OnePlus 8 Pro vs. iPhone 11 Pro Max

OnePlus this week launched its newest flagship smartphones, the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, offering high-end specs and features at a cheaper price than many of its competitors.

We got our hands on one of the OnePlus 8 Pro devices and thought we'd see how it measures up to the iPhone 11 Pro Max in our latest YouTube video.


There are a few models at different price points, but for our video, we're comparing the $899 OnePlus 8 Pro with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, plus a pretty nice looking exclusive "glacial green" color, to the mostly comparable $1249 ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ with 4GB RAM and 256GB storage, which is a $350 premium.

oneplus 8 pro iphone front
Both smartphones are attractive, well-designed, and have a premium look. The OnePlus 8 Pro features a frosted back much like the iPhone 11 Pro, and it looks attractive in the glacial green shade. OnePlus gets an edge over Apple when it comes to fun colors, as Apple is rather conservative with its Pro lineup.

oneplus 8 pro iphone rear 2
The 11 Pro and the OnePlus 8 both have large camera bumps at the back. Apple's is in a square shape housing triple-lens cameras, while OnePlus opted for a vertical camera bump that's right in the middle of the smartphone. It too has a triple-lens camera.

On the side, the OnePlus 8 Pro has an alert slider that can be toggled between silent, vibrate, and ringer on, one more option than the ‌iPhone‌ provides with its vibrate and ringer on options.

oneplus 8 pro iphone rear stack
The OnePlus 8 Pro features a 6.7-inch display, which is just a bit bigger than the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌'s 6.5-inch display. It's an OLED display with a 120Hz refresh date and a 3168 x 1440 resolution. Apple hasn't yet brought 120Hz refresh rates to the ‌iPhone‌, but there have been rumors of a 120Hz ‌iPhone‌ display ever since Apple added the feature to the iPad Pro.

Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, the S20 Ultra, also has a 120Hz display but limited it to only 1080p. The new OnePlus 8 Pro supports 120Hz at the full resolution of the display, though at the cost of some battery life.

The OnePlus 8 Pro doesn't have anything like the TrueDepth Camera System or Face ID, so there's just a single hole punch camera cutout at the front on the right side, and it's otherwise all display.

oneplus 8 pro iphone front cameras
With no ‌Face ID‌, the OnePlus 8 Pro uses an optical fingerprint sensor, which is built into the display and seems to work fine. There have been some rumors that Apple is working on optical fingerprint sensor technology, but if it's a feature in development, it isn't something we're expecting in the 2020 ‌iPhone‌ lineup.

New to the OnePlus 8 Pro this year is wireless charging, a feature that iPhones have had for years now. It supports 30W fast wireless charging with a $70 charger, which means it can be charged from 0 to 50 percent in about 30 minutes (any other Qi charger is 5W, though). A 30W power adapter is included for fast wired charging though. The ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ is limited to 7.5W wireless charging while wired fast charging requires a Lightning to USB-C cable and 18W+ power adapter.

Battery life between the two phones isn't too different. The ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ has a 3,969 mAh battery, and the OnePlus 8 Pro has a 4,500 mAh battery.

When it comes to camera quality, the OnePlus 8 Pro usually falls behind other smartphone manufacturers, and Apple is usually at the top of the pack, but OnePlus appears to have improved somewhat. This year, the OnePlus 8 Pro features a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 48-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera, an 8-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 5-megapixel depth camera.

oneplus 8 pro iphone trees
We can only test around the house at the current time so we didn't do a deep dive into the camera, but the OnePlus 8 Pro is more on par with the ‌iPhone‌. Most of the time, the ‌iPhone‌ images still look more natural, but OnePlus does a better job at ultra wide-angle image quality, and some portrait mode photos look better.

oneplus 8 pro iphone portrait mode
The OnePlus 8 Pro still lags behind when it comes to low-light photography (such as indoor lighting), but the longer exposure night mode images are on par with Night Mode images from the ‌iPhone‌. There's also a macro photo mode, which works well and captures images with quite a lot of detail.

oneplus 8 pro iphone night mode
High-end smartphones are all so fast now that it's not useful to compare performance, and both the OnePlus 8 Pro and the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ perform at a level expected of a premium smartphone.

Even though the OnePlus 8 Pro is able to offer a comparable feature set to the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌, operating system is such a huge factor when purchasing a smartphone. A person deep in the iOS ecosystem (like many of us here at MacRumors) isn't going to swap over to Android, and the same goes for Android users who are used to that operating system.

The OnePlus 8 Pro and the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ are both great smartphones, and if you are in the Android ecosystem, OnePlus' new device is worth checking out. If you're someone without a strong operating system preference, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a solid ‌iPhone‌ competitor that has a lot to offer at a lower price.

Tag: OnePlus

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 21, 2025 2:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are around three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices from credible sources. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X...
iPhone 16 Battery Life Feature

iOS 26's New Battery Life Mode Available Only on These iPhone Models

Saturday June 21, 2025 9:02 am PDT by
Last week, we reported that iOS 26 introduces an opt-in Adaptive Power Mode on the iPhone, alongside the existing Low Power Mode. Apple says that Adaptive Power Mode can make "small performance adjustments" when necessary to extend an iPhone's battery life, including slightly lowering the display brightness or allowing some activities to "take a little longer." The full description of...
All Screen iPhone 2027 Feature 1

iPhone Reportedly Moving to All-Screen Design in Two Stages

Sunday June 22, 2025 3:58 pm PDT by
Apple has long been working towards an iPhone with an all-screen design, and it might finally achieve the feat in a few more years from now. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple will shrink the size of the Dynamic Island on new iPhone models released next year. A year after that, he expects Apple to release a redesigned 20th-anniversary iPhone model....
iOS 26 Feature

Everything New in iOS 26 Beta 2

Monday June 23, 2025 2:57 pm PDT by
Apple provided developers with the second beta of iOS 26, introducing the first changes and refinements to the new operating system since it debuted after the WWDC keynote. Because we're early in the beta testing process, there are quite a few tweaks to iOS 26, which we've rounded up below. Control Center The background behind the Liquid Glass Control Center buttons has more blur, allowing...
ios 26 control center b2

iOS 26 Beta 2 Fixes Control Center Design

Monday June 23, 2025 10:58 am PDT by
With the second beta of iOS 26 that Apple provided to developers today, Apple addressed one of the major complaints that people have had with Liquid Glass. iOS 26 beta 1 on left, iOS 26 beta 2 on right The Control Center buttons are now slightly more opaque, making it easier to see the different control options even on a multicolored background. The new, more opaque look is apparent with the ...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro's Alleged Vapor Chamber Cooling System Partly Revealed

Sunday June 22, 2025 6:37 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models are rumored to be equipped with a vapor chamber cooling system, and a leaker known as Majin Bu today shared a photo of an alleged copper thermal plate for the system. Many high-end Android smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra are equipped with a vapor chamber cooling system, which can manage heat dissipation inside the...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adding Two New Wi-Fi Features, Allows AirDrop and AirPlay Alternatives

Saturday June 21, 2025 7:02 am PDT by
iOS 26 is gaining two new Wi-Fi features, including Captive Assist and Wi-Fi Aware. MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris discovered a reference to Captive Assist within the code for the first iOS 26 developer beta, but Apple has yet to enable the feature. It should be available by the time the software update is released later this year. In his Power On newsletter last month, Bloomberg's...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 26 Includes These Five Smaller Features You Might Have Missed

Saturday June 21, 2025 11:18 am PDT by
While the dust is beginning to settle on the first iOS 26 beta, we continue to take a closer look at new features coming with the update. Below, we recap five smaller changes that you might have missed. Emoji Game Apple News+ subscribers in the U.S. and Canada can play a new Emoji Game, which tasks players with completing words and phrases with emoji. This is the fifth game that is...
airpods 4 blue

Apple Offering Free AirPods — Here's How to Get Them

Tuesday June 17, 2025 6:33 am PDT by
Apple is running a new promotion that offers free AirPods to qualifying customers. Now through September 30, college and university students in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Singapore can receive free AirPods 4 when they purchase an eligible new Mac or iPad from Apple. AirPods Pro 2 are also available at a discount. If you do not want AirPods, the promotion also offers various other...

Top Rated Comments

Ds6778 Avatar
68 months ago
There is just something so off putting about android phones.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
satchmo Avatar
68 months ago
From a purely aesthetic view, I think the OnePlus looks cheap. Different size bezels and not the same build quality as the iPhone 11. The iPhone just looks more premium.

The iPhone's only negative is the thick bezels. That hopefully will be rectified once the iPhone 12 finally arrives with slimmer bezels and a smaller notch.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mdracer Avatar
68 months ago
I cannot for the life of me see the value in a curved screen that falls off the edges. The color hue changes do not enhance the screen at all. It is an inferior way to try to eliminate the side bezel.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
torontotim Avatar
68 months ago

I've had both iPhones and Android phones. For several years I owned both at the same time. Android as my personal and iPhone for work.

I've owned two OnePlus phones a 6T and a 7 Pro. I've had the 7 Pro for almost a year now.
For those that think the build quality of the OnePlus phones is sub par, you are mistaken.
For those that think Android is junk, again you are mistaken.
Android with the correct skin is on par with iOS and in some ways better due to the opportunity of customization.
Both are Unix/Linux beneath the skin just a gui on top. Android is Linux and iOS is BSD.

I like OnePlus because I can unlock the bootloader and do what I want.
I own the phone. With iOS you never really "own" the phone.
Apple decides when your phone is obsolete. Once they stop offering any update, the phone is done.
I have an iPhone 5 that still functions. Not sure what 'done' means to you. I'm no Apple fanboy, but when a very old iPhone 5 still runs smooth and has pretty much full iOS functionality on it, there's something to be said for that.

Sure you can't load custom ROMs onto an iPhone, but you don't need to. That's sort of the point. And 95% of Android users wouldn't know how to do it anyhow, 1% brick their devices trying, 3% do it once or twice and move on and the remaining 1% push to extend the life of their old Android slabs. I've been there - loading different ROMs onto old devices. I've had many Android phones over the last 5 years including Essential etc. All sorts of fun.

But my iPhone XS Max is just 'there'. It always works, I can mirror the screen and control it on my Matebook X Pro thanks to Dell Mobile Connect now, and I have zero concern about Apple declaring it EOL. Even if I have it when that happens, I know it will continue to function for years and years and operate smooth as silk, just like my 5 still does.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
techwhiz Avatar
68 months ago
I've had both iPhones and Android phones. For several years I owned both at the same time. Android as my personal and iPhone for work.

I've owned two OnePlus phones a 6T and a 7 Pro. I've had the 7 Pro for almost a year now.
For those that think the build quality of the OnePlus phones is sub par, you are mistaken.
For those that think Android is junk, again you are mistaken.
Android with the correct skin is on par with iOS and in some ways better due to the opportunity of customization.
Both are Unix/Linux beneath the skin just a gui on top. Android is Linux and iOS is BSD.

I like OnePlus because I can unlock the bootloader and do what I want.
I own the phone. With iOS you never really "own" the phone.
Apple decides when your phone is obsolete. Once they stop offering any update, the phone is done.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
itsmilo Avatar
68 months ago
I absolutely hate those longer but not wider phones. My work phone from Samsung is the same and ugh
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)