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Apple iPhone 12 Pro vs OnePlus 8 Pro: Which is best for you?

We pit the all-new iPhone 12 Pro vs the OnePlus 8 Pro in a high-stakes battle between two big flagship smartphone devices.
By
May 8, 2021
Apple iPhone 12 Pro display in hand 2
David Imel / Android Authority

The iPhone 12 Pro has powerful hardware, some nice design features, but a pretty high price tag. The older OnePlus 8 Pro still has solid hardware and you can get it now for the price of just $899. So, which one should you get: The iPhone 12 Pro or the OnePlus 8 Pro?

Read more: iPhone 12 series comparison

Since both phones have “Pro” in their name, it seems a no-brainer to compare these two handsets. Here’s a look at the iPhone 12 Pro vs the OnePlus 8 Pro.

Phone 12 Pro vs OnePlus 8 Pro: Specs

iPhone 12 ProOnePlus 8 Pro
Display
iPhone 12 Pro
6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED
2,532 x 1,170 resolution
HDR, True Tone
Wide color (P3)
2,000,000:1 contrast ratio
800 nits max brightness (typical); 1200 nits max brightness (HDR)
Ceramic Shield front
OnePlus 8 Pro
6.78-inch AMOLED
3,168 x 1,440 (19.8:9)
120Hz refresh rate
In-display fingerprint sensor
3D Corning Gorilla Glass
Processor
iPhone 12 Pro
Apple A14 Bionic
OnePlus 8 Pro
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
Memory
iPhone 12 Pro
N/A
OnePlus 8 Pro
8GB / 12GB LPDDR5
Storage
iPhone 12 Pro
128 / 256 / 512GB
OnePlus 8 Pro
128GB / 256GB UFS 3.0
Battery
iPhone 12 Pro
N/A
Qi wireless charging up to 7.5W
Up to 50% charge in around 30 minutes with 20W adapter or higher (sold separately)

MagSafe:
Wireless charging up to 15W
Magnet array
Alignment magnet
Accessory Identification NFC
Magnetometer
OnePlus 8 Pro
4,510mAh
Warp Charge 30T (5V/6A)
Warp Charge 30 Wireless
Cameras
iPhone 12 Pro
Rear:
-Wide-angle 12MP, ƒ/1.6, dual OIS, 7-element lens, 100% Focus Pixels, Night Mode
-Ultra-wide 12MP, ƒ/2.4, 120° field of view, 5-element lens, lens correction, Night Mode
-Telephoto 12MP, ƒ/2.0, dual OIS, 6-element lens

2x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out, 4x optical zoom range, digital zoom up to 10x, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 3, Apple ProRAW

Video:
HDR video with Dolby Vision up to 60fps
4K video at 24fps, 30fps, or 60fps
1080p HD video at 30fps or 60fps
720p HD video at 30fps
OIS for video (Wide)
2x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 4x optical zoom range, digital zoom up to 6x

Front:
-TrueDepth 12MP, ƒ/2.2

Night Mode, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 3
OnePlus 8 Pro
Rear:
48MP, f/1.78, 1.12µm, OIS, EIS
8MP 3x telephoto, f/2.44, 1.0µm, OIS
48MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 119.7°
5MP color filter, f/2.4

Front:
16MP, f/2.45, 1.0µm, EIS, fixed focus
Software
iPhone 12 Pro
iOS 14
OnePlus 8 Pro
Oxygen OS
Android 10
Durability
iPhone 12 Pro
IP68
OnePlus 8 Pro
IP68
Dimensions and weight
iPhone 12 Pro
146.7 x 71.5 x 7.4mm
189g
OnePlus 8 Pro
165.3 x 74.35 x 8.5mm
199g
Colors
iPhone 12 Pro
Silver, Graphite, Gold, Pacific Blue
OnePlus 8 Pro
Onyx Black, Ultramarine Blue, Glacial Green

Design

OnePlus 8 Pro in hand 2
The OnePlus 8 Pro has a large 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 3,168 x 1,440 resolution. It also packs a fast 120Hz refresh rate for smoother gaming and better web scrolling, among other features. It’s protected with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3D. The near bezel-free display has a punch-hole front-facing camera on the top left corner. It uses glass on the back, with an aluminum frame. The rear cameras are set up in the upper center part of the phone’s back, inside a raised stretched-out oval design.

The iPhone 12 Pro has a smaller 6.1-inch OLED display, with a resolution of 2,532 x 1,170. There’s no fast refresh support for this phone, but it is made of a new material called Ceramic Shield, which uses nano-ceramic crystals for better protection against falls. Unfortunately, you still have to deal with a big notch on the top of the display. It houses the front-facing camera and its facial recognition sensors. The iPhone 12 Pro’s rear cameras are placed on the top left corner of the phone’s back, in a raised square design. The device uses a stainless-steel chassis.

Both of these phones lack a headphone jack. Both also are IP68 rated for water and dust resistance, which means they should keep working even if you accidentally drop them in the pool.


Hardware

iPhone 12 Pro full back in hand against water
David Imel / Android Authority

The iPhone 12 Pro uses Apple’s latest in-house processor, the A14 Bionic. It includes a six-core CPU and a four-core GPU. It also has a neural engine chip with 16 cores for better machine learning performance. The OnePlus 8 Pro uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor. Both are fast chips for their respective platforms (iOS and Android) but the A14 Bionic is the winner according to our benchmarking tests.

Both phones support 5G networks. The unlocked OnePlus 8 Pro supports low-band and mid-band 5G hardware, but there’s no mmWave support. The iPhone 12 Pro supports 6Ghz networks, but the ones sold in the US also support mmWave networks found on Verizon Wireless.

The iPhone 12 Pro has 6GB of RAM, and its onboard storage includes 128, 256, and 512GB models. You can buy the OnePlus 8 Pro with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and there are 128GB and 256GB storage options. It should be noted that the 8GB/128GB option is not available in the US. Neither phone offers expandable storage via a microSD card slot.

The iPhone 12 Pro has a 2,815mAh battery. If you use an optional 20W wired charger, the phone will go up to 50% of its full capacity in 30 minutes. The phone also sports a feature called MagSafe. Accessories that support MagSafe use magnets that attach to the rear of the iPhone 12 models. That includes wireless chargers, and when connected to the iPhone 12 Pro they will charge the handset at 15W speeds. It also still supports Qi-based wireless chargers, but with 7.5W speeds.

The OnePlus 8 Pro has a 4,510mAh battery and includes a Warp Charge 30T wired charger for 30W speeds. It also supports 30W wireless charging as well.


Cameras

OnePlus 8 Pro camera array
David Imel / Android Authority

The OnePlus 8 Pro goes all out on the camera front, at least in terms of hardware. It includes a 48MP main sensor, an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and a 48MP ultra-wide sensor. It also has a 5MP color filter that is supposed to process light differently to give images different looks. There’s also a 16MP front-facing camera. In our review of the phone, we thought the cameras took solid images, but the hardware color filter sensor was more of a gimmick.

The iPhone 12 Pro has three camera sensors, each of which is 12MP in size. The rear camera setup has the main sensor, a telephoto camera, and an ultrawide camera. It also has a LiDAR scanner in the back, which is used to record pixel depth information. This is supposed to reduce capture time for images and video clips, along with improving AR experiences. There’s also a 12MP front-facing camera.

Additionally, the iPhone 12 Pro supports recording video with HDR and Dolby Vision HDR support at up to 60fps. In our review, we felt that the image quality was solid from the phone, along with good stable video recording.


Software

iPhone 12 Pro display standing up agaist sunset
David Imel / Android Authority

The iPhone 12 Pro ships with the new iOS 14 out of the box. It includes new features like supporting widgets on the phone’s home screen, along with the App Library that helps to better organize a user’s phone apps. It also adds picture-in-picture support for watching videos or conducting FaceTime calls, while continuing to use another app on the phone. Apple has a solid track record on providing both security and major OS updates for its previous iPhones, and we expect the iPhone 12 Pro won’t be an exception.

The OnePlus 8 Pro ships with Android 10, and its in-house OxygenOS 10 skin, out of the box. However, recently the company started rolling out the big OxygenOS 11 update for the phone, based on Android 11. It includes a major UI revamp, along with an always-on ambient display, improvements to Dark Mode, Zen Mode, and more. OnePlus has promised to offer at least two more OS updates for the OnePlus 8 Pro.

Read more: OxygenOS 11: Everything you need to know


Price

  • OnePlus 8 Pro:
    • $799/£799/€899/Rs. 59,999 (12GB/256GB)
    • Rs. 54,999 (8GB/128GB)
  • iPhone 12 Pro
    • 128GB – $999/£999/€1,159
    • 256GB -$1,009/£1,099/€1,279
    • 512GB – $1,299/£1,299/€1,509

The OnePlus 8 Pro is currently being sold for $799 in the US, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. That’s $100 off its launch price several months ago. The iPhone 12 Pro begins at $999 for its 128GB version, going all the way to $1,299 for the 512GB model.

oneplus 8 pro ultramarine blue
OnePlus 8 Pro
Killer flagship
OnePlus is all grown up. With the OnePlus 8 Pro, you get an unabashed flagship, with all the bells and whistles. Powerful specs, an amazing display, fast wireless charging, and water resistance make the OnePlus 8 Pro a great alternative to the Galaxy S20 Plus, and it's up to $300 cheaper.
iPhone 12 Pro holding bakc of phone against sunset
Apple iPhone 12 series
Four to choose from
There are a total of four new iPhones in Apple's iPhone 12 lineup: the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Brighter displays, faster processors, and more durable build quality are what you can expect with all four of these new phones.

Phone 12 Pro vs OnePlus 8 Pro: Which one should you buy?

In the battle of the iPhone 12 Pro vs OnePlus 8 Pro, it seems on the surface that the OnePlus phone has something of an edge. It’s cheaper, has more storage, has faster charging on both the wireless and wired front, and it has a much larger screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. The iPhone 12 Pro does have its powerful A14 Bionic chip. The fact that it records HDR and Dolby Vision HDR-based videos is a plus. Finally, iOS updates will likely continue for years.

If we had to choose right now, the OnePlus 8 Pro seems to be the winner. It simply beats the iPhone 12 Pro in too many categories, including price


That is our look at the Apple iPhone 12 Pro vs OnePlus 8 Pro.

Which phone would you choose?

1153 votes