ONEPLUS 5
The OnePlus 5 mobile features a 5.5" (13.97 cm) display and runs on Android v7.1.1 (Nougat) operating system. The device is powered by a Octa core (2.45 GHz, Quad core, Kryo 280 + 1.9 GHz, Quad core, Kryo 280) processor paired with 6 GB of RAM. As far as the battery is concerned it has 3300 mAh. Over that, as far as the rear camera is concerned this mobile has a 16 MP camera and the front snapper is powered by a Exmor RS sensor.CRITIC REVIEW
OnePlus 5 Review: Blurs lines between flagships and mid-rangers
Robin Sinha | Gadgets Now | Updated: Jun 23, 2017, 03.58 PM IST
NEW DELHI: OnePlus has been largely hitting home runs in the market with its smartphones that blend both mid-range price tag with high-end features. The company's newest smartphone in the lot -- OnePlus 5 -- seems to further cement these claims.
OnePlus 5 is the company's fifth-generation flagship smartphone that comes as a successor to the OnePlus 3T. The company after slipping out teasers since past few days, finally launched the OnePlus 5 on June 20 in select markets. Earlier today, the smartphone made its India debut, which is also one of the company's top market.
With the OnePlus 5, the upgrades run across the design as well as the specifications department. The company this time too has launched two variants of the smartphone based on RAM capacity -- 6GB RAM and 8GB RAM, priced at Rs 32,999 and Rs 37,999 respectively. We got hold of the 8GB RAM variant and used it rigorously in the past few days. So has OnePlus managed to disrupt the market once again? Here's our review of the all-new OnePlus 5 smartphone.
Design
Thanks to OnePlus' own marketing strategy, the design of the smartphone was already out even before the actual launch. As one could see, while there are several minor tweaks here and there with the OnePlus 5, its one and only glaring change is the inclusion of the dual-rear camera.
The dual-rear camera, no matter how it performs, does shamelessly mimic the iPhone 7 Plus' rear camera design or you may say Oppo R11 Plus' for that matter. The horizontal placement of camera sensors, LED flash and even the microphone placement are exactly the same. The crescent antenna lines run on the top and bottom in a similar fashion. The only way you can spot the difference between the OnePlus 5 and the Matte Black iPhone 7 Plus is from the company's logo. The rest of the back panel stays flat and simple.
Although there's a camera bump at the back, it doesn't let the smartphone wobble much when kept on a flat surface.
At the front, OnePlus 5 retains the same tried and tested layout as the 3T, something that has garnered a positive reaction from users previously. The front panel has a ceramic fingerprint sensor embedded home button below the screen. The proximity and ambient light sensors are placed on top beside the speaker grille. The front camera is also placed on the same side above the screen.
The fact that the handset has an unchanged front panel and an iPhone 7 Plus-like back panel could disappoint several fans. To some extent, it also proves to be a step back by the company in terms of design.
For what's worth, the OnePlus 5 this time is considerably slimmer than the 3T and has a much better in-hand feel. It's a tad bit lighter and the sharp sides add to the grip. One can also use the Sandstone back cover as the smooth, anodised aluminium build can prove to be slippery at times. The aluminium build does make the smartphone durable though.
For the basics, the OnePlus 5 retains the power button and SIM card slot on the right side. The volume buttons and the phone mute slider stay on the left. At the bottom there is a 3.5mm headphone slot, a speaker and a USB Type-C charging port, all in the same OnePlus 3T layout.
In a nutshell, we can definitely say that the OnePlus 5 comes with a design 'refresh' over its predecessors but not exactly in the way we expected. Despite several similarities, the company has tried its best to eliminate a sense of monotony for the OnePlus 5's design. You are likely to find the handset slick and visually appealing if the aforementioned similarities don't bother you much.
The Optic Amoled display of the OnePlus handset has always managed to impress the crowd. We loved the OnePlus 3T's saturated and vibrant display. And the story remains the same with the OnePlus 5. The new Optic Amoled display in the OnePlus 5 is no doubt well saturated and has good brightness levels. The 5.5-inch display is easily viewable under direct sunlight and is comfortable on the eyes in low-light situations. Even the screen bezels are said to be 10% narrower than the 3T.
While the 10-point multi touch screen is bliss to look at, one downside we could not resist talking about is the company's continued use of a full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) panel. Although a 5.5-inch full-HD display is a perfect combination, OnePlus 5 being a 'flagship killer' smartphone could have used a QHD display, specially when its price is placed in close range with the LG G6, which has an extended 'FullVision' Amoled QHD display.
A new screen element that comes with the OnePlus 5 is the 2.5D Glass coating, something that was missing in its predecessors. Although it gives a premium spin to the smartphone, it also makes the screen slightly more scratch-friendly, specially from the corners.
On the software side of the things, you get the regular options for adjusting the adaptive brightness, bluelight filter (Night Mode), reading mode (new feature), theme colour options, accent colour options, display and font-size options and some notification LED colour customisations. Like in the 3T, the OnePlus 5 also gets gesture options like flip to mute, draw O, V, S and other letters on the lock screen to directly open a dedicated app, double tap to wake and three-finger screenshot.
Performance
Performance has always been the strong suit of OnePlus handsets and this year the company has up the ante by teaming an even more powerful processor with RAM. The new OnePlus handset no more comes in 4GB RAM version. It now has 6GB RAM as the base model and a more powerful 8GB RAM. Both the OnePlus 5 models come with the same flagship processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. This also makes the smartphone third in India to come with the Qualcomm's fastest processor after Sony Xperia XZ Premium and HTC U11.
As expected, our 8GB RAM variant was whip fast in launching every application, even the heavy gaming ones. Despite jumping between several heavy apps like Asphalt 8, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat and more there was not a slightest sign of stuttering or delay. While 8GB RAM can be said to be 'overkill' at this point given the flagships such as the Galaxy S8 and the LG G6 top at 6GB RAM, it nonetheless makes the smartphone more future-proof. However, in our opinion, the 6GB RAM version too is good enough to sail your boat. No matter how many applications you work on simultaneously, the handset will always keep a couple of RAM GBs idle.
The processor and the RAM, though being a vital factor in a smartphone, are still not everything that a user looks for. The operating system too plays an important role in how the smartphone fares in the market. The OnePlus 5 runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat-based OxygenOS 4.5, the company's latest home-brewed OS version. We later also received OxygenOS 4.5.1 with several app stability and optimisations.
The OxygenOS, as mentioned by the company, is much lighter than before. There is no bloat in the UI and the animations while opening and closing the app have also been stripped down. Users won't notice this right away but the refined UI does speed up the process to some extent. One of the additions in the UI is the new Reading Mode.
The Reading mode auto detects the ambient light and adjusts the screen colour temperature and calibration optimised for reading texts easily. While this is what the app description says, in reality the mode simply desaturates the screen and makes everything appear in grey scale colours. Not only can you set applications, firing which will trigger the Reading mode, but can also manually turn it on. Rest of the features remain the same including the widget windows, app drawer, OnePlus Shelf and the Settings page.
Like is the case with the previous OnePlus handsets, the fifth iteration of the OnePlus smartphone too comes with dual-SIM card support (Nano SIM) and misses out on the external storage option. The 6GB RAM variant comes with 64GB inbuilt storage and the 8GB RAM version comes with 128GB inbuilt storage. The 128GB version will spare you with roughly 111GB for apps and other media content.
As expected, the smartphone scored sky high in Antutu and Geekbench benchmarking applications. On Antutu the OnePlus 5 touched 172476 points, which brings it in second place after the iPhone 7 Plus as per Antutu rankings. On Geekbench, the smartphone scored 1964 and 6609 in single core and multi core tests.
Oneplus, ever since its first teaser on the web, has been promoting the dual rear camera technology of the smartphone, making it as one of the main selling points. Skimming through the specifications, the smartphone boasts the highest rear camera megapixel setup with a 16MP primary camera and a 20MP secondary camera.
The 16MP camera uses Sony IMX398 sensor along with Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) and f/1.7 aperture. The 20MP telephoto camera uses Sony IMX350 sensor along with Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) and f/2.6 aperture. The front-facing 16MP camera has the Sony IMX371 sensor in tow along with EIS and f/2.0 aperture.
It is a fact that the OnePlus 5 has retained the megapixel count of its primary and front-facing camera (16MP). But the difference lies in the quality of image captured as the Sony sensors used this time are newer and better. The new 20MP telephoto zoom lens naturally aims to shoot subjects from long range however, you won't be able to capture clear images. Shots captured in full zoom delivered way more noise than what we expected. Another downside of the telephoto zoom lens is that it doesn't work with the new Depth Effect feature.
The Depth Effect feature mimics the Portrait Mode seen in the iPhone 7 Plus. To get the perfect Depth Effect shot users have to make sure the subject is placed between 1 feet to 6 feet from the camera. In our tests the feature didn't have 100% success rate as it failed to give the particular effect for slightly complex edges of the subject, leaving a halo effect.
For those who want a better control over their shots, OnePlus 5 brings a slightly improved Pro photography mode. The mode besides featuring the ISO, White Balance, Shutter speed and Depth of Field adjusting options now additionally comes with an option to control the Brightness.
Furthermore you can now also save your manual mode settings so that you don't have to adjust all the options again for different scenarios. It is also possible to shoot images in RAW format. As for shooting videos, the OnePlus 5 gives you the same recording options - 720p, 720p at 120fps, 1080p, 1080p at 60fps and 4K.
The front-facing camera's image quality has been improved as it delivers slightly more sharp and saturated images. There's an additional option to use the on-screen flash to take selfies in low light environments, something missing from the OnePlus 3T (OxygenOS 4.1.6).
All said, the camera is definitely an upgrade but it might not be convincing for all the customers. Its user interface has been tweaked and the icons too have been slightly changed. But all this somewhat fell short of convincing us of recommending the handset based on the particular feature.
OnePlus 5, with one of the most efficient processor, ample RAM, better optimised UI and a full-HD display, is bound to deliver an amazing battery life. Some might argue upon the fact that the handset comes with a 3300mAh battery, which not only sounds average on paper but is also 100mAh lower than the OnePlus 3T's 3400mAh battery. But when it comes to performance, the OnePlus 5 still manages to stretch itself to one full day of use on medium to heavy usage.
Of course you get a 'Battery saver' option as well that reduces the OnePlus 5's performance, limits vibration and location services. Some of the background apps are too shut. They will get activated once you open them.
Being a 'flagship killer' the smartphone lacks wireless charging feature, a feature that has become a standard feature with almost all the flagship smartphones. The missing wireless charging feature is somewhat compensated with the company's home-made Dash Charging technology. With Dash Charging tech, the OnePlus 5 in our tests charged from 1% to 40% (average) within 20 minutes (on regular use), which is way quicker than any other fast charging smartphone technology out there.
The connectivity options largely remains the same with some of them upgraded. It supports GPS, dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and added support for more network bands.
Verdict
OnePlus 5 surely pushes the benchmarks of an upper-mid range smartphone a notch up. It has all the latest specifications under the hood. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 8GB RAM and dual rear camera lives up to the company's 'Never Settle' tagline and could be a money spinner for the Chinese upstart.
But these upgrades may not fulfil everybody's wishes. The same 5.5-inch full-HD display, design similar to some popular handsets and almost the same battery capacity as its predecessor leaves us asking for more.
Given the Rs 37,999 price tag (for 8GB RAM version), the company could see more users flocking towards the cheaper 6GB RAM variant (Rs 32,999) as it has the same innards. Like we said above, even the 6GB RAM version is a well-oiled machine that can run everything smoothly and handle most day-to-day tasks.
Like Carl Pei said during the smartphone launch, the OnePlus 5 has several minor changes when you look at different departments closely. In retrospect, the company could have made slightly more changes to make it a complete new package. But nonetheless, its given upgrades keep the element of freshness alive.
OnePlus 5 is the company's fifth-generation flagship smartphone that comes as a successor to the OnePlus 3T. The company after slipping out teasers since past few days, finally launched the OnePlus 5 on June 20 in select markets. Earlier today, the smartphone made its India debut, which is also one of the company's top market.
With the OnePlus 5, the upgrades run across the design as well as the specifications department. The company this time too has launched two variants of the smartphone based on RAM capacity -- 6GB RAM and 8GB RAM, priced at Rs 32,999 and Rs 37,999 respectively. We got hold of the 8GB RAM variant and used it rigorously in the past few days. So has OnePlus managed to disrupt the market once again? Here's our review of the all-new OnePlus 5 smartphone.
Design
Thanks to OnePlus' own marketing strategy, the design of the smartphone was already out even before the actual launch. As one could see, while there are several minor tweaks here and there with the OnePlus 5, its one and only glaring change is the inclusion of the dual-rear camera.
The dual-rear camera, no matter how it performs, does shamelessly mimic the iPhone 7 Plus' rear camera design or you may say Oppo R11 Plus' for that matter. The horizontal placement of camera sensors, LED flash and even the microphone placement are exactly the same. The crescent antenna lines run on the top and bottom in a similar fashion. The only way you can spot the difference between the OnePlus 5 and the Matte Black iPhone 7 Plus is from the company's logo. The rest of the back panel stays flat and simple.
Although there's a camera bump at the back, it doesn't let the smartphone wobble much when kept on a flat surface.
At the front, OnePlus 5 retains the same tried and tested layout as the 3T, something that has garnered a positive reaction from users previously. The front panel has a ceramic fingerprint sensor embedded home button below the screen. The proximity and ambient light sensors are placed on top beside the speaker grille. The front camera is also placed on the same side above the screen.
The fact that the handset has an unchanged front panel and an iPhone 7 Plus-like back panel could disappoint several fans. To some extent, it also proves to be a step back by the company in terms of design.
For what's worth, the OnePlus 5 this time is considerably slimmer than the 3T and has a much better in-hand feel. It's a tad bit lighter and the sharp sides add to the grip. One can also use the Sandstone back cover as the smooth, anodised aluminium build can prove to be slippery at times. The aluminium build does make the smartphone durable though.
For the basics, the OnePlus 5 retains the power button and SIM card slot on the right side. The volume buttons and the phone mute slider stay on the left. At the bottom there is a 3.5mm headphone slot, a speaker and a USB Type-C charging port, all in the same OnePlus 3T layout.
In a nutshell, we can definitely say that the OnePlus 5 comes with a design 'refresh' over its predecessors but not exactly in the way we expected. Despite several similarities, the company has tried its best to eliminate a sense of monotony for the OnePlus 5's design. You are likely to find the handset slick and visually appealing if the aforementioned similarities don't bother you much.
The Optic Amoled display of the OnePlus handset has always managed to impress the crowd. We loved the OnePlus 3T's saturated and vibrant display. And the story remains the same with the OnePlus 5. The new Optic Amoled display in the OnePlus 5 is no doubt well saturated and has good brightness levels. The 5.5-inch display is easily viewable under direct sunlight and is comfortable on the eyes in low-light situations. Even the screen bezels are said to be 10% narrower than the 3T.
While the 10-point multi touch screen is bliss to look at, one downside we could not resist talking about is the company's continued use of a full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) panel. Although a 5.5-inch full-HD display is a perfect combination, OnePlus 5 being a 'flagship killer' smartphone could have used a QHD display, specially when its price is placed in close range with the LG G6, which has an extended 'FullVision' Amoled QHD display.
A new screen element that comes with the OnePlus 5 is the 2.5D Glass coating, something that was missing in its predecessors. Although it gives a premium spin to the smartphone, it also makes the screen slightly more scratch-friendly, specially from the corners.
On the software side of the things, you get the regular options for adjusting the adaptive brightness, bluelight filter (Night Mode), reading mode (new feature), theme colour options, accent colour options, display and font-size options and some notification LED colour customisations. Like in the 3T, the OnePlus 5 also gets gesture options like flip to mute, draw O, V, S and other letters on the lock screen to directly open a dedicated app, double tap to wake and three-finger screenshot.
Performance
Performance has always been the strong suit of OnePlus handsets and this year the company has up the ante by teaming an even more powerful processor with RAM. The new OnePlus handset no more comes in 4GB RAM version. It now has 6GB RAM as the base model and a more powerful 8GB RAM. Both the OnePlus 5 models come with the same flagship processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. This also makes the smartphone third in India to come with the Qualcomm's fastest processor after Sony Xperia XZ Premium and HTC U11.
As expected, our 8GB RAM variant was whip fast in launching every application, even the heavy gaming ones. Despite jumping between several heavy apps like Asphalt 8, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat and more there was not a slightest sign of stuttering or delay. While 8GB RAM can be said to be 'overkill' at this point given the flagships such as the Galaxy S8 and the LG G6 top at 6GB RAM, it nonetheless makes the smartphone more future-proof. However, in our opinion, the 6GB RAM version too is good enough to sail your boat. No matter how many applications you work on simultaneously, the handset will always keep a couple of RAM GBs idle.
The processor and the RAM, though being a vital factor in a smartphone, are still not everything that a user looks for. The operating system too plays an important role in how the smartphone fares in the market. The OnePlus 5 runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat-based OxygenOS 4.5, the company's latest home-brewed OS version. We later also received OxygenOS 4.5.1 with several app stability and optimisations.
The OxygenOS, as mentioned by the company, is much lighter than before. There is no bloat in the UI and the animations while opening and closing the app have also been stripped down. Users won't notice this right away but the refined UI does speed up the process to some extent. One of the additions in the UI is the new Reading Mode.
The Reading mode auto detects the ambient light and adjusts the screen colour temperature and calibration optimised for reading texts easily. While this is what the app description says, in reality the mode simply desaturates the screen and makes everything appear in grey scale colours. Not only can you set applications, firing which will trigger the Reading mode, but can also manually turn it on. Rest of the features remain the same including the widget windows, app drawer, OnePlus Shelf and the Settings page.
Like is the case with the previous OnePlus handsets, the fifth iteration of the OnePlus smartphone too comes with dual-SIM card support (Nano SIM) and misses out on the external storage option. The 6GB RAM variant comes with 64GB inbuilt storage and the 8GB RAM version comes with 128GB inbuilt storage. The 128GB version will spare you with roughly 111GB for apps and other media content.
As expected, the smartphone scored sky high in Antutu and Geekbench benchmarking applications. On Antutu the OnePlus 5 touched 172476 points, which brings it in second place after the iPhone 7 Plus as per Antutu rankings. On Geekbench, the smartphone scored 1964 and 6609 in single core and multi core tests.
Oneplus, ever since its first teaser on the web, has been promoting the dual rear camera technology of the smartphone, making it as one of the main selling points. Skimming through the specifications, the smartphone boasts the highest rear camera megapixel setup with a 16MP primary camera and a 20MP secondary camera.
The 16MP camera uses Sony IMX398 sensor along with Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) and f/1.7 aperture. The 20MP telephoto camera uses Sony IMX350 sensor along with Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) and f/2.6 aperture. The front-facing 16MP camera has the Sony IMX371 sensor in tow along with EIS and f/2.0 aperture.
It is a fact that the OnePlus 5 has retained the megapixel count of its primary and front-facing camera (16MP). But the difference lies in the quality of image captured as the Sony sensors used this time are newer and better. The new 20MP telephoto zoom lens naturally aims to shoot subjects from long range however, you won't be able to capture clear images. Shots captured in full zoom delivered way more noise than what we expected. Another downside of the telephoto zoom lens is that it doesn't work with the new Depth Effect feature.
The Depth Effect feature mimics the Portrait Mode seen in the iPhone 7 Plus. To get the perfect Depth Effect shot users have to make sure the subject is placed between 1 feet to 6 feet from the camera. In our tests the feature didn't have 100% success rate as it failed to give the particular effect for slightly complex edges of the subject, leaving a halo effect.
For those who want a better control over their shots, OnePlus 5 brings a slightly improved Pro photography mode. The mode besides featuring the ISO, White Balance, Shutter speed and Depth of Field adjusting options now additionally comes with an option to control the Brightness.
Furthermore you can now also save your manual mode settings so that you don't have to adjust all the options again for different scenarios. It is also possible to shoot images in RAW format. As for shooting videos, the OnePlus 5 gives you the same recording options - 720p, 720p at 120fps, 1080p, 1080p at 60fps and 4K.
The front-facing camera's image quality has been improved as it delivers slightly more sharp and saturated images. There's an additional option to use the on-screen flash to take selfies in low light environments, something missing from the OnePlus 3T (OxygenOS 4.1.6).
All said, the camera is definitely an upgrade but it might not be convincing for all the customers. Its user interface has been tweaked and the icons too have been slightly changed. But all this somewhat fell short of convincing us of recommending the handset based on the particular feature.
OnePlus 5, with one of the most efficient processor, ample RAM, better optimised UI and a full-HD display, is bound to deliver an amazing battery life. Some might argue upon the fact that the handset comes with a 3300mAh battery, which not only sounds average on paper but is also 100mAh lower than the OnePlus 3T's 3400mAh battery. But when it comes to performance, the OnePlus 5 still manages to stretch itself to one full day of use on medium to heavy usage.
Of course you get a 'Battery saver' option as well that reduces the OnePlus 5's performance, limits vibration and location services. Some of the background apps are too shut. They will get activated once you open them.
Being a 'flagship killer' the smartphone lacks wireless charging feature, a feature that has become a standard feature with almost all the flagship smartphones. The missing wireless charging feature is somewhat compensated with the company's home-made Dash Charging technology. With Dash Charging tech, the OnePlus 5 in our tests charged from 1% to 40% (average) within 20 minutes (on regular use), which is way quicker than any other fast charging smartphone technology out there.
The connectivity options largely remains the same with some of them upgraded. It supports GPS, dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and added support for more network bands.
Verdict
OnePlus 5 surely pushes the benchmarks of an upper-mid range smartphone a notch up. It has all the latest specifications under the hood. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 8GB RAM and dual rear camera lives up to the company's 'Never Settle' tagline and could be a money spinner for the Chinese upstart.
But these upgrades may not fulfil everybody's wishes. The same 5.5-inch full-HD display, design similar to some popular handsets and almost the same battery capacity as its predecessor leaves us asking for more.
Given the Rs 37,999 price tag (for 8GB RAM version), the company could see more users flocking towards the cheaper 6GB RAM variant (Rs 32,999) as it has the same innards. Like we said above, even the 6GB RAM version is a well-oiled machine that can run everything smoothly and handle most day-to-day tasks.
Like Carl Pei said during the smartphone launch, the OnePlus 5 has several minor changes when you look at different departments closely. In retrospect, the company could have made slightly more changes to make it a complete new package. But nonetheless, its given upgrades keep the element of freshness alive.
ONEPLUS 5 SPECIFICATIONS
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