Don’t you like the company who sticks to its word till the end. In 2013, OnePlus offered a device with high end performance like any flagship phone but with very affordable price under its hood. With also giving a promise of “NEVER SETTLE”, OnePlus become the most loving brand the world, earning the title “Flagship Killer”. With the success of OnePlus 3T, the Chinese startup unveiled its latest handset – OnePlus 5. Unlike its predecessor OnePlus 5 ships with a new slick design and uniquely designed hardware features. In short while holding the OnePlus 5, you can feel the power packed inside the sleek and sturdy build but this time OnePlus lost the underdog charm every predecessor enjoyed.
Design
While looking at OnePlus 5, getting confused it with an iPhone 7 Plus is obvious.
That is disappointing for the buyers as OnePlus ditched its stylish T-shaped antenna bands and square camera and its place OnePlus 5 shared a very similar design with iPhone 7 plus. We would have grateful to see OnePlus designers showcase their creativity and try something different and original.
Still the rounded corners and the subtle curve at the back makes us feels great while holding the anodized aluminum device in hands. OnePlus 5 equipped with a very unique feature – It’s Alert Slider, a physical switch on the side of the phone that enables the users to toggle between Silent, Priority and all Notifications without even touching the screen. But still there is one minor spot i.e. the Volume rocker which is not that enjoyable to use.
Display
OnePlus 5 featured an awesome 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display with a pin-sharp 401 pixel-per-inch, that makes everything you throw to be show in a luscious detail. But that’s not all, it also has a number of calibration options, including sRGB and DCI-P3. Also, an in-built Reading Mode that renders the display in greyscale and also highlights the text to create a Kindle-like environment on reading apps and web browsers.
That’s a very amazing app for those who likes to read on the go. With this add-on, we can say OnePlus 5 is one of its kind, it can’t replace your Kindle but the reading experience is truly amazing. This mode can also be toggled on/off from the settings menu manually or you can program it to activate on selected apps automatically.
But That’s not all OnePlus 5 also incorporates the f.lux like functionality which monitors the location and adjust the brightness and color temperature accordingly.
Performance
We have talk about the looks. But OnePlus 5 isn’t about just looks, It’s about the power.
OnePlus 5 is Powered by the latest SnapDragon 835, which is backed by 8GB RAM. This Maybe be sound fancy as it’s double of the latest of the Samsung flagship but OnePlus always about the performance. Yes, it is the most fastest phone yet.
What is the use of a high-performance device without a good storage?
Don’t worry guys OnePlus 5 is available with either 64GB or 128GB in-built storage, this is amazing, isn’t it? Also, OnePlus has already switched to UFS 2.1 from the traditional eMMC, which improves the load times drastically as UFS is able to perform read and write tasks simultaneously. The best part is OnePlus 5 runs on the OxygenOS – based on latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat with some of the tweaks of its own which also includes the Reading Mode.
OxygenOS grants the ability to installs custom icon sets and re-order shortcuts within the Quick Settings dropdown menu. Also, you can resize the Home screen icons upon your preferences.
Talking about preferences, yes OnePlus knows about your concern for Privacy, that’s why OnePlus introduce a folder specially designed to store documents, pictures and videos privately similar to Samsung Private Mode. This folder included in File Manager app, can be securely locked down with a fingerprint or six-digit PIN code.
With OnePlus 5, On-screen gestures makes a comeback. Now etching out a large S, W or M on the display to launch a specific application or system functionality never seemed that particularity intuitive. Also, a most useful addition in OxygenOS is App Priority, which loads your all-time favorite apps in the background and also makes sure that they are up-to-date and available on-demand.
Well, that’s just OxygenOS better than ever.
Battery
What’s good of a smartphone if the battery is not that good to back it up.
No need to worry, even the capacity has reduced compared to its predecessor. The battery life is better than before. With 3300 mAH battery, even with all day and night long operation, OnePlus 5 can perform more than expectations without breaking a sweat.
And even battery does run out of juice, the Dash charger backs it up and provided the days of power in just half an hour.
Camera
The first thing anybody noticed about OnePlus 5 is the new dual camera set-up. This is become very popular around all leading smartphone brands, likewise of Samsung, Apple, Huawei and LG doubling up the rear shooters. Now OnePlus also joined the club, incorporating a 16 megapixel Sony IMX 398 with a 20-megapixel custom telephoto lens. Enables OnePlus 5 to perform two-times lossless zoom, which dramatically improves the picture quality.
Now you can take snaps anywhere without worrying about the picture quality, OnePlus 5 ability to zoom without reducing the picture quality to a grainy mosaic of pixels is very awesome feature, you will fall in love to. Well every masterpiece sometimes has left with a fault or two, the shortcut to shift between 1x and 2x zoom, as well as the on-screen dial for granular adjustment are shamelessly taken from the iPhone 7 Plus camera app. Also, OnePlus featured its own version of Portrait mode similar to that of the iPhone 7 Plus.
Dubbed Depth Effect feature will intelligently blur the background behind a subject in bokeh-style effect, resulted into when a photograph, taken from a DSLR camera.
Cool Isn’t it.
But this is not the same every time, even though Apple also struggling to patch things up.
OnePlus 5 previews the Depth Effect in real-time within the camera, similar to iPhone 7 Plus, so you can indicate how the photograph going to turn out even before you hit the shutter button.
With the excellent accuracy in delineate the subject from the background, photographs result into a jaw-dropping effect.
Not only photographs But OnePlus 5 is able to capture video in 4K Ultra HD resolution, so you don’t need to worry about your family home movies.
On the front, OnePlus 5 feature a 16MP camera for high-resolution selfies and video chats, an excellent feature for all the selfie lovers isn’t it. Also, a new PRO Mode is added to the stock camera app exposes granular controls for the ISO, shutter speed, white balance and exposure. Also offering staggering amount of control that should like by photography lovers.
OnePlus also includes a useful reference line in the center of the display, to line-up shots with accurate precision.
That’s not all, OnePlus 5 also supports RAW image export, makes post-shot edits easy.
Price
Over the last three years, OnePlus has earned the title of “Flagship Killer”, thanks to its unrivalled combination of premium hardware, specs and a price that rivals to that of the latest smartphones from Samsung and Apple at an unbelievably price tag.
This time OnePlus 5 seems to distanced itself from the price tags one shared its predecessor enjoyed. Joining the Mid-Range League.
OnePlus 5 ships with two variants where the entry level model (Slate Grey) with 64GB storage and 6GB RAM is available at $ 649 ( ₹32,999) and top-end model (Midnight Black) with 128GB storage and 8GB RAM is available at $ 719 ( ₹ 37,999).
Final Verdict
Without hesitation, OnePlus 5 is an amazing smartphone.
This phone gets all, the power, a brilliant dual-camera, amazing battery life and a lightning fast charging system.
The near to stock UI experience covers the downfalls of the HUWAEI’s EMUI and Samsung’s Touch Wiz. But yet it’s very disappointing that the looks and some features are identically similar to iPhone 7 Plus.
Even the smartphone is out of our expectations level, yet it’s way too expensive than any of its processor.
OnePlus was once used to know as “Flagship Killer” but OnePlus 5 closely shares a price tag with those, it tries to overhaul.
That represents a very different proposition from the OnePlus Predecessors.