In its four years of existence, OnePlus has fashioned itself as the flagship phone killer jumping out of the midrange bushes. Every OnePlus device to date has been defined by premium specs at bargain prices, but that changes with today’s OnePlus 5. Starting at $479 with 64GB of storage, this new flagship can no longer be mistaken for a super-specced midrange handset. And even though it doesn’t cost quite as much as a mainstream mainstay like the Galaxy S8, that’s exactly the sort of phone it will be compared against. This is the priciest OnePlus device yet, and it’s falling in line with its more traditional competition: you pay more to get more.
There’s no questioning the specs of this phone: it’s powered by the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 835 processor; comes with a combo of either 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage or a laptop-rivaling 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage; and it has a total of 52 megapixels of image-taking prowess between its three cameras.
- @ OnePlus 5 price in India starts at Rs. 32,999
- @ The OnePlus 5 price in India goes up to Rs. 37,999
- @ It has been launched in two RAM and storage variants
What I see when I look at the 2017 edition of the OnePlus flagship is a necessary maturation and refinement. The ruthless cost cutting of the past was never going to be sustainable, and now that the company is facing the exigencies of being a global operation with costs that go beyond basic distribution and marketing, OnePlus is growing up in both price and quality.
But as it develops into a new kind of phone, the OnePlus 5 is also starting to feel divorced from its predecessors, inheriting only the physical switch for alert modes and the Dash Charge rapid-charging technology. It now looks like a OnePlus 3 that’s put on an iPhone 7 Plus costume: still roughly the same proportions as before, but now with more rounded edges, curved antenna lines, and the same dual-camera setup as the iPhone. It’s more than a passing resemblance, and it frankly makes me uneasy.
Until today, OnePlus could confidently say it was different from all the other Chinese upstarts that, consciously or not, aped the iPhone to a point of losing their own identity. OnePlus phones always had character, rooted in no small part in their market-breaking low prices. But the 128GB Midnight Black phone I’m reviewing today costs $539, which is a stone’s throw away from Samsung’s Galaxy S prices. Without the unique selling point of massively undercutting everyone, and with the baggage of looking like a cynical iPhone rip-off, can the OnePlus 5 retain the small-company charm that’s made its maker popular all around the world? I’m not so sure.
Specifications...
| LAUNCH | Announced | 2017, June |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Coming soon. Exp. release 2017, June 27th |
| BODY | Dimensions | 154.2 x 74.1 x 7.3 mm (6.07 x 2.92 x 0.29 in) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 153 g (5.40 oz) | |
| SIM | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
| DISPLAY | Type | Optic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 5.5 inches (~73.0% screen-to-body ratio) | |
| Resolution | 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | |
| - Oxygen OS |
| PLATFORM | OS | Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835 | |
| CPU | Octa-core (4x2.45 GHz Kryo & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo) | |
| GPU | Adreno 540 |
| MEMORY | Card slot | No |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 64 GB, 6 GB RAM or 128 GB, 8 GB RAM |
| CAMERA | Primary | Dual 16 MP, f/1.7, 24mm, EIS (gyro) + 20 MP, f/2.6, 36mm, phase detection autofocus, 1.6x optical zoom, dual-LED flash |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 1/2.8" sensor size, 1.12 µm @ 16MP & 1/2.8" sensor size, 1.0 µm @ 20MP, geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama | |
| Video | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 720p@30/120fps | |
| Secondary | 16 MP, f/2.0, 20mm, EIS (gyro), 1.0 µm pixel size, 1080p, Auto HDR |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes | |
| - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Dirac HD sound |
| COMMS | WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot |
|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth | 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| Radio | No | |
| USB | 2.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector |
| FEATURES | Sensors | Fingerprint (front-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
|---|---|---|
| Messaging | SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM, Push Email | |
| Browser | HTML5 | |
| Java | No | |
| - Fast battery charging (Dash Charge) - DivX/Xvid/MP4/H.265 player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV/FLAC player - Document viewer - Photo/video editor |
| BATTERY | Non-removable Li-Ion 3300 mAh battery |
|---|
| MISC | Colors | Midnight Black, Slate Gray |
|---|---|---|
| Price | About 500 EUR |
| TESTS | Performance | Basemark OS II: 4300 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 3601 Basemark X: 38844 |
|---|---|---|
| Display | Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 3.914 (sunlight) | |
| Camera | Photo / Video | |
| Loudspeaker | Voice 69dB / Noise 72dB / Ring 77dB | |
| Audio quality | Noise -94.1dB / Crosstalk -94.2dB | |
| Battery life |
Endurance rating 83h
|
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