Has the OnePlus 8 Pro found a sweet spot between flagship killer and flagship in India?

The OnePlus 8 series recently received an official price tag in Indian markets. While the OnePlus 8 debuted at the standard flagship killer smartphone rate in the country, the OnePlus 8 Pro’s price got us thinking; “Has OnePlus created yet another market for flagship smartphones in India?” But let us look at the history of OnePlus devices to see if our theory holds any weight.

When the first OnePlus smartphone arrived in India, it was able to deliver a flagship experience at a reasonable price by offering a few compromises in some areas. The company employed its flagship killer strategy until we got to the OnePlus 7 series last year, which introduced two phones under the OnePlus 7 brand.

However, the OnePlus 7 bore a lot of semblance to the OnePlus 6T, while the OnePlus 7 Pro brought in tons of improvements in key areas with a completely new design. The OnePlus 7 Pro was advertised as the company’s first true-flagship smartphone, and it was cleverly priced closer to other premium Android phones like the Galaxy S10 and Huawei P30.

And while that made the OnePlus 7 Pro an exciting prospect, it still had a few compromises that cheated users of the flagship experience. Enter the OnePlus 8 Pro, the company’s latest flagship smartphone. Despite being criticised for its hefty price tag around the world, OnePlus has introduced the 8 Pro at a very reasonable starting price in India at Rs 54,999, and here is why.

First, let us look at the improvements. The OnePlus 8 Pro has a much bigger camera sensor as the OnePlus 7 Pro. The 48 MP Sony IMX689 primary and 48 MP Sony IMX586 ultrawide sensors are the same camera sensors used on the Oppo Find X2 Pro smartphone which is priced at €1,199 (Approx. Rs 100,000) . Even though the Find X2 Pro has not launched in India yet, that is still around 25K more than the OnePlus 8 Pro in Europe.

Moreover, the Find X2 Pro also has one of the best camera performances of any smartphone, something that can be attributed by DxOMark. Additionally, the premium smartphones of 2020, the Galaxy S20 series, Huawei P40 Pro and Oppo Find X2 Pro are defaulting to bigger camera sensors. So we can’t imagine that OnePlus’ choice on going with a 48-megapixel Sony IMX689 sensor is anything short of well thought out.

On top of that, the 48-megapixel ultrawide camera is going to ensure that the OnePlus 8 Pro can dish out camera consistency on par with the best Android flagships. To top that off, there are several improvements in video and audio capture as well. These cannot just be seen as expected updates; these are huge improvements over the previous generation.

Then there is the display, which on paper looks like the best display on a smartphone. Unlike OnePlus, Samsung still does not let you use the 120Hz refresh rate at QHD+ resolution. You also get the new and improved flagship 5G chipset from Qualcomm, a bigger battery than any previous OnePlus phone, and a design worthy of a 2020 smartphone. But while those updates are pretty standard, OnePlus has introduced features like an IP68 rating and fast wireless charging support, which are completely new on a OnePlus smartphone.

All of this tells us that the OnePlus 8 Pro is the company’s first flagship smartphone without any compromises. However, unlike the Galaxy S20 and S20+, the OnePlus 8 Pro managed to arrive in India at the same price as its predecessor. Although other premium Android phones like the Oppo Find X2 Pro and Huawei P40 Pro haven’t been unveiled in India, we can say with some confidence that they won’t come cheap and will probably be as expensive as Samsung’s Galaxy S20 and S20+, that’s nearly 16K or 23K more than the OnePlus 8 Pro, depending on the S20 model.

To answer our main question; OnePlus might have just created a new sweet spot between flagship killer and flagship. At Rs 54,999, the OnePlus 8 Pro is not as expensive as the 70K-plus premium smartphones with all of the same hardware. So, yes, OnePlus might have created a premium flagship killer smartphone segment that other brands might look at as a sweet spot between price and hardware.

However, our observation is based on the premise that the OnePlus 8 Pro will be able to fully utilise its impressive camera hardware. We’ll still need to put the camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro through its paces in real-world scenarios to see if it can keep up with the best from Samsung, Huawei, Apple, and Google. The latest challenger who will look to exploit this ‘price’ sweet spot in India will be the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro.

Also Read: OnePlus 8 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus: Has OnePlus finally caught up to Samsung?