Introduction
The main goal of OnePlus is to design a smartphone that would balance high-end quality with a lower price than other phones in its class, believing that users would “Never Settle” for the lower-quality devices produced by other companies. The company’s first product was the highly anticipated OnePlus One, which was unveiled in April 2014. The successors, OnePlus 2, OnePlus X, OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T were all received praises from critics, mostly for its low price and high specifications and tweaking features.
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Now, the OnePlus 5 adds the treatment of a dual camera with Portrait mode and under the hood, it powers the fastest chipset. Is it worth to buy the phone? Will it succeed your expectations as a flagship device? Find out as we go exploring the “killer” flagship phone of 2017.
OnePlus 5 key specs:
5.5-inch FHD Optic AMOLED display; 1920 x 1080 resolution
Corning Gorilla Glass panel
2.45Ghz 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor
Adreno 540 GPU
64GB / 128GB storage
6GB / 8GB RAM
Dual 16-megapixel (f/1.7 aperture, Sony IMX398 sensor) + 20-megapixel (f/2.6 aperture, Sony IMX350 sensor) rear cameras, with phase detection autofocus and dual-LED flash
16-megapixel front camera, f/2.0 aperture with Sony IMX371 sensor
4K (2160p); 1080p at 60fps video recording
Dual-SIM, Dual Standby
3G HSPA+, 4G LTE-A (Category 12) connectivity
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, USB-OTG, NFC
Fingerprint sensor
Android 7.1.1 ‘Nougat’, Oxygen OS 4.5.8
3,300 mAh non-removable battery
Dash Charge (5V, 4A)
152.7 x 74.7 x 7.25 mm
153 grams
Colors: Slate Gray and Midnight Black
Price: P24,990 (64GB model); P28,990 (128GB model)
See listing from Widget City here.
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Unboxing
There are two model variants of the OnePlus 5: one is the base 64 GB of storage and 6 GB RAM, while the Midnight Black version has 128GB storage and a humongous 8GB RAM. Luckily, the latter is the one that we got for the review. Sadly, there’s no microSD slot for expanding the storage, but it offers two nano-SIM card slots.
OnePlus has its own signature when it comes to packaging, very clean and sleek and has been done with a soft finish cardboard. The number “5” is imprinted on the white cover, just like its predecessor. There is also an additional tagline “Dual Camera, Clearer Photos” advertising the dual camera on each side of the box. The OnePlus 5 itself sits inside a plastic cradle instead of plain cardboard, same on the OnePlus 3. As part of the standard package, you get the red data cable, as well as the company’s Dash charger with a whopping 20W.
Other than that, the box holds the regular documentation, including the Quick Start Guide, safety information, warranty info and of course, don’t forget the sim ejection tool. Another thing is the postcard with a picture that was shot in Iceland and has a letter at the back from the company’s CEO.
Display & build
The design of the OnePlus 5 does bear a striking resemblance to the Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus, talking to the antenna strips at the top and bottom and the arrangement of the dual-camera setup at the back. Nevertheless, once we handle the phone, we can see that the edges are quite sharper and more slanted, but it seems fairly smooth. It feels a little thinner in the hand, as it weighs 153 grams and it’s very comfortable to hold and use.
At the front lies the 2.5D glass screen, protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The fingerprint sensor, located on the home button, below the display is covered in ceramic, and it’s immensely strong and tough. It’s very fast to read your fingerprint that unlocks the phone in just a matter of seconds. For me, it is one of the best fingerprint sensors that I’ve used recently.
Small bezels make the phone look gorgeous and the display is one of the best out there. It uses the Optic AMOLED display. The 1080p resolution screen is saturated, but not overwhelming. The color reproduction is fantastic and the daylight visibility is good.
Moving on to the right of the unit, we see the power button. Then there is the SIM tray above. The OnePlus 5 is a dual-SIM device, so the tray actually takes two nano cards.
Moving on to the left side of the OnePlus 5, we find the volume rocker and right above it, is an unusual control that we don’t see that often on many Android devices, the Alert Slider, which can quickly toggle between the three basic notification states – Silent, Priority and All. This feature is also customizable and can be adjusted in the settings.
The bottom, on the other hand, we find the USB Type-C connector, flanked on either side by screws. Then, we have the main microphone and a 3.5 mm headphone jack, good to know that the company kept that. Lastly, there’s single mono speaker grille.
Aside from the aforementioned fingerprint sensor on the home button, we find two backlit dots on the side and is basically acts as either the “back” or “recent” keys. It can be re-arrange this under the Settings or if you want, just turn it off entirely and go for the on-screen controls.
Software & UI
Oxygen OS has not made a lot of changes to the basic Android 7.1.1. At the time of testing, we received the latest software update and the security patches were dated: July 1st, 2017. It didn’t come preloaded with a bunch of unuseful applications. The interface can be customized as well, like the status bar and the home screen.
There are various other features, such as a Pocket Mode, which prevents accidental operation when the light sensor is covered. Another advantage is that the system reboots really quickly after a restart.
On the home screen, swiping to the left what we called “Shelf”. As you can see the screenshot (leftmost), you can find the recent apps and contacts, memo, weather and the dashboard. Additionally, there is an option if you want to add some widgets on it.
Performance & Audio
The OnePlus 5 relies on the currently strongest chipset by Qualcomm – the Snapdragon 835. It scores amazingly in the benchmarks that we had tested and even surpasses some rivals with the same chipset used. The review sample places itself at the front of the comparison in AnTuTu and outperforms even the iPhone 7 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S8. Take a look on the screenshots below.
The browser performance of the OnePlus 5 is fantastic. Websites open very fast in the preloaded Google Chrome and the benchmark below from Vellamo to confirm this impression.
The mono speaker of the OnePlus 5 is situated on the smartphone’s lower edge. The advantage here is that the smartphone can be placed on a table without covering the speaker. It is very loud and one of the loudest smartphones today. Bass is not noticeable, but low mids are reproduced quite well. Overall the sound is balanced.
The 3.5 mm audio jack is still present at the bottom of the smartphone. There’s no headset in the package, but using your own headphones, the sound is clear and there is no irritating noise. Audio could also be transmitted via Bluetooth 5.0. The sound remains good and you can choose between various Bluetooth audio codecs: SBC, aptX and aptX HD.
Camera
Along the back, we have the main 16-megapixel camera with a f/1.7 aperture that lets a lot more light into the camera plus the 20-megapixel f/2.6 telephoto lens. Neither of these gets the optical image stabilization (OIS) because both are using the EIS or electronic image stabilization. This technology works very similarly to the iPhone 7 Plus and this allows us to optically zoom on the subject up to 1.6x without losing the quality and because this camera system can detect depth, which means, we can apply obstacle effects to an image. The overall result is pretty good, even for shooting challenging subjects and in low-lighting scenes.
The quality of the images is very uniform with other flagship smartphones. As you can see in the sample images below, the sharp is great and has clear vibrant with lots of natural colors. It focuses more on the color accuracy.
Same thing goes for the front camera that has a 16-megapixel shooter. Images are sharp and detailed.
Connectivity
The OnePlus 5 can support up to 34 frequencies, making it a truly global 4G LTE phone. Here are the full list LTE bands the OnePlus 5 supports.
- FDD LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/29/30/66
- TDD LTE: Band 38/39/40/41
Furthermore, the LTE speed is now faster, thanks to Category 12 speed, and it means, we can download up to 600 Mbps and upload up to 150 Mbps. For Wi-Fi, there’s a dual-MIMO antenna and this also gets Bluetooth 5.0.
Battery Life
The phone is equipped with a 3,300mAh battery, considerably smaller than OnePlus 3T’s 3,400mAh. On a plus side, due to the chipset’s efficient and a 1080p resolution, it should be enough for a full day of normal usage. Based on our PCMark test, it scores 10 hours and 46 minutes, an above-average compared to other handsets in its price range.
OnePlus has its own quick charging technology, the Dash Charge. On OnePlus 5, it takes only 85 minutes to get a full 100%. It doesn’t suffer any overheat because all of the temperature regulation happens in the adaptor itself, which means the thermal regulated current reaches the phone. This also means that if you’re using the OnePlus 5 while it charges, the charge rate will not slow down. But we do not recommend to use the phone while playing intense games as it will take longer to be fully charged and it tends to get heat so high.
Verdict
OnePlus has always been delivering a powerful smartphone with excellent build quality and a great user experience. Indeed, the OnePlus 5 is definitely one of the best flagship smartphones in the market today, and the best OnePlus device ever. All in all, this handset is an excellent phone as the price offers a lot of great features.
Pros
- Stock Android version
- Dual-SIM card support
- Large 128GB memory
- 8GB RAM
- 4G LTE connectivity
- Wider Wi-Fi coverage (MiMO antennas)
- Impressive camera quality for rear and front lens
- Speaker
- Great battery life
- Dash charge
- Fingerprint sensor is fast
Cons
- Intense heat when playing 3D games for a long time
- No water and dust resistance
- Non-expandable memory
