OnePlus 5: Another Flagship Killer?

OnePlus released the OnePlus 5 amongst much fanfare on June 27^th in India. The phone has been a rage since then and is now the highest revenue-grossing smartphone on Amazon.in.

The main highlight of this phone as touted by OnePlus is its dual camera capabilities. OnePlus has partnered with DxO for upping its camera game in this phone.

The phone has been launched at a base price of ₹32999 which is 3k costlier than the 6-month old OnePlus 3T and almost 6k costlier than the OnePlus 3. Let’s find out if OnePlus justifies its price increase or not.  

Display

The phone uses an optic AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels or about 401 ppi pixel density. The display is great, with superior viewing angles and great outdoor visibility. Opting for a Full HD display instead of a QHD also helps the OnePlus device conserve a lot of battery juice.

Is the OnePlus 5 a flagship killer in the display department? No.

Don’t get me wrong, OnePlus 5 has an amazing display but when directly compared with the Samsung Galaxy S8 or the Google Pixel you immediately feel the difference in resolution. The displays in those 2 phones pop out like no other and the Samsung Galaxy S8 ups the game with an even better infinity display with a stellar screen to body ratio.

Hardware & Performance

OnePlus 5 comes in 2 variants: 64GB storage/6GB Ram and a 128GB Storage/8GB Ram version. Frankly, 8GB is an overkill but at the same time helps in future proofing your device. Both the versions have a Snapdragon 835 chipset clocked in at 2.4 GHz and an Adreno 540 GPU.

The performance of the OnePlus 5 is GODLY! The phone is buttery smooth and can handle any number of apps you throw at it with ease. The software optimizations in the Oxygen OS help the OnePlus 5 to glide through the stuff easily. 10 on 10 to OnePlus here.

Also, just like the Galaxy S8 the OnePlus 5 comes with Bluetooth 5.0.

Is the OnePlus 5 a flagship killer in the hardware & performance department? A big yes!

The OnePlus 5 is not only at par but also beats many flagship devices out there in the specs department. The small but nifty customizations made to Android Nougat in the Oxygen OS help the user in getting the best out of their smartphones without having the bloatware that many OEMs add(*Cough Samsung cough*)

Battery Life

The OnePlus 5 comes with a 3300mAh battery which is about 100mAh less than the previous generation OnePlus 3T.

Even though the battery lasts the whole day easily on moderate use, I don’t agree with OnePlus’ decision to decrease the battery capacity of the phone just to make it a tad slimmer.

DASH charging is still probably one of my favorite features of the phone! It is blazing fast and doesn’t heat up the device even while using the phone.

So is the OnePlus 5 a flagship killer in the battery department? Kind of.

Even though the battery life of the OnePlus 5 isn’t something extraordinary it still has the edge over other flagship devices when it comes to charging speeds.

Camera

Here, things get a bit complicated.

The dual camera OnePlus 5 features a 16mp sensor with a 24mm f/1.7 lens as its primary camera, together with a second 20Mp sensor and 36mm f/2.6 lens to offer additional features.

On the front, it has a 16MP front camera with a f/2.0 lens.

OnePlus hyped its camera ALOTTTTT. Saying that OnePlus advertised its camera is an understatement - whether it’s an announcement, the box, or OnePlus’ own home page, the OnePlus 5’s dual-camera sensor is front and center.

According to the DxOMark review, the OnePlus 5 has scored 87 which is no doubt a high score in terms of smartphone camera performance. The photos from the back camera are great with super accurate white balance and vivid colors. The camera has a fast autofocus and manages to preserve the details of the scene in bright outdoor lighting.

Although in indoor lighting the camera is inconsistent and is unable to conserve the details of the scene.

The bokeh effect in OnePlus 5 just like the one on the iPhone 7 Plus, uses the secondary camera to blur the background and focus on the subject. It works well but still isn’t perfect. Although it can be perfected with future updates.

Video shooting on the OnePlus 5 is another story altogether.

The camera is capable of shooting 4K videos at 30fps, 1080p videos at 60fps and 30fps. Along with that you can also capture slow-motion video at 720p/ 120fps and make some time-lapse videos as well.

Video recording is up to the mark with fast autofocus when kept at 1080p. Things start to go downhill when we switch to 4K recording on the device. OnePlus didn’t include Optical Image Stabilization so the device solely relies on Electronic Image Stabilization which works well while recording in 1080p but just doesn’t seem to work while recording in 4K.

Also, did I tell you? OnePlus shamelessly copied Apple’s camera app in aesthetics but added a slew of important features such as the Pro Mode to tweak almost all the settings of the camera and the ability to shoot RAW footage.

 

Is the OnePlus 5 a flagship killer in the camera department? Not really but definitely is at par.

Closing Words:

OnePlus 5 with a sandstone case on.

As you must have gauged by now the OnePlus 5 isn’t an absolute flagship killer but does give you a great package at a great price.

Is OnePlus able to justify its decision to increase the price? Definitely! It is far lower than other flagship phones in the market and also gives you the hardware features and software performance that you have come to expect from a flagship device.  

Go for it if it fits your budget, you won’t be disappointed!






Image Courtesy- CNET