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OnePlus this week launched its newest flagship smartphones, the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, offering high-end specs and features at a cheaper price than many of its competitors.

We got our hands on one of the OnePlus 8 Pro devices and thought we'd see how it measures up to the iPhone 11 Pro Max in our latest YouTube video.


There are a few models at different price points, but for our video, we're comparing the $899 OnePlus 8 Pro with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, plus a pretty nice looking exclusive "glacial green" color, to the mostly comparable $1249 iPhone 11 Pro Max with 4GB RAM and 256GB storage, which is a $350 premium.

oneplus_8_pro_iphone_front.jpg

Both smartphones are attractive, well-designed, and have a premium look. The OnePlus 8 Pro features a frosted back much like the iPhone 11 Pro, and it looks attractive in the glacial green shade. OnePlus gets an edge over Apple when it comes to fun colors, as Apple is rather conservative with its Pro lineup.

oneplus_8_pro_iphone_rear_2.jpg

The 11 Pro and the OnePlus 8 both have large camera bumps at the back. Apple's is in a square shape housing triple-lens cameras, while OnePlus opted for a vertical camera bump that's right in the middle of the smartphone. It too has a triple-lens camera.

On the side, the OnePlus 8 Pro has an alert slider that can be toggled between silent, vibrate, and ringer on, one more option than the iPhone provides with its vibrate and ringer on options.

oneplus_8_pro_iphone_rear_stack.jpg

The OnePlus 8 Pro features a 6.7-inch display, which is just a bit bigger than the iPhone 11 Pro Max's 6.5-inch display. It's an OLED display with a 120Hz refresh date and a 3168 x 1440 resolution. Apple hasn't yet brought 120Hz refresh rates to the iPhone, but there have been rumors of a 120Hz iPhone display ever since Apple added the feature to the iPad Pro.

Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, the S20 Ultra, also has a 120Hz display but limited it to only 1080p. The new OnePlus 8 Pro supports 120Hz at the full resolution of the display, though at the cost of some battery life.

The OnePlus 8 Pro doesn't have anything like the TrueDepth Camera System or Face ID, so there's just a single hole punch camera cutout at the front on the right side, and it's otherwise all display.

oneplus_8_pro_iphone_front_cameras.jpg

With no Face ID, the OnePlus 8 Pro uses an optical fingerprint sensor, which is built into the display and seems to work fine. There have been some rumors that Apple is working on optical fingerprint sensor technology, but if it's a feature in development, it isn't something we're expecting in the 2020 iPhone lineup.

New to the OnePlus 8 Pro this year is wireless charging, a feature that iPhones have had for years now. It supports 30W fast wireless charging with a $70 charger, which means it can be charged from 0 to 50 percent in about 30 minutes (any other Qi charger is 5W, though). A 30W power adapter is included for fast wired charging though. The iPhone 11 Pro Max is limited to 7.5W wireless charging while wired fast charging requires a Lightning to USB-C cable and 18W+ power adapter.

Battery life between the two phones isn't too different. The iPhone 11 Pro Max has a 3,969 mAh battery, and the OnePlus 8 Pro has a 4,500 mAh battery.

When it comes to camera quality, the OnePlus 8 Pro usually falls behind other smartphone manufacturers, and Apple is usually at the top of the pack, but OnePlus appears to have improved somewhat. This year, the OnePlus 8 Pro features a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 48-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera, an 8-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 5-megapixel depth camera.

oneplus_8_pro_iphone_trees.jpg

We can only test around the house at the current time so we didn't do a deep dive into the camera, but the OnePlus 8 Pro is more on par with the iPhone. Most of the time, the iPhone images still look more natural, but OnePlus does a better job at ultra wide-angle image quality, and some portrait mode photos look better.

oneplus_8_pro_iphone_portrait_mode.jpg

The OnePlus 8 Pro still lags behind when it comes to low-light photography (such as indoor lighting), but the longer exposure night mode images are on par with Night Mode images from the iPhone. There's also a macro photo mode, which works well and captures images with quite a lot of detail.

oneplus_8_pro_iphone_night_mode.jpg

High-end smartphones are all so fast now that it's not useful to compare performance, and both the OnePlus 8 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max perform at a level expected of a premium smartphone.

Even though the OnePlus 8 Pro is able to offer a comparable feature set to the iPhone 11 Pro Max, operating system is such a huge factor when purchasing a smartphone. A person deep in the iOS ecosystem (like many of us here at MacRumors) isn't going to swap over to Android, and the same goes for Android users who are used to that operating system.

The OnePlus 8 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max are both great smartphones, and if you are in the Android ecosystem, OnePlus' new device is worth checking out. If you're someone without a strong operating system preference, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a solid iPhone competitor that has a lot to offer at a lower price.

Article Link: OnePlus 8 Pro vs. iPhone 11 Pro Max
 
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unfortunately, oneplus has gone from flagship-killer to flagship in terms of pricing, which was the most compelling aspect of their phones.

and today, when deciding between the op8 or the iPhone 11 pro max... unless it's for the size, you might as well get the iPhone SE.

I'll be using my oneplus 6 for another year or so.
 
From a purely aesthetic view, I think the OnePlus looks cheap. Different size bezels and not the same build quality as the iPhone 11. The iPhone just looks more premium.

The iPhone's only negative is the thick bezels. That hopefully will be rectified once the iPhone 12 finally arrives with slimmer bezels and a smaller notch.
 
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"I didn't have a chance to compare cameras because I've only had the phone a couple of days."
"I'm not going to compare performance because I don't believe its possible to compare different operating systems. Besides, if you're into cameras, you don't care" (since when??)

I translate this to "If Apple is better, I don't wanna talk about it. I like TEAL!"

I mean, it isn't that much of a comparison. I am sure it is a fine phone. Just review the phone and don't bother calling it a comparison. I think OnePlus makes a solid phone. This may not be the best time to step into flagship pricing. They probably could have killed it with something more reasonable just because a lot of people are looking to save some money right now.
 
They lost me at the assertion that points are won in a $1000 phone contest for “fun” colors, over classy.

I opted for a simple 11, non-Pro- but it’s impossible to not get gadget lust over that “ink from a $100 bill” shade on the Pro.
I can’t imagine anyone thinking: “can’t this thing be painted a bit more like a Lego?”.
 
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I’m old enough to remember when Microsoft released a camera phone 10+ years ago that was “40+ megapixels” and it was complete trash. 48 megapixels on a camera phone today isn’t much improved since Microsoft’s attempt!
It actually is. The software has got so much better and the sensor tech has also improved. I'm not saying the more MP the better but these high megapixel phones nowadays usually also carry a bigger sensor than the iPhone and it helps with DOF and low light.
 
From a purely aesthetic view, I think the OnePlus looks like cheap. Different size bezels and not the same build quality as the iPhone 11. The iPhone just looks more premium.

The iPhone's only negative is the thick bezels. That hopefully will be rectified once the iPhone 12 finally arrives with slimmer bezels and a smaller notch.
From another aesthetic, the off axis/off centre placement of the camera assembly on the iPhone looks terrible. That's negative number 2.
I remember years ago. Apple would make sure that its devices looked impeccable from every angle. They even gushed about how the centre of the camera was the same of that for the corners of the handset, of course now they are silent on that.
I think those camera comparisons are close to useless though. A lot of the time they talk about bright colours and good lighting. Well how do we know? We weren't there so don't really know how rich the colours or bright the lights are, and then we all perceive things differently so with that in mind does it not suit us better to see a modified image?
 
OnePlus fail with ugly color choices and high pricing when what's needed now are more price competitive options like the Moto G8 Power, Pixel 4a, iPhone SE, etc. Premium Moto Edge Plus being announced on 4/22 might undercut them too if rumors of ~$500 cost is true.
 
OnePlus fail with ugly color choices and high pricing when what's needed now are more price competitive options like the Moto G8 Power, Pixel 4a, iPhone SE, etc. Premium Moto Edge Plus being announced on 4/22 might undercut them too if rumors of ~$500 cost is true.
They didn't fail. OnePlus moving more and more upscale was a conscious choice by BBK Electronics. They started with all of their brands as lower and mid tier offerings and gradually moved OnePlus higher and higher into flagship territory. They are still well convered in the lower and mid tiers by their Realme, Vivo and Oppo brands.

I don't necessarily agree with the strategy because OnePlus has mindshare as a budget flagship that can go toe-to-toe with the big boys. Now they're offering basically the same things they've always offered -top of the line specs- but now their asking closer to top of the line pricing. Hope it works for them. Not confident it will.

Color choice is subjective. They've sold a ton of phones and they know what customers buy, so I'd give them a pass on making color choices. Doesn't matter too much anyway since most phones end up in a case.
 
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It’s a shame that OnePlus runs crappy Android. They would do better if they developed their own software.

They run on their own "skin" of Android which is tons better than most other Android versions, specially that from Samsung, which is the most bloated in my opinion.
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I’m old enough to remember when Microsoft released a camera phone 10+ years ago that was “40+ megapixels” and it was complete trash. 48 megapixels on a camera phone today isn’t much improved since Microsoft’s attempt!

What are you talking about? Computational Photography has grown exponentially, I was lucky to take a Digital Image Processing class and let me tell you, the marvels you can do today are beyond this world compared to what you could do 10 years ago, the processing power of computers alone is enough to run algorithms that a decade ago could only run on huge machines.

You are usually exposed to smartphone photography in this terms, but medical images are also improved through Image Processing, diagnostics are so much better, the identification of celestial bodies in space photography is also enhanced this way, etc.
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unfortunately, oneplus has gone from flagship-killer to flagship in terms of pricing, which was the most compelling aspect of their phones.

and today, when deciding between the op8 or the iPhone 11 pro max... unless it's for the size, you might as well get the iPhone SE.

I'll be using my oneplus 6 for another year or so.

I agree, they used to be the one smartphone killer in the sense that they offered flagship features at affordable prices. This phone is now close to $1000, yes it has the stuffs to compete, but pricing alone already puts it in a difficult place when it comes to making a decision for purchase.
 
It’s a shame that OnePlus runs crappy Android. They would do better if they developed their own software.
Hmmmmm....
Microsoft, decided not to bring Windows, ostensibly “the name” in operating systems, to mobile, nor develop their own (despite the fact that they’re certainly more capable than OnePlus), in favor of Android.
Its a bold claim that companies would do better developing their own mobile operating systems. What is your basis?
 
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They run on their own "skin" of Android which is tons better than most other Android versions, specially that from Samsung, which is the most bloated in my opinion.
Rocking a Oneplus 7 pro myself at the moment, I would disagree slightly. The Android Version itself is a little better, but the Updates are much slower for Oneplus compared to my Samsung Work Phone. They usually lag behind 2 -3 months on the Security Patches, which is unacceptable for the now reached price point.

One reason I will probably move back to Apple eventually.
 
I've had both iPhones and Android phones. For several years I owned both at the same time. Android as my personal and iPhone for work.

I've owned two OnePlus phones a 6T and a 7 Pro. I've had the 7 Pro for almost a year now.
For those that think the build quality of the OnePlus phones is sub par, you are mistaken.
For those that think Android is junk, again you are mistaken.
Android with the correct skin is on par with iOS and in some ways better due to the opportunity of customization.
Both are Unix/Linux beneath the skin just a gui on top. Android is Linux and iOS is BSD.

I like OnePlus because I can unlock the bootloader and do what I want.
I own the phone. With iOS you never really "own" the phone.
Apple decides when your phone is obsolete. Once they stop offering any update, the phone is done.
 
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