OnePlus 5T Review

The OnePlus 5T, as the name suggests, is an incremental update by OnePlus for the year 2017. It continues to improve from the older OnePlus 5 which looks pretty much the same except for one thing. The phone now comes with a new display, finally adapting the 18:9 aspect ratio group and boasts some great hardware to match up against the top phones in 2017. With an improved dual camera setup and top of the line hardware for 2017, is the new phone from OnePlus still a flagship killer? Let's find out.

The OnePlus 5T looks and feel similar to the OnePlus 5 as the company has kept the same focus on using premium quality materials designed to look and feel great in the hand. The unibody aluminum build feels solid in the hand which is also quite slim, thanks to the curves that extend from the back going all the way up to the edges, forming a horizontal line along the sides. This gives the phone a very pleasurable feel to it. At 162 grams, the OnePlus 5T is taller, wider and heavier than the OnePlus 5 but remains the same thickness making it similar in size and thickness to the Apple iPhone 8 Plus.

There's a new bigger display which gives the phone an 80% screen to body ratio, all thanks to the now slimmer bezels on the top and bottom of the screen. The reduction in bezel also means that the fingerprint sensor and physical navigation keys are no longer seen on the front of the device. Luckily, OnePlus didn't do what Apple did with the Apple iPhone X, removing the fingerprint scanner completely from the phone. Instead, on the OnePlus 5T, the fingerprint scanner can be found on the back of the device. The placement is near perfect with the scanner placed in the middle of the phone, just below the camera setup. The dual camera setup is on the top left of the device, very much like the Apple iPhone 8 Plus, having a bit of a camera bump. However, the bump doesn't make the phone as unstable as it does to the Apple iPhone 8 Plus.

The power button is on the right of the phone with the volume slider on the left, together with the very popular and useful alert slider, which allows you to switch between silent, do not disturb and loud sound profiles. The new design sometime feels a bit slippery in the hands though, so you might want to invest in a nice case for grip. Thankfully, due to OnePlus's passion for first party accessories, OnePlus has introduced a line of cases for the OnePlus 5T, with a new all red one being my personal favorite. At the bottom of the device, you'll find the single bottom firing speaker together with the USB Type-C port and surprisingly enough, a 3.5 mm headphone jack too. This makes me really glad that even with the design inspiration taken from the iPhone, OnePlus didn't follow Apple and decided to the keep the headphone jack on.

The phone comes in 3 different colors, although at its launch, it was only available in Midnight Black. Later in January, OnePlus launched the limited-edition Sandstone White finish with a Lava Red variant entering the market soon after that. The Sandstone White variant has a very clean look to it, being all black at the front and white at the rear, having the sandstone feel to it. The red alert slider really adds to the color accent beauty of this device. With the white finish, the OnePlus 5T also gets more grip and a textured finish which closely resembles the original OnePlus One. Even though the Midnight black variant feels much better in the hand, the Sandstone white edition is specifically designed to catch the attention of the crowd. The Lava Red version has a gorgeous red back with a similar slippery metal body. OnePlus does add a transparent silicon case in the box to keep your phone clean and protected so that would really go well with the red version.

Overall, it's a similar design with a much needed modern look due to the new display and a sublime metal finish while still having maximum utility with features such as a headphone jack and a fingerprint scanner.

With the OnePlus 5T, OnePlus finally has the biggest screen on a OnePlus phone to date. The 6.01-inch Optic AMOLED Full HD display on the OnePlus 5T has a resolution of 2160x1080p with an 18:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 401 ppi. That makes the display on the OnePlus 5T the biggest design change we've seen this time. The display is every bit as vibrant, bright and contrast-rich as on the OnePlus 5, except now it's bigger. The display which is manufactured by Samsung sits in between the slim top and bottom bezels and makes most other smartphone screens look dull in comparison.

The colors look really vibrant and saturated in the default mode, however, you can change the color profile in settings and choose between Default, sRGB, DCI-P3, Adaptive mode and Custom color. This is a great feature which enables users to choose the color modes according to their liking. On the whole, the display looks fantastic but with some over-saturated pinks and reds as this is an AMOLED panel, making skin and faces look very pinkish.

The OnePlus 5T still comes with a Full HD display instead of a Quad HD panel, like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Google Pixel 2. However, most of OnePlus's competition like the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 also offer similar resolution. Moreover, it's a great display and at arm's length, details and texts on the OnePlus 5T look just fine. As long as you don't place a Quad HD screen right next to the OnePlus 5T, you won't find much difference as there aren't many screens in the market better for playing games or watching videos.

One new feature is this year's OnePlus device is adaptive display technology called Sunlight display. What it does is use the phone's ambient sensor to detect bright light and then boosting the screen's contrast when you're gaming, using the camera or going through your pictures gallery. This is a quite helpful feature as it enables users watch and read content on their phone outdoors in the bright sunlight. The display on the OnePlus 5T is not the brightest display you'll see, but it would be decent enough for most people as the OLED display really pleases the eyes. Due to the fact that the display on the device can get very dim at the lowest brightness level, the OnePlus 5T comes with a Reading Mode which can help you to be able to use the phone in your bed without stressing your eyes, even with the lights turned off.

All things considered, the display on the OnePlus 5T is amazing, almost filling up the entire front body. There are features such as HDR which OnePlus might consider in the future, but for now, you get the same amazing display from the OnePlus 5, just in a bigger size.

In order to be a flagship killer, OnePlus needed the OnePlus 5T to have killer specs and that's exactly what you'll get with it. The phone is powered by the mighty Snapdragon 835 processor, coupled with a whopping 6 or 8 GB of RAM and an Adreno 540 GPU. What this means is that the OnePlus 5T has the best hardware available for an Android smartphone in 2017.

The phone's hardware performance is much to talk about, as the OnePlus 5T performs daily tasks quicker than I've ever seen on an Android smartphone. The phone handles multi-tasking extremely well due to its abundant RAM and during my speed test, it outperformed the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and to my surprise, even performed better in daily tasks than the Apple iPhone 8 Plus. Apps open lightening quick with zero lack whatsoever and during my time testing this device, I never happened to come across any sort of a lag or hiccup from this beast of a device by OnePlus.

The ultra-fast performance isn't the only great thing about OnePlus 5T's hardware, as the phone provides much useful features such as a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint scanner is still made out of ceramic so scratching it won't be possible with regular sharp objects such as nails and it is one of the fastest fingerprint scanners I've tested so far. The headphone jack allows user to use their favorite wired headphones and enjoy music even while charging the device. The phone doesn't have a dual stereo speaker setup but the one bottom firing speaker is loud and crisp, with sound coming out clear and not muffled.

Overall, the phone comes with some great hardware, making sure that it has the best options for the essentials such as the processor and RAM, and making some compromises with features such as wireless charging and an IP certification for dust and water resistance.

The battery on the OnePlus 5T holds a 3300 mAh capacity which goes all day. Despite having a large screen with more pixels to power, the battery does well in carrying the phone throughout the day with moderate usage on a single charge. The phone doesn't feature wireless charging as it is a metal body device, but with the dash charging technology by OnePlus, running out of battery won't be an issue.

Charging the phone with the included dash charger, the battery on the OnePlus 5T went from 0-30% in 15 minutes, 0-59% in 30 minutes, 0-82% in 45 minutes got to a full 100 % in an impressive 1 hour 19 minutes. This makes the OnePlus 5T the fastest charging smartphone with a battery capacity of over 3000 mAh. The screen-on time on the OnePlus 5T is 5 hours and 50 minutes which is better than Google Pixel 2 XL's 5 hours and 32 minutes and Samsung Galaxy S8+'s 5 hours and 18 minutes.

One cannot praise the Dash charge technology enough as it is a real-life saver, especially in situations when you're running out of battery but don't have much time to charge your phone. As the company slogan for the phone goes, "a day's power in half an hour", the OnePlus 5T is the best phone if battery life and charging time is your biggest concern in a smartphone.

OnePlus has followed the famous saying "If it isn't broke, don't fix it" with the Camera of OnePlus 5T. The phone comes with a dual-camera setup much like the previous model which comprises of a 16 MP sensor and a 20 MP sensor with both sensors having an f/1.7 aperture lens for improved low light photography. For some odd reason, there's no difference in the focal length of the two sensors, and the only reason there are two cameras present on the device is to improve low-light photography. The secondary camera is automatically activated during low light situations when the phone thinks that a higher resolution is required.

OnePlus has introduced a new technology called "Intelligent Pixel" which helps brighten dark scenes without creating noise by combining four pixels on the image sensor into one, letting more light enter. The end results are pretty decent with photos in the day light coming out with a nice balance of natural colors in details. Low light photography on the OnePlus 5T is surprisingly good enough to rival shots taken from the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, which is a $950 phone, all thanks to the new Intelligent Pixel technology by OnePlus.

The OnePlus 5T lacks the telephoto lens found on the OnePlus 5 which made 2x optical zoom work like a charm. The OnePlus 5T still offers quick jump 2x zoom button, however, it is all being handled via software now as opposed to the mix of optical and software assisted zoom on the OnePlus 5. This change is a trade-off but it all depends on your personal preference between optical zoom and low light photography. A different focal length also affects some other modes, especially the Portrait. The bokeh effect is possible with the OnePlus 5T, however, it looks better with the OnePlus 5, due to its different focal length cameras. While testing the camera in low light, the performance was decent but nothing great as the Google Pixel 2 XL, but we need to keep in mind that the Google Pixel 2 costs around $300 more than the OnePlus 5T. Ultimately, the 20 MP backup camera is technically sound but prove to be largely ignored as it only activates in low light situations.

Video recording on the OnePlus 5T is surprisingly decent, with the ability to record up to 4K in 30 fps. The EIS really helps in the stabilization of the video, the HDR helps in low light situations and overall, the video comes out to be better than what we've seen from previous models by OnePlus. There's been improvement in the audio quality of the videos recorded so if you're a vlogger or someone who streams a lot, your voice will sound loud and clear to your audience.

The front camera of the OnePlus 5T is an impressive 16 MP shutter with an f/2.0 aperture. The selfie camera is stabilized using gyro EIS and supports auto-HDR for low light shots. The selfies and videos shot from the front camera are remarkably decent with lots of details in the images, however, the skin tone in pictures shot from the front camera look rather reddish as compared to more natural colors. Videos can be shot at up to a resolution of 1080p and are stable with yet again, very good audio quality.

Overall, it is a good camera but certainly not one of the best as there are phones such as the Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Apple iPhone X with much better camera performance. The camera struggles in low light situations even with the changes in the camera setup and personally, I would have preferred the company kept the telephoto lens for clearer zoom. It will be interesting to see if OnePlus keeps this setup for the OnePlus 6 or tries something else.

After a not so impressive camera experience, it's time to talk about one of the best things about OnePlus 5T, its software. The phone comes with Android 7.1.1 Nougat fresh out of the box, with an update to Android 8.0 Oreo available now. OnePlus has kept their famous OxygenOS 4.7 skin on and it's one of the best in the market. OnePlus is sticking with its philosophy of using relatively clean software experience. It feels as clean and smooth as pure Android with the ability to customize almost every aspect of the home screen. The user experience is sublime with no glitches or lags, with smooth transitioning animations and super-fast access to all functionalities.

There's a new feature introduced called parallel apps, which allows you to make a copy of an app, and use a different instance of them at the same time. What it means is that now you can have two Facebook, Instagram or any other app with two different accounts working at the same time. If you have both work and personal accounts, for example, this can be tremendously useful, especially for dual SIM users. With the absence of capacitive buttons, there's more customization for the virtual onscreen keys. You can choose to have the row of virtual buttons hidden and swipe them up onscreen from the bottom edge, or have them permanently on screen. As usual, you can also swap the recent apps and back buttons around depending on your preference. You can also use gestures if you don't want to use the virtual buttons at the bottom of the screen. Swiping up on the right or left of the screen takes you back, swiping up from the middle takes you home, and swiping up and keeping your finger in the middle of the screen launches the app-switcher view. Personally, I found using the virtual buttons much more convenient than using gestures but it all depends on your preference.

A major software addition to this year's OnePlus flagship is the 'Face Unlock' feature. As the fingerprint scanner is now located at the back, Face Unlock is a convenient way to unlock your phone, very quickly, and by very quickly I mean seriously quick. This is the fastest Face Unlock I've ever used on any phone, due to the fact that it only takes a 2D image of your face, as compared to Apple iPhone's sophisticated 3D Face ID. For this reason, you cannot use this for Android Pay or any other authentication outside the lock screen. What it provides is a very fast and convenient way to unlock the phone by just looking at it.

There's a Do Not Disturb mode specifically for games which block notifications while you play your favorite games. There's Reading and Auto Night modes which adjust how on-screen content is rendered to be easier on the eyes. Also, there's an App Locker which lets you set authentication for specific apps. The OnePlus 5T is equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 technology, and is compatible with both aptX and aptX HD to ensure you get the best quality wireless music possible, when used with a compatible set of earphones.

I would say that this the best Android experience after the Google Pixel 2, as it seems clean, sharp, smooth and comes with a handful of useful feature. In the software department, the OnePlus 5T definitely kills the flagship devices of 2017.

OnePlus 5T is available in the market for $499 for the 64 GB variant and $559 for the 128 GB variant. For this price, it's a great value for money as it has one of the best Android experience, top of the line hardware specs for 2017, a large vibrant display and a decent camera. In the $500 price bracket, the latest and greatest from OnePlus really kills the competition, being one of the snappiest smartphones with the fastest charging battery and having perks such as a headphone jack.

The camera isn't the greatest you'll find in the market and the phone lacks features such as wireless charging and dust and water resistance, but for $499, you can't really complain as phones with better cameras and all those features go over the $700 range. The phone provides a fantastic all-around experience, it's nice to hold, got a beautiful large display, having a top-notch performance with a clean, slick software. The OnePlus 5T has no major flaws and to summarize, you won't find a better device at this price point. It's a brilliant phone with flagship performance for the price of a mid-range phone.