OnePlus 5T

An improvement over the original, the OnePlus 5T lives on as perhaps a hasty upgrade to the OnePlus 5. The OnePlus 5T takes many cues from the original OnePlus 5 though. One of the most prominent changes is to the screen, which is now devoid of any elements other than the 18/9 (aspect ratio) display itself.

Assuming the OnePlus 5T as a new phone simply does not work. It is an enhanced iteration of the OnePlus 5 flagship phone. The processor, most of the hardware and software are the same.

Pricing is also the same as that of OnePlus 5, making the upgrade seem like a drop-in replacement. In that regard, there shouldn’t be much to say about this phone. However, we will go through each step to see how far this company has come in the very little time between the release of the two phones.

The phone has black borders that give an immersive effect, as they are thicker at the top and bottom and thin out to the sides. Videos and games are especially engaging though. While the OnePlus 5T’s display can match up to the other flagship phones concerning size and aspect ratio, it does lack the QHD resolution to mark its position in the high-end display club.

Removing extra bezels, led OnePlus to reposition the fingerprint sensor, which resided at the bottom bezel on the OnePlus 5. On the OnePlus 5T, the fingerprint sensor sits at the centre back, which is easy to reach. The physical navigation keys are no longer a pressing need and have conveniently found their new home on the virtual screen itself.

The screen is a 6.01 inches (diagonally) AMOLED display touchscreen with a resolution of 1080×2160. Once a feature or a unique specification catches the public eye and becomes a value offering, almost every company under the sun races to adopt it for themselves. It is particularly interesting when it comes taller screens since it brings something visibly different for the newer phone, given that the current generation doesn’t sport the same tall aspect ratio. It’s an easy sell, especially since there is supposedly a tangible reason to upgrade when you get a nearly borderless 18:9 screen on the upgrade.

Regarding the processor system being used, there isn’t much that has changed since the OnePlus 5. The OnePlus 5T runs the same Snapdragon 835 SoC with its integrated Adreno 540 GPU. The flagship comes with the same two variants as well – one with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and another with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. It has the Android 8 OS customised with the proprietary OxygenOS, which gets updated through the OnePlus team to give a more personal touch to the user experience. According to OnePlus, “the experience is almost that of stock Android, though with loads of little improvements throughout”. There are a lot more UI customisation options with an overhaul to apps such as the Gallery.

Apart from the display, the secondary rear camera is the only thing that has changed about this phone. The secondary rear camera no longer has a telephoto lens, and instead functions with a sensor that is tuned to work for low-light photography efficiently.

The primary camera is a 16MP with the f1.9 aperture which is the same as on the OnePlus 5. A second 20MP Camera with the same f/1.7 aperture and 27.22mm focal length compliments as an RGB photography sensor instead of the telephoto camera that had been on the OnePlus 5. The optical zoom function is no longer available since there is no telephoto camera. However, it’s possible that the tradeoff will turn out to be useful to even more people. The RGB sensor tries to use groups of four pixels to absorb more light for low-light shots.

The company has stressed that this functionality allows for improved portrait shots primarily because the focal lengths match, and the value the sensor adds to the camera setup.

The OnePlus 5T has a 3,300mAh battery which claims to have a full day’s capacity after a half hour charge. It scores a good endurance rating of 78 hours for its battery life. There is a USB Type-C port which works with USB 2.0 speed as well. The Dash-Charging is an exclusive feature of OnePlus that helps you reach up to 60% charge in half hour. First introduced in the OnePlus 3, this tech has been one of the most useful features of the OnePlus phones.

The OnePlus 5T is better than the OnePlus 5 but, the difference isn’t much. However, it holds if you don’t desperately need the capabilities of the older model’s optical zoom. You get a camera that works well, and a phone with its features could have asked for a higher price point. In the grander scheme of things, we agree that the low-light sensor is more useful than a telephoto lens, but it is a functionality that is dearly missed.