OnePlus 8 Pro review

Sensor size boost

You might not be able to tell from the photos, but the new vertically stacked camera array is both longer and wider than the 7/7T Pro, though slightly. What is certainly noticeable is how much more the OnePlus 8 Pro's camera bump protrudes from the back of the phone. This is due to the new main sensor, which is 40% larger than its predecessors.

The OnePlus 8 Pro uses a brand-new Sony IMX689 48MP sensor, which is a significantly larger sensor compared to the IMX586 from the OnePlus 7 and 7T (also on the OnePlus 8) of the same resolution. Where the old sensor had 0.8 µm pixels, the IMX689 has 40% larger 1.12 µm pixels which allow for better low-light performance and should allow for better detail. This comes out to 2.24 µm size when you account for 4-to-1 pixel binning. The main camera is also optically stabilized.

Also new to this sensor is something called All Pixel Omni-directional phase detection autofocus. This same sensor and focusing technology can be found in the Oppo Find X2 Pro as well. Where dual-pixel autofocus used all pixels for focusing, it had trouble focusing on horizontal lines due to the arrangement of their photosite split. With Omni-directional focusing, the sensor is sensitive to changes in both horizontal and vertical patterns. What all this means is that we should see some quick and accurate autofocusing. Even with the fancy autofocus setup, there's still a laser autofocus, you know, just in case.

In addition to the large main sensor, there's another not-as-large-but-still-large 48MP sensor behind the ultra-wide-angle lens. It's the same IMX586 that was behind the main camera in the OnePlus 7 Pro and the 7T. This f/2.2 aperture lens is a 13mm-equivalent which offers a 119.7-degree field of view. With the larger sensor, we hope to see a far better low-light performance and more detailed photos and video from the ultrawide camera. This camera also features autofocus and doubles as a macro camera.

Then there's an 8MP telephoto camera. This one is the one camera located next to the three other vertically stacked cameras. This is the least-updated camera compared to the others. It has the same 8MP sensor as last year and it zooms at 3X with an aperture of f/2.44.

The newest addition to this quad-camera setup is a 5MP "Color Filter" camera. It's for an f/2.4 aperture lens in front of it, and it's certainly a unique camera. It doesn't aid in depth mapping for portrait photos, but instead it has a filter that alters the colors of reality for artistic photography. We don't know if it will get much use over time, but it's certainly, uh, unique.

Not much has changed in the camera UI. The first thing you'll notice when firing up the Camera app is that the settings have been moved to the top right corner of the viewfinder. The app now makes it easier to shoot 48MP images without having to switch to the manual camera. There's a toggle at the top row of icons that you can use to switch between the 12MP or the full resolution 48MP modes. New to the top row are the Macro camera toggle, and a new shortcut for filters, this is where you'll go to activate the Color filter camera as well.

Otherwise, the camera UI is intuitive for the most part. Swiping either direction horizontally changes the modes while swiping up shows you the drawer with all the camera modes available. You can customize which modes you want to keep outside of the drawer.

Camera UI and settings

Pro mode lets you shoot in RAW (12MP), saves two presets, and lets you adjust all the camera settings (ISO, White balance, shutter speed, focus, and exposure compensation). There's also a histogram and horizontal level - both very useful for composing shots and exposure. Shooting in Pro mode only works with the main camera.

Camera Pro mode

Double-pressing the power key fires up the camera app in a pinch. From a deep sleep, this could take as long as three seconds. In most cases, it'll take just under two seconds. Snapping the image is quick and there may be a second delay if you try to immediately view the most recent photo.

Daylight image quality

Shots taken with the OnePlus 8 Pro are generally sharp and well-exposed with plenty of details. Dynamic range is quite good with true-to-life colors, and white balance consistent with the scene.

Camera samples

Camera samples

The IMX689 sensor is among the largest in a smartphone these days. Because of this, you'll notice a pretty drastic bokeh when taking photos of objects closer than about a 3-foot distance. This camera outputs images in 12MP by default but you can certainly shoot photos in the sensor's full resolution.

Tapping on an icon makes switching to the full-resolution mode easy.

Full-resolution samples

When shooting in this mode, you may have to wait a couple more seconds before you can view the image you just took. Anyway, resulting photos are crisp and detailed. Peeping up close to a 1:1 ratio, we can spot some traces of noise in blue skies or in some solid colors, but its nothing distracting. At the same zoom levels, foliage tends to have aberrations with glitchy colors as a result of image processing. You can spot this in some of the distant palm trees.

In some cases, the camera app will suggest that the scene in the viewfinder might capture with better dynamic range in the 12MP pixel-binned mode.

The ultrawide camera takes great shots as well. One complaint we had about the 7 Pro was that the main and ultrawide cameras were not consistent in white balance and exposures. We're happy to see that the IMX586 from the 7 Pro is now behind the ultrawide lens.

Ultrawide camera samples

Ultrawide camera samples

Ultrawide shots are generally good. We're glad that OnePlus kept the autofocus on this camera, as the ultrawide camera pulls double duty and can shoot close-up macro photos as well. Details shot with the ultrawide are not as sharp as the main camera's, but it does the job well.

Like the main camera, the ultrawide can also be set to shoot in its native 48MP resolution.

Ultrawide full-resolution samples

We notice similar defects in the ultrawide's full-res mode as we did with the main camera's - only these defects are noticeably more apparent with the ultrawide camera. Noise in the sky and solid colors is a bit more apparent when pixel peeping, and image defects around the edges of the field of view are more so apparent.

That's not to say this is a terrible ultrawide camera. We do notice improvements overall with the ultrawide camera compared to the 8 Pro's predecessors. Lens distortion (fish-eye effect) is barely apparent on the 8 Pro. However, if you would rather have this effect, you can disable the "Ultrawide correction" option in the camera settings.

Ultrawide correction: on (default) • off

Come to think of it, those defects that we saw in the towards the edge of the ultrawide camera's field of view appear to be a side-effect of the correction feature. When it's disabled, we don't see as much noise or aberration in the colors here.

Let's move on to the telephoto camera. This is same exact 3X zoom camera that we saw in the OnePlus 7 Pro - down to the aperture and sensor.

Something you should know about the 3X zoom setting is: zoomed photos might come from either of two cameras depending on the amount of light available. The telephoto camera has an aperture of f/2.4, which isn't ideal in lower light conditions.

OnePlus made it so that 3X zoom photos can also be cropped from the main camera sensor. This was a clever way to let you shoot from far away whether you shoot in broad daylight or under more demanding lighting.

3X telephoto samples

For all intents and purposes, the samples above were shot with the actual telephoto camera. We'll see some of the cropped zoom photos in the low-light samples a little later.

Image quality from the telephoto camera was pretty good. Colors and white balance were mostly consistent with the other cameras, but this camera isn't as good at capturing a wide dynamic range. You'll notice that the shaded areas of the scene aren't as exposed as if they were shot with the main cameras.

3x telephoto camera samples

If you wanted to, you could switch to the cropped sensor zoom by pulling the zoom out slightly to 2.9X.

Next up, we're checking out OnePlus' newest addition to its camera setup. OnePlus calls this its "Color filter camera" and it's a 5MP camera with a photochrome filter over the sensor, so it distorts the colors into something... well... interesting.

Color filter camera samples

These images are certainly unique. However, when shooting around these lush parts of Florida, virtually all the details from the foliage are gone when using this camera. The camera doesn't have any autofocusing either, so other than the occasional artistic shot, we think the average person will use this camera a handful of times and later forget about it.

Lowlight, portraits, selfies, and macro

With the 8 Pro's larger sensor, lowlight performance was quite good. In addition, the ultrawide camera can now be used to shoot Nightscape photos. After all - it is the same sensor from the 7 Pro's main camera.

We didn't have trouble with autofocus at night, and the camera captured the night scenes accurately.

Lowlight

Although there's some detail lost in the shadows, that's how it really is at night. However, parts of the scenes that were somewhat lit managed to maintain details very well. White balance and colors are on par with the white-LED lit neighborhood we shot the samples at.

Lowlight

We really like how the Nightscape shots came out. We see some more details in the shadows, but not too much so that the scene looks artificial. Nightscape managed to add just enough details to the shadows while letting the scene have shadows in the first place.

Nightscape

Details are much sharper, and the overall scene cleans up very well. Again, white balance remains consistent throughout the night scenes and some more of the clouds in the sky can be made out. Nightscape shots require a steadier hand and this mode doesn't tend to play well with moving objects. In this case, you'll see all the palm trees become soft due to their swaying in the breeze.

Nightscape

Even in the shots like the last one above, exposure is even across the scene. Nightscape managed to really smoothen out the brighter areas like just under the path lamp. In this same image, you'll notice some red stains in the clouds on the left. This is probably just some of the red from the gates that leaked into the lens.

Moving on to the ultrawide camera, lowlight performance isn't stellar. Colors and exposure aren't terrible, but details turn to mush. Noise also occurs throughout the scenes.

Ultrawide lowlight

Ultrawide lowlight

You might be able to get a good Nightscape shot with the ultrawide camera. Just don't go shooting in dark neighborhoods.

Ultrawide Nightscape

Ultrawide Nightscape

Shooting with the ultrawide camera in Nightscape proved to be a little inconsistent. It does save some of the detail, but depending on the scene you are shooting, there's still a lot of noise. We do believe you should be able to catch some cool ultrawide Nightscape shots in a place like New York City with lots of ambient lights.

Remember when we mentioned that the 3X zoom may switch from the telephoto camera to the main sensor? Well, this is where it happens. These images you see here are 3X zoom photos that were cropped out of the main sensor.

Lowlight 3X zoom (crop)

These aren't too bad. Surely it is a crop from the main sensor, but the resulting images are usable. The real telephoto camera would not be able to catch this much light.

We found that in some conditions, the software prefers the telephoto camera.

Lowlight 3x telephoto samples

There's no dedicated depth sensor, so the OnePlus 8 Pro solely relies on the main sensor to detect depth relative to the subject in a portrait photo. Portraits can be shot from either the telephoto camera or the main one. We prefer the look of the telephoto camera, as photos of people shot from a bit further away tend to be more flattering.

You can also take a look at our photo compare tool and see how it stands against some of its rivals.

OnePlus 8 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20+ and the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G in our Photo compare tool

Portraits are shot with the telephoto camera by default.

Portrait via telephoto camera

Portraits look pretty good, and the subject separation is on point. Skin tones could be a little brighter while dynamic range is okay. The portrait shot in direct sunlight shows that OnePlus could work towards improving the telephoto camera's metering for exposure. To be fair, direct sunlight is not ideal lighting for a portrait photo.

Portraits shot with the main camera have more flattering skin tones than the telephoto camera.

Portrait via main camera

Subject separation seems to be just as good as the telephoto camera, but mapping depth relative to the subject isn't the phone's forte as you can see in the last portrait shot with the metal rack. Despite this, the portrait effect is quite convincing - smooth and silky bokeh around the subject. Dynamic range is also much better on this camera.

The 16MP selfie camera is the same one we used to see pop up out of the OnePlus 7 Pro. We didn't have any major complaints with this selfie snapper back then, and we don't have much to rap about it now.

Selfies

Even though this is a fixed focus camera, it takes great-looking selfies with excellent dynamic range and just the right amount of sharpness. The camera perfectly captured the essence of quarantine hair and colors, although not as saturated as on the main camera, are pleasant and true to life.

Portrait selfies

Portrait photos are quite good on the selfie camera as well. The subject separation line is quite well hidden, so long as the lighting is soft. You'll notice harder lines and defects in the subject line in the selfies shot at golden hour.

When activating Super Macro mode, the ultrawide camera takes over. The autofocus lets you get close to a subject and capture some deep amount of detail thanks to that large sensor. Come to think of it, this is one of the largest sensors being used to shoot macro photos. It sure beats the 2MP macro camera on the OnePlus 8.

Macro samples

Macro shots are captured at 12MP and the details captured are unreal. The camera works best when everything in the frame is about the same distance from the camera - this way everything is in focus. Otherwise, you'll see the camera's natural bokeh in the outer parts of the shot.

Video

The OnePlus 8 Pro's video camera can capture up to 4K@60fps and can capture 720p@480fps or 1080p@240fps slow motion. There's a new "4K Cine" video mode, which is basically 4K video cropped at a 21:9 aspect ratio - more ideal to view on the 8 Pro's tall display.

"Super Steady" was also updated and now supports 4K recording thanks to the larger sensor. This mode uses the ultrawide camera to better stabilize video.

We were surprised at how well 4K video at 60fps looked. In fact, the bitrate was more than triple that of 4K@30fps at 160Mbps! We tested this again to make sure and 4K 30 was around 50 Mbps while the 4K 60 video was around 150Mbps. Strange, but not necessarily in a bad way.

4K video looks great with detail and dynamic range. You can certainly pull a frame from the video and post it to social media, passing it off as a still photo.

The 4K Cine video records in either 30fps or 60fps. It's worth noting, however, that shooting in this ultrawide cinema aspect ratio of 21:9 is literally a letterbox crop of 4K video resolution. The output resolution is 3840x1644px.

Regular video looks great. The bitrate comes out to about 20Mbps in 30fps and almost double that in 60fps at 38Mbps.

Here are some Super Steady video samples. Since this is captured with the ultrawide camera, there's some noise throughout the video and details are not as sharp as with the main camera. Stabilization isn't perfectly still - in other words - there's still a vertical motion when walking with the 8 Pro in hand, but it's worth not having the jelly-effect that's normally a side effect of other software-heavy stabilization solutions.

Super Steady 4K

You can also take a look at our video compare tool and see how it stands against some of its rivals.

4K: OnePlus 8 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20+ and the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G in our Video compare tool