The OnePlus 8 Pro is the company's newest flagship, and its most expensive one ever (by a long shot). It's a straight-up flagship with no real missing features to speak of, either, even finally boasting proper water resistance and super fast wireless charging. Equipped and priced as the phone is, it's in direct competition with other large, premium devices from big manufacturers — like, for example, Samsung's Galaxy S20+. Here, we discuss which of the two is a better bargain.
Performance
Both the 8 Pro and S20+ are pretty stacked, specs-wise: each has a Snapdragon 865 and up to 12 gigabytes of RAM (the S20+ only comes with 12 gigs — the entry-level 8 Pro has eight gigs). In real-world terms, that means both will do anything you could reasonably expect an Android phone to do: games, productivity multitasking, what have you. They each pack beefy batteries, too, with the Samsung housing a 4,500 mAh cell and the OnePlus 4,510.
Performance and longevity are basically a wash with like-equipped models.
Camera
OnePlus's cameras, historically, have been a point of weakness. The 8 Pro has four of 'em (five, if you count the selfie cam). There's 48-megapixel regular and wide options, plus eight-megapixel telephoto and a baffling "color filter" camera that shouldn't factor into your decision. On the S20+, you'll find 12-megapixel primary and wide shooters and a 64-megapixel telephoto.
Although performance has improved since the last generation, Ryne found OnePlus's image processing a bit heavy-handed on the 8 Pro, with saturation and contrast tuned too high. That's Samsung's signature move when it comes to photography, too, though — and frankly, neither of these phones are going to deliver the best mobile photography. They're both capable, though, and neither has a camera that should dissuade you from buying.
Display
The S20+ and 8 Pro both feature big, beautiful 1440p screens, both just a skosh under 7 inches (6.7 on the Samsung, 6.78 on the OnePlus). They're both capable of high refresh rates, too, with the option to display content in either 60 or 120Hz. But to save battery, Samsung knocks the resolution down to 1080p when 120Hz is active. OnePlus gives you the option to max both, which is bad for battery, but an objectively better experience if you want it. The 8 Pro has the edge here, but probably loses it for the inconsistency of its display panel overall, something Ryne notes in our review.
Features
The S20+ and 8 Pro offer a lot of similar features: both are 5G-compatible, IP68 rated, and have wireless charging. There are some differences, though.
Samsung's new hotness supports millimeter wave 5G (that's the faster but less-widely-available kind); the 8 Pro does not. It also has expandable storage and an always-on display (OnePlus says AoD is coming soon to its phones, but hasn't said when).
But the 8 Pro has faster charging, both wired and wireless — up to 30 watts with OnePlus's proprietary chargers. It also has a physical alert slider, a feature that really ought to be standard in all smartphones, and remains a fan favorite feature among long time OnePlus users.
There aren't any big boxes left unticked by either phone, but differing fringe benefits will speak to different users. Need a ton of storage? The microSD slot on the S20+ means it's probably for you. Love that alert slider? Go with the 8 Pro.
Price
The Galaxy S20+ starts at $1,200 for the model with 128 gigs of storage. The most comparable trim on the OnePlus 8 Pro — the one with 12 gigs of RAM — is $999 and has 256 gigabytes of storage space. If you can live with eight gigs of RAM, the price drops to $899 — even lower in some markets. That's not cheap, but it's a savings of at least $200 versus Samsung while still offering most of the features the S20+ does, and even some it doesn't.
You can take advantage of Samsung's buyback program on the S20 family, though, which guarantees Samsung will pay you $600 for your S20+ when you send it back to them after 24 months. It's hard to do an apples to apples comparison here, though: OnePlus phones are notoriously good at maintaining their resale value, so it's likely the 8 Pro will still end up being considerably less expensive even on the back end. In the most generous of interpretations to Samsung, value leans slightly toward OnePlus, but on the basis of simple MSRPs, OnePlus clearly wins out.