OnePlus has got the hang of making the best premium phones without charging a bomb. The Chinese smartphone maker has come a long way since OnePlus One and its OnePlus 7T series is the living proof. With each passing year, OnePlus phones are only getting better and there's already a lot of hype around 2020 OnePlus 8 series.
As per tradition, OnePlus will launch two flagships in the first half of next year, most probably named OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro. The "Pro" moniker has attracted a lot of attention of late, hence making OnePlus 8 Pro the obvious show-stopper for the fans. While the official launch of OnePlus' next flagships is not due for several months, leaks and rumours have already pointed out some interesting (and logical) upgrades we can expect from OnePlus 8 Pro.
Here are four features that make OnePlus 8 Pro worth the wait:
Display
OnePlus 7 Pro's edge-to-edge, truly bezel-less 2K AMOLED display was seen as a winner by many. The large, uninterrupted screen real estate made it great for viewing multimedia and playing games. But what truly made the difference was the 90Hz refresh rate. What if we told you OnePlus 8 Pro would be better?
According to rumours, OnePlus 8 Pro will have a 120Hz refresh rate, which is going to be smoother than the 90Hz display we've loved so much on the OnePlus 7 Pro and 7T Pro. Asus ROG Phone 2 already offers 120Hz refresh rate and the difference isn't huge, but makes for a nice upgrade.
Another interesting upgrade spotted from a leaked prototype is the punch-hole camera. Previously, OnePlus has either relied on pop-up selfie camera or gone with a notch. Adding a punch-hole display makes it look like Samsung Galaxy S10+. Frankly, getting rid of the pop-up mechanism works better as the face unlock would be more seamless than having to see the camera pop out every time we try to unlock the phone.
The rest of the display appears to be the same in OnePlus 8 Pro. The curved display will be retained to give a bezel-less view of the screen and OnePlus might stick to 2K resolution for its next phone as well.
Cameras
One of the most challenging areas for OnePlus is turning to be its biggest strengths. OnePlus doesn't have the best camera phones out there, but the decent cameras put in an extraordinary package makes us overlook the shortcoming compared to flagships like Pixel 4 and iPhone 11.
If the leaked prototype is to be believed, the OnePlus 8 Pro might get a quad-camera setup on the back and dual front cameras. The vertical lens arrangement looks identical to the one on OnePlus 8 Pro, with the addition of a fourth sensor and a ToF (Time of Flight) depth sensor for better quality images. The exact configuration of the cameras on the OnePlus 8 Pro is yet to be known.
But that's not what grabbed our attention. The dual cameras for selfie make for a nice and much-needed upgrade. For so long, OnePlus phones only had a single sensor. Things could change with OnePlus 8 Pro.
There's no evidence of a wide-angle lens on the front, but it would be a nice addition. OnePlus 8 Pro is turning out to be quite interesting, especially on the camera front.
5G
5G is the future and OnePlus is going to be ready to embrace it fully. OnePlus 8 Pro will be the company's first 5G smartphone. The company's CEO Pete Lau had also suggested that the OnePlus 8 series would have 5G support. Another evidence of OnePlus 8 Pro supporting 5G can be seen from the leaked prototype, which has OnePlus 5G printed on the back of the phone, GizmoChina spotted. There's enough evidence to support this claim.
Processor
One thing OnePlus phones have got right every time is the performance. OnePlus chose the best chipset in the market for each of its phone and things aren't going to change anytime soon. Qualcomm is expected to launch Snapdragon 865 processor in December and OnePlus 8 Pro would be one of the first phones to use the chipset commercially.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ had already made performance a breeze on OnePlus 7T series. The Snapdragon 865 is only going to be better than the current flagship processor in every way. Only time will tell how OnePlus plans to leverage Snapdragon 865's full potential in its OnePlus 8 Pro. Stay tuned for updates.
