absolute results, the 9.71h of the 120Hz mode here are adequate but not great. The results fall in line with the S20+ at 120Hz, but short of the bigger battery capacity of the S20 Ultra. At 60Hz, the 8 Pro moves back in at 12.31h which is a great result and will get you through even the most extensive usage days.
Whilst many will have looked forward to the OnePlus 8 Pro results, the really interesting results belong to the smaller OnePlus 8. The phone here was able to showcase outstanding battery life figures. The 90Hz mode only has an 8% impact on the battery runtime in this test, and in the 60Hz mode the phone lasted for a staggering 14h which is amongst the best results we’ve ever measured on a phone.
In PCMark, the smaller OnePlus 8 again takes the lead in terms of longevity with its 60Hz mode. The 8 Pro also does quite well at 60Hz, and both phones lose respectively 15.4% and 16.4% of their runtime when switching over to 90Hz and 120Hz modes.
Whilst the OnePlus 8 Pro pretty much fell in line with what we’ve expected in terms of its battery life, falling in line with the 120Hz power behaviour of the S20 phones, it’s the regular OnePlus 8 which surprised a lot given that it features a slightly smaller battery, notably surpassing the efficiency of the OnePlus 8 Pro. Given its form-factor and weight, it’s easily the longest-lasting device of its class, with only other heavier, bigger battery phones being comparable in terms of battery longevity.
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Dexter101 - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
I feel like the conclusion leaves out some details on pricing. You can compare the MSRP prices and come to conclusions but in 1 month or so the first big deals will start showing up for Samsung flagships with heavy price drops. You'll be able to get an S20+ for less than 700€ then, while the OnePlus phones stay true to their MSRP pricing year round.Considering the quality control issues, the 200€ you save on the Samsung and the generally less buggy software I would likely go for the S20+, although the Snapdragon in all markets is a good advantage in Europe for Oneplus!
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
I compared it at current street prices - the price drops already happened.PeachNCream - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
In order to be a flagship, generally said thing should be able to float on water and support fly the fleet commander's flag. I suppose Anandtech tested both of those requirements in order to verify the accuracy of the claim as such for the OnePlus 8, but publishing the benchmark data and testing methods used would be good journalism. Also, pics of the command center from which fleet operations are coordinated inside of the OnePlus 8 would be a nice addition to this review given the high importance of tossing about the term "flagship" in even opening the article.eastcoast_pete - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Actually, regarding the ability to float: that is a key problem with many (all?) protective cases! What good does IP68 etc. do me if the damn phone (in its protective case) will still sink to the bottom of whatever body of water one is on or close to? I haven't dropped my phone into the sea yet, but friends of mine have while out fishing. So, any protective cases that will let the $ 1,000 smartphone float?Omair - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Hi Andrei, The 8 pro actually supports 10W Qi Wireless Charging, not 5W. You can verify it on the Wireless Power Consortium's Website: https://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/products/8...Of course, the charger will need to support Qi's Extended Power Profile to get 10W, which most don't (They usually only support 5W Qi, and then Samsung's and Apple's fast charge above that).
But if the charger is advertised as doing 10W on LG, Sony, or Xiaomi phones, it will most likely do 10W on the 8 pro. You can also just check the charger on the WPC's website and see what wattage is listed.
ads295 - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
I think we're well past the point where meaningful differences in computing hardware made much difference, such as the jump Samsung made with the Exynos 7420 in the GS6, or the jump from eMMC to UFS storage. Even for screen resolution for a 5.5-6" display, you can't get much better than 1440p at 90Hz. At this point companies should focus ONLY on the differentiating features, such as putting in a huge battery (path breaking to have a thicker phone that last long), better camera (no one has perfected this yet), better phone protection (less snowflake), and other tiny lil goodies such as an IR port, heart rate sensor, SpO² sensor that actually are different.ads295 - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
But it's as if no one has realised this and people are willing to overpay for LaTeSt CPU BrO and MoAr JiGgAbYtEs and establishing phallic measurements.Alistair - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
They raised the price on the base model from $700-$800 (depending on launch time frame) to $1100 in Canada. Oneplus is dead. Failed company, a huge disappointment. I finally bought an iPhone for the first time, saved a ton of money. How far Android has fallen in the last 5 years in price and quality is sad.alufan - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Agree Android is in trouble, Google has let it down badly by allowing all these suppliers to make so much bloat on handsets after starting with the very first Android and now on a S20 Ultra which frankly is rubbish compared to my mate 30pro I had before I think my next phone will be an Apple, I use one for work and whilst its frustrating due to the lack of or ease of customisation options fact is it just works on Android I have 2 calenders, 2 Music players, 2 browsers, I could go on I want to uninstall the Samsung browser and bixby etc etc but I cant, its my goddam device i want them off but you cant and if I root it then my bank apps no longer work...great way to keep customers GoogleAlistair - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
What is especially worrying is the price bloat. Snapdragon and various Android phone part suppliers seem to be upping their prices dramatically. A Snapdragon 865 should be a lot cheaper and we're hearing rumors they want to charge even more for next year.