There is no doubt that the OnePlus 8 series can be considered as one of the best Android phones in 2020. The fact that it comes with a 90 Hz display, top-notch cameras, and premium internals makes it a highly desirable device. It also helps that it comes with a clean skin on top of Android 10, which is another reason why you would want to buy this phone.
Of course, the OnePlus 8 series is not without its flaws. It has some problems like the lack of wireless charging and its inability to work on Verizon or Sprint’s networks. But if you decide to go ahead and buy it anyway, here are some apps you should check out for your smartphone.
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Best Apps For Oneplus 8
In today’s reference, it would go something like ‘No smartphone is an island.’ Though phone makers like OnePlus ship their phones with a set of apps and plenty of built-in features, they are not enough to get the most out of it. Any phone, be it the OnePlus 8 or the OnePlus 8 Pro needs its share of third-party apps, to increase its potential as a flagship and well, to elevate your experience as well.
Top 7 Must have Apps for the One Plus 8 and One Plus 8 Pro
In this post, we have compiled a list of the must-have Android apps for the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro to maximize its potential.
As it’s going to be a long post, let’s go straight ahead, shall we?
- TYPE LIKE A PRO: SWIFTKEY
One of the first highlights of the SwiftKey is its impeccable prediction and autocorrect. I would not be lying if I said that this keyboard could predict what you are thinking. And the additional gestures and swipe typing sweetens the deal. All you need to do is glide gently over the letters, and the nearest possible words will pop up on the prediction tray. No kidding.
Other than that, it bundles a neat set of features and customizations. For instance, you can add a number row at the top or add a series of text shortcuts to make your work easier.
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Secondly, there’s a handy clipboard that remembers your copied text. So yeah, now you do not have to beat yourself up if you copy more than two text snippets at a time before pasting.
One of my favorite features is shifting the keyboard to the left and right, thus making it easy to type with a single hand.
Plus, it supports several languages
Did You Know: Microsoft bought SwiftKey in February 2016.
Download SwiftKey
- BETTER TASK MANAGEMENT: NOTION
Lately, Notion has been grabbing the headlines for all the right reasons. This productivity-focused app is known both for its unique organization features as well as note-taking capabilities.
While the app might not have an intuitive interface like most of the apps in this list, but let me assure you that there’s more to its humble appearance.
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The app operates on the principles of ‘Block’. A block can be any item, such as a to-do item, an image, or a link. The best part is that you can save links to your favorite article or any interesting article for later references. If you click on the Share icon of your browser, Notion will appear in the list of apps. All you need to do is select the Page, enter the details, and the app will take care of the rest.
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The best part is that notion has apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac, and bundles a web version as well.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg. If you can’t wait to get the most of this tool, check out Top 11 Notion Tips and Tricks, Notion vs Google Docs, and Top 11 Notion Templates to Increase Your Productivity.
Download Notion
- ENHANCE THOSE PHOTOS: PICSART
There’s no shortage of photo editing apps in the Google Play Store. Though we have been a fan of Snapseed for the longest time, the lack of new and interesting features and customization tools made us look for greener pastures elsewhere.
The search ended with PicsArt, thanks to its myriad filters, effects, and tools. And the ability to create stickers and replace backgrounds helped make the shift easy.
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The app is easy and straightforward to use. All the options are neatly laid out in front, and you have to pick it according to the requirements of the picture.
However, some of the features of PicsArt are hidden behind a paywall. Upgrading to the paid version also unlocks the ad-free version.
Download PicsArt
If you do not want to get into the hassles of payments and are looking for a simple photo-editing app, Snapseed fits the bill. There are no untoward ads in between, and the simple and straightforward interface makes things much easier. Besides that, it lets you tweak RAW images.
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Sure the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro captures beautiful pictures. But as we at Guiding Tech like to say, tapping on the shutter button is just the beginning. And the journey is complete only when you balance the looks of the photo via post-processing, and the above tools let you do just that.
Download Snapseed
- FOR A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE: GCAM
If you feel that the OnePlus 8 camera leaves a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to HDRs, you should try out the GCam Mod. The OnePlus phones have support for Google’s Camera2 API, which makes it convenient to port the camera app.
GCAM Mod
You need to sideload an APK version of GCam. After that, you will enjoy the amazing features of the Google Camera like Night Sight, HDR+, and Portrait. And, the portrait mode is something to die for. Okay, I may have exaggerated a bit, but you get my drift.
And that’s not the end of the story. GCam also comes with its editing suite. With it, you can dabble with conventional filters as well as color-pop. That is in addition to the image tweaking options.
Get GCam
- MANAGE FILES BETTER: SOLID EXPLORER FILE MANAGER
The stock Files app of the OnePlus is efficient when it comes to viewing your files and photos. And features like FileDash makes it convenient to use in the long run. However, if you are looking for additional functionalities, it’s best to go with file managers like Solid Explorer.
One of the primary highlights of this app is the two-panel interface, which makes it painless to move files from one location to another just by a simple drag and drop function.
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While FileDash also lets you move files to and fro from Google Drive, Solid Explorer goes a step ahead and lets you add cloud storage accounts from Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, among others.
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However, the feature that comes most in use is the ability to create and extract ZIP and 7ZIP formats apart from supporting extraction of TAR and RAR files.
Solid Explorer comes with a 7-day free trial, and upgrading to the paid version will set you back by $1.99.
Download Solid Explorer File Manager
- JAZZ UP THAT CURVED SCREEN: HIDEY HOLE & ZEDGE
With a high refresh rate and Fluid AMOLED display, the display of the OnePlus phones is a sight to behold. Hence, it only makes sense to adorn it with a great wallpaper.
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If you want to save battery on your OnePlus device, it’s best to invest in an app like AmoledPix or Darkops. They have stunning AMOLED wallpapers that do their best to spice up the home screen.
Download AmoledPix
However, if you do not want to be bound by a particular type of wallpapers, you can check out Zedge.
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This one has a slew of wallpapers spread across multiple categories. Right from AMOLED and neon images to sea beaches and superheroes, the list is pretty endless. Do note that the occasional ad in-between may sore your experience. However, you can choose to remove it by upgrading to the paid version.
Download Zedge
Another app that is worthy of a mention is HideyHole. It rose to prominence when the Samsung Galaxy S10 series made their debut. The wallpapers in the app accommodate the hole-punch camera. While the backgrounds for the Galaxy S10e fits the OnePlus 8 perfectly, the cameras in both the phones are in the opposite direction.
Best One Plus 8 and One Plus 8 Pro Camera Settings
Spot the selfie camera (wink wink)
Thankfully, the editing suite of OnePlus is capable enough to do the simple job of flipping the images. Of course, you need to do a couple of additional steps, but some of the app’s photos are worth the extra effort.
Download Hidey Hole
- PROTECT YOUR DATA: NORDVPN
It’s no secret that our activities on the Internet are monitored closely. Whether you are scrolling through Instagram or browsing on some random sites, you will find targeted ads almost everywhere. Hence, it’s best to switch to a VPN network like Nord VPN.
NordVPN is one of the fastest VPN services and has a wide server network. Apart from giving you the mask of anonymity and bypassing country restrictions, this VPN also lets you unlock US Netflix. Yes, you read that right.
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And features like Internet Kill Switch, App Kill Switch, NordLynx add to the experience. The Windows and Mac apps have a couple of extra features such as Onion Over Tor and Dedicated IP.
A yearly plan of NordVPN costs around $6.99 per month and a monthly plan will cost you around $11.95. On signing up, you can use the service on 6 devices simultaneously, whether it’s your smart TV or your Windows 10 laptop.
Guiding Tech readers can grab an exclusive 70% discount on a 3-year NordVPN when you sign up using the link below.
Get NordVPN
GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR ONEPLUS 8
Apart from that, you can get a PDF reader like the Adobe Acrobat Reader, since the OnePlus 8 doesn’t bundle a native PDF reader. If you have taken to listening to podcasts, then you should certainly try out Podcast Addict.
Here’s a video on top must-have apps fro OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro from our Guiding Tech YouTube (English) Channel:
One of the things I like about OnePlus phones and OxygenOS is that they do not include as much bloatware as other makers. And at the same time, built-in features like the screenshot editor or the screen recorder only makes the journey worthwhile.
oneplus 9 apps
where OnePlus phones have historically been quite good. So it came as a surprise when we learned that the company’s newest flagship, the OnePlus 9 Pro, isn’t pushing the envelope of performance that we have come to expect from OnePlus phones. On the contrary, the OnePlus 9 Pro seems to be performing worse in several popular apps than other Snapdragon 888-powered devices.
While running the performance benchmarks on the OnePlus 9 Pro, Andrei Frumusanu from AnandTech observed some rather odd behavior. When putting the device through the standard browser benchmarks such as Speedometer 2.0 and JetStream 2.0, the OnePlus 9 Pro posted surprisingly low scores, on par with budget devices released years ago. The OnePlus 9 Pro seems to be disabling the Cortex-X1 core when running these benchmarks. AnandTech further observed that the phone is also throttling the Cortex-A78 cores, and in subsequent benchmark runs, the workload is being completely isolated to the Cortex-A55 cores, resulting in unbelievably low scores.
In our review of the OnePlus 9 Pro, we didn’t notice this issue as we didn’t run standard benchmark apps or browser-based benchmarks. However, we can confirm the issue is present on our units, and our OnePlus 9 running Google Chrome scores a measly 20.955 in JetStream 2 compared to the ZenFone 8’s 97.346 in the same test.
After a bit of digging, AnandTech discovered a OnePlus Performance Service that tracks when the user opens applications and decides whether or not to make modifications to the CPU scheduler. Many OEMs develop a similar kind of service and OS framework to control device performance, so its existence isn’t interesting in and of itself. What’s odd here is that OnePlus has several popular apps on the blacklist.
AnandTech was unable to find the exact list of applications affected by OnePlus’s performance-limiting mechanism, but they did test a handful of popular apps. Apps like Chrome, Twitter, Zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord, Microsoft’s Office apps, Firefox, Samsung Internet, etc., are affected. Surprisingly, OnePlus’ own first-party apps are affected as well. Luckily, this mechanism isn’t applied to popular games like Genshin Impact, and benchmark apps are also unaffected.
For what’s it worth, even with this performance-limiting mechanism in place, the OnePlus 9 Pro remains a fast and responsive phone. Most users won’t notice this behavior in day-to-day use as OnePlus has employed other mechanisms such as OS framework boosters and touch boosters to neutralize the effects of the performance-limiting mechanism. Andrei notes that he initially didn’t notice the issue until he compared his OnePlus 9 Pro side-by-side with his Galaxy S21 Ultra and Mi 11 Ultra.
GeekBench has delisted both the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro from their Android Benchmark Chart in response to this finding.
We have reached out to OnePlus for a comment on this matter and will update this post if we hear back.
Update 1: Statement from OnePlus
Here’s the official statement from OnePlus shared with us by a spokesperson:
“Our top priority is always delivering a great user experience with our products, based in part on acting quickly on important user feedback. Following the launch of the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro in March, some users told us about some areas where we could improve the devices’ battery life and heat management. As a result of this feedback, our R&D team has been working over the past few months to optimize the devices’ performance when using many of the most popular apps, including Chrome, by matching the app’s processor requirements with the most appropriate power. This has helped to provide a smooth experience while reducing power consumption. While this may impact the devices’ performance in some benchmarking apps, our focus as always is to do what we can to improve the performance of the device for our users.”
Based on this statement, it’s implied that this behavior wasn’t added until a post-launch update. However, a launch day review from PhoneArena suggests this behavior was at least present during the initial round of reviews. The statement at least confirms that the behavior is intended and is aimed at improving battery life, but it’s not clear if OnePlus plans to make any adjustments in response to the latest round of criticism.
Conclusion
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