OnePlus is at it again with their newest and the most accomplished smartphone, also their most expensive smartphone till date. What does OnePlus offer with this year’s Flagship Killer aka OnePlus 5?
OnePlus is a young company which has been shaking the smartphone market by delivering impressive smartphones with ridiculous specs at competitive prices. OnePlus 5 is the most expensive device OnePlus has made but it still is a steal as it packs lot more power than any smartphone at this price bracket. Having said that OnePlus has been gradually increasing the price of their products with each installment and is growing close to being a major smartphone manufacturer from being an enthusiast brand. *Do we need to worry?*
OnePlus 5 like its predecessors has been made with its consumers in mind, previous generations of OnePlus struggled with the camera performance so this year the company focused on the camera and improved it along with bumping the specs to ridiculous numbers(Classic OnePlus). The OnePlus 5 has the 5 pillars of a smartphone mastered with a good design that looks awfully similar to a particular smartphone *Ahem! iPhone*, Good Screen, Best in class performance, good battery life and a good camera setup.
OnePlus 5 Design
While the phone resembles some other phones like the OPPO R11 and iPhone 7 plus the design is top notch with a good in hand feel. The design element of the phone is similar to previous generation OnePlus devices with an all metal uni-body design, power button on the right, volume rockers and alert slider on the left and USB-C, Speaker grills and headphone jack at the bottom of the device. The front of the device houses the display and the fingerprint sensor along with capacitive buttons. The back of the device has the dual camera setup and flash at the top left side along with the branding on the back of the phone. The phone is sleek and easy to hold but is slippery because of the metal body and curved edges.
OnePlus 5 Battery
While the battery is a step down from the previous generation OnePlus 3T, with a 3300 mAh battery. However, the device lasts a full day of work as it powers a 1080p screen and has been optimized to get better battery life and even if your OnePlus 5 is running low on juice you could always charge it up real quick with DASH Charge which is still the fastest charginig technique. *But you’ll have to use the power brick and cable that comes with the device to DASH charge*
OnePlus 5 Display
While the display technology stays the same in OnePlus 5 as previous generation OnePlus phones the display is still crisp and good to look at. The screen however, will not better than other smartphone displays which have higher resolution, edge to edge displays and even bezel less screens. The decision to keep the display at 1080p comes from the fact that the phone has a smaller battery and needs to be efficient in power consumption, the bigger the display, the bigger the batteries need to be to power them and the bigger the chassis need to be to house all these components. While the display of the OnePlus 5 seems bad on paper it is very impressive and most users won’t find any difference in day to day use. Also the screen is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to add a layer of protection to the display.
OnePlus 5 Performance
Performance is the strong suite of OnePlus and it has been one of the fastest and best performing chipsets and systems. The entire UI is smoother and games and graphics intensive tasks are computed very easily in OnePlus devices. The OnePlus 5 trumps all of this by takings things to the next level with the latest silicons from Qualcomm for the CPUs and the GPUs and 6 or 8 Giggs of RAM *Mind blown or Overkill?*. The OnePlus 5 handles almost all tasks like a champ and every aspect of using the phone feels buttery smooth with no lags whatsoever. The OnePlus 5 is the best performing Android phone in the market today.
OnePlus 5 Camera
The new and improved camera setup is clearly the focus of this device and OnePlus is marketing it as the best smartphone camera on the market at this price with ‘shot on OnePlus’ posts flagging their social media handles. The camera is impressive with some new tricks up its sleeve but some of the new features are still a bit gimmicky like the portrait mode and no EIS for 4k video recording. The camera is still a huge step up from the previous generation OnePlus phones and will get better over time as updates will start to flow for the device.*That is if it will*
OnePlus 5 Specification
- Snapdragon 835
- Adreno 540
- 6/8 GB LPDDR4 RAM
- 64/128 GB Storage
- Dual Camera System with a primary 16 MP and 20 MP telephoto lens Camera Setup
- Front Facing 16 MP Camera
- Bluetooth 5.0
- 3300 mAh Battery
- 5.5 inch 1080p Optic AMOLED Display (401 ppi) protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5
OnePlus 5 Pricing and Availability
The phone comes in two colors, Midnight Black and Slate Gray with an option to buy the 6GB RAM and 64 GB Storage variant and the 8 GB RAM and 128 GB Storage variant as the higher end model. The OnePlus 5 starts at 479 USD.
Gadget Herald’s Verdict on the OnePlus 5
OnePlus stands at a disadvantage because it’s still a young company with very little resources to tackle big companies such as Apple and Samsung which are the leading the Smartphone market. But OnePlus has come a long way since the Oneplus One, they have been steadily growing and getting better at what they do. Since they are a small company they listen to their users and give them exactly what they want. They might be a small company and they may only be releasing one phone every year but they are slowly getting better at what they do and acquiring market share as they grow.
The OnePlus 5 is a stellar device which ticks everything that a good smartphone should do, it has good performance, a near stock User Interface, stunning design, good battery life with the fastest charging technique and an amazing camera setup that rivals the top smartphone flagships. OnePlus has outdone itself with the Oneplus 5 it is the best android smartphone at this price.
Can’t wait for the OnePlus 5T!
