After months of teasers and leaks, smartphone maker OnePlus is launching the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro. Both are powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 chipset, but it’s the larger OnePlus 8 Pro that comes with the big display and impressive camera improvements.

Like on pretty much any flagship phone these days, the main camera gets support from dedicated tele and a super-wide-angle. The main module features a 1/1.4″ 48MP Sony IMX689 Quad-Bayer sensor that uses pixel-binning to produce 12MP image output with lower noise and a wider dynamic range than conventional sensors. OnePlus is following the trend for larger image sensors in smartphone cameras, but some competitors, for example, Huawei’s P40 Pro or the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro comes with even larger chips (1/1.28″ and 1/1.33″ respectively).

The lens is optically stabilized and comes with an f/1.78 aperture and 26mm-equivalent field-of-view.

The super-wide-angle 16mm-equivalent uses a smaller 1/2.0″ sensor but is also of the 48MP Quad-Bayer variant which, in combination with the f/2.2 of aperture, should be able to perform pretty well, even in dim light.

The dedicated tele camera features a stabilized 74mm-equivalent lens which equates to a 3x magnification, with the only 8MP of resolution.
Aside from this the other big upgrade is the new color array filter which promises the support of lighting effects and filters for photography. OnePlus is also claiming it has improved night time photos, and the company even compared a photo from an iPhone 11 Pro to the new OnePlus 8 Pro during its online event today.

The front camera uses a 1/3-inch Sony IMX471 with 16MP resolution and a fixed-focus lens. Video recording maxes out at 1080p/30fps. Some competitors already offer 4K recording and autofocus at the front. But what’s new versus the OnePlus 7 generation is the location of the selfie camera, where on the new model it is hidden under a cutout in the display. The advantage of the new design is that the 8 Pro is now IP68-rated for environmental protection – something that would have been very difficult to achieve with the pop-up mechanism of the previous model.

OnePlus is planning to launch both the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro in the US on April 29th, and April 21st in Europe. The regular OnePlus 8 will be priced at $699 for an 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage model and $799 for a 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage option.

The OnePlus 8 Pro will come at two prices: $899 for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage or $999 for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

More info on OnePlus’ website.