I regret getting rid of my OnePlus 8 Pro

I don’t upgrade my phones as much as I upgrade other things. I don’t really have a compelling reason for this; I just end up holding onto phones for years at a time instead of upgrading each year. My phone before I grabbed a Google Pixel 9a was the OnePlus 8 Pro. I loved that phone, and I kept using it after security updates ended. It never slowed down, it still held its battery, and it could even handle the latest mobile games.

A big reason for this is the Snapdragon 865 chip powering it. Despite this phone’s age, that chip is still a powerhouse, and it’s something that higher-end handheld devices such as the Retroid Pocket 5 and Mangmi Pocket X use. Both of those are emulation powerhouses, but I didn’t know about that world until I upgraded my phone.

It was definitely time for me to upgrade to a new phone, but I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of my old one. I could still use it offline for emulation purposes, but I ended up rehoming it to a family member who needed to replace a broken phone in a pinch. As somebody who’s very interested in emulation now, it’s a bummer to get rid of something that would’ve been great at it.

Farewell to a legendary phone

I’ll miss it very much

I first bought my OnePlus 8 Pro to play Fortnite at 90 FPS, and it also opened the world of Android gaming up to me. I knew about things like Candy Crush and Angry Birds, of course, but I didn’t realize how much was really available on the platform until I got my OnePlus. On top of Fortnite, I dumped countless hours into both Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and Master Duel, and I even completed my first-ever playthrough of Dragon Quest 4 on the device. When the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters came out, I picked up Final Fantasy III for Android, although I never ended up finishing that one.

Yes, my current Pixel 9a can handle any of those with ease, but it would’ve been nice to have a dedicated device around just for gaming. I’m not a big fan of my phone doubling as a gaming device, mainly because I don’t want to run it through that many charging cycles and degrade the battery faster than I would otherwise.

Not having to worry about anything like that would let me sit back and game on my OnePlus all day long, and it’d perform as well as some of these high-end emulators. The main issue would be controls, but I picked up the 8BitDo Ultimate Mobile Gaming Controller that solves this problem, so it would’ve been smooth sailing if I had kept it.

On the bright side, I’d still like to have a dedicated device because the games I emulate on my phone don’t fit properly, as it’s not a proper 16:9 aspect ratio. The Retroid Pocket doesn’t have that problem, so I can take up my screen’s real estate.

Essentially, a lot of this boils down to my not understanding the value that my OnePlus still had. I didn’t understand that a nearly six-year-old phone would be powered by a chip that’s still relevant today. OnePlus was once known for powerhouse phones, and the company has sort of moved away from that space, and that might’ve been what led me to believe it was fine getting rid of this one.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Google Pixel 9a, and it does everything I want it to do. I don’t really use my phone for a whole lot other than texting and scrolling through social media, so it’s not like I needed it to do much.

I move on to new horizons

I’m happy with what I have

Credit: Google

While I miss my OnePlus 8 Pro, it’s not like the Pixel 9a is a slouch. Yes, it’s a budget device while the 8 Pro was a flagship phone, but I realized I just didn’t need that from my phone. I have a Galaxy Tab S6 that I’m still using daily, and I have sort of realized that tech like that doesn’t need to be upgraded all the time. Would I like a faster device? Sure, but I don’t need it right now.

It’s not like I regret buying Pixel, it’s more that I regret getting rid of the OnePlus at the same time. In an ideal world, I’d still have both, and I’d be using that OnePlus to stream games or play retro titles while I use my Pixel for my day-to-day tasks. It’s not a big deal at the end of the day, and I could always buy an Android handheld to soften the blow. I’m not the biggest fan of using phones to emulate, but if I already have one on hand, then why not use it? Unfortunately, the ship has sailed.