With up to 8GB RAM and dual cameras, the OnePlus 5 is a loaded smartphone!
Within a short period, OnePlus has established itself among the top smartphone manufacturers. Last year’s OnePlus 3 and 3T received appreciation from users and critics alike. And now, the company has launched its latest offering, the OnePlus 5. The new smartphone offers some impressive features such as a Snapdragon 835 SoC, up to 8GB RAM and a dual-camera setup. But it’s also the priciest offering from the brand yet. So should you be buying it? Let’s find out.
Design and Build
The OnePlus 5 has a matte black finish at the back and a metal unibody construction. The front is similar to the OnePlus 3 / 3T. The curved edges give a good grip to hold. The rear panel has a dual camera module and flash on the top left corner – which looks similar to the iPhone 7 Plus. Antenna lines are just below the camera perfectly blended with the design. The smartphone is quite slim and doesn’t feel bulky either. Although it might not be apt for usage with a single hand.
The headphone jack and the Type-C charging port is located at the bottom edge. The SIM card tray is stapled on the left side. The power button and volume keys are on the right. Overall the design is good and built quality is sturdy.
Display
The OnePlus 5 features a 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 layer. The display is bright and colourful, and the icons seem very crisp. The display can easily be seen under direct sunlight as well as under different viewing angles.
Hardware and Software
Powering the OnePlus 5 is an octa-core Snapdragon 835 SoC, which is the most powerful processor from Qualcomm. The chipset is supported by Adreno 540 GPU and 6GB of RAM (there’s an 8GB RAM variant too). There is UFS 2.1 supported onboard storage of 64GB but no expandable microSD card slot. The fingerprint scanner is present underneath the home button.
It runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Oxygen OS on top of it. The UI is simple, minimal yet very impressive. There’s no additional apps or bloatware present in the device except for the Google apps and a few useful features.
Performance
The OnePlus 5 is incredibly fast. There is no lag in touch response, using several apps or multitasking. Everything runs very smoothly.
The high-end games or 3D games run perfectly on the phone. The gaming mode also adds to the gaming experience. There was very less or negligible heating issue in it.
The benchmark scores of the OnePlus 5 are 175942 on Antutu.
The fingerprint scanner works fine. The sound quality of the device seems a bit low. It could have been louder. The video quality is great and watching movies or videos is an enjoyable experience.
The 4G VoLTE as well as the internet connectivity is good. There was no call drop or network issue while using an Airtel SIM on the OnePlus 5.
Camera
The OnePlus 5 sports dual cameras at the rear panel which has 16MP + 20MP sensors. First one is a regular camera with f/1.7 aperture and the other one is a telephoto lens with f/2.6 aperture. The camera shots were impressive. The captured images have a good amount of light and colour combination. There’s a good amount of in-depth details also. The dual cameras let you zoom in 2x on the subject, without losing any details. You can also use the Portrait Mode to get the depth-of-field effect with the focus on the subject.
The front camera is of 16MP which shoots impressive selfies. The camera app is simple but has few modes. The major drawback in this smartphone is the lack of the OIS which was present in the OnePlus 3.
Battery
The OnePlus 5 is packed with a 3,300mAh of battery, which is good enough for a day’s worth of backup. It comes with Dash Charge 3.0 which charges the smartphone very rapidly. User can get half-day charge within just 15 minutes.
Gizmo Verdict
The OnePlus 5 offers one of the best specs and performance at just Rs 33K. You can also opt for the Rs 37,999, if you want the absolute best device in terms of the performance as it has 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. It has incredible camera, good battery life and processing speed. Having said that, it’s not the only powerful option in this segment as you can also go for the Honor 8 Pro, which is available for slightly lesser at Rs 29,999.
