The OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro Review: Becoming The Flagship
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 29, 2020 10:00 AM ESTVideo Recording
Next up, some video sample comparisons between both phone’s different modules and capture modes.
OnePlus 8 Pro
OnePlus 8
Starting off with the colour renditions of the scene, both phones do ok but I feel that there’s something off with the tone curves as things either look a bit too oversaturated or some highlights are being flattened too much? It’s a weird look that more present on the main sensor of the 8 Pro than on its ultra-wide or on the regular 8. Both main camera sensors suffer from lens flaring in the sun, but the 8 Pro here is especially predominant compared to its other two camera modules.
Switching between the modules is fast when zooming in and out – naturally the regular OnePlus 8 doesn’t have a telephoto module so zooming in beyond 2x comes at a great loss of quality as it’s just digitally cropping the frame.
Electronic image stabilisation works great on both phones. Switching over to 60fps recording disables EIS and here we can see the OIS performance of both phones. The OnePlus 8 Pro has a significantly better stabilisation as the OnePlus 8 becomes quite a lot shakier.
OnePlus is still pretty nuts in regards to the video bitrate at 60fps as for a H.264 recording we’re jumping from 50Mbps at 4K30 to a whopping 160Mbps at 4K60, resulting in file sizes exceeding 1GB per minute. The quality is outstanding of course, but it far exceeds what you’d be able to upload and view on any video platform such as YouTube. I wish OnePlus would give the option to scale this down in its camera app as it’s a bit overkill for most use-cases.
OnePlus 8 Pro - 4K30
OnePlus 8 Pro - 4K30 HDR
Dynamic range can be an issue in bright scenarios, and the OnePlus 8 Pro offers HDR recording. This actually means it’s an HDR processed capture in an SDR recording. In the above frame captures between the two phones we see that this gives a significant boost to shadows and the effective dynamic range of the scene. Unfortunately, the phone is only able to record in this mode on its main camera module, and it’s not available on the regular OnePlus 8. I also noticed that the phone has big troubles focusing while in this mode.
Audio recording was recording on both phones, but there was wind noise present in both, but particularly prominent on the regular OnePlus 8.
Overall, I’d say video recording quality and experience on both phones is good, but the OnePlus 8 Pro is the clear winner, with the ultra-wide-angle recording experience in particular being the best.
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jaju123 - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Hi Andrei thanks for the review.Did you encounter the low brightness green tint issue on the OP8 Pro? I haven't seen any mention of it here.
Thanks
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
I didn't have the problem on my device.MrPhilo - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
New update has increased minimum brightness so you would not see it anymore. Installing a custom kernel and changing the brightness to lowest you will see it.Flunk - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Sure, if flagship means adding a bunch of pointless features and charging too much for the phone. I think reviewers failing to take value into account in reviews have to take at least some of the blame for these crazy phone prices.Oneplus' quest to make their products irrelevant has now met its totally forseen conclusion.
BedfordTim - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
It would be nice to see a flagship camera in something like a P30 Lite.close - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
That's kind of what flagship means... Manufacturers bundle the best they have and when they run out of the good stuff they start bundling trinkets, bells, whistles, ribbons... And for most people buying the flagship isn't a matter of need but of want. They have the money, they want the image, even if many of the actual features are superfluous.I think what the title actually means is that OP started up by branding the devices as "flagship killer", the "80% flagship at 20% of the price" so to speak. With OP8 they are now "just" a flagship. As an OP owner I have a hard time justifying 700-1000E for this. That's not to say it's bad but it doesn't stand out of "the pack" (overstatement, I know) of Android flagships.
pjcamp - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
I dunno. I see flagships subtracting options. You can't have expandable storage, you can't have a headphone jack, but you need to pay more to do without those things.s.yu - Wednesday, July 1, 2020 - link
Couldn't agree more!Retycint - Thursday, July 2, 2020 - link
Flagships were never meant to be good value-for-money. Not in the smartphone industry, not in the electronics industry, not ever.eastcoast_pete - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
Thanks Andrei! I especially appreciate the section and detail on the video performance. However, that leaves me with a question: so, which phone is currently the best for video? It seems that even the so-called flagship models all have significant problems; one has artifacts, the next doesn't do a good job on stabilizing etc. So, which one is currently the leading candidate?