OnePlus doesn’t have the reputation of a flagship Android manufacturer, though its devices have always been received with much praise.
But although it lacks the fame of more famous companies like Samsung, OnePlus often made the headlines, especially in the last couple of months when photos of a brand-new device started leaking to the web.
Unveiled with much fanfare last month, the OnePlus 5 is first and foremost a surprising device. Not because OnePlus released something that you’ve never seen before, but because the company has actually released something that you’ve seen before.
The OnePlus 5 looks from many angles like an iPhone 7 and the resemblances are more visible when you start using the phone. Thanks to Android, however, and to the powerful hardware that it boasts, the OnePlus 5 is capable of offering features that Apple fans are only dreaming amount for the time being.
Overall, the OnePlus 5 comes with an intriguing package. It has the look of phones that have already been around for a while, with subtle tweaks here and there, but it mixes everything with top-notch hardware that you typically find on flagships from Samsung and others.
So without a doubt, the OnePlus 5 deserves a chance, especially given its 500 Euro price tag. This is why we’ve taken a model with 64GB storage and 6GB RAM for a spin, so read on to find out more about the new OnePlus device.
DESIGN
The design of the phone seems dull at first glance, but there are several special touches here and there that you might not even notice until you specifically check them out.
The front side looks like a typical Android phone, with a home button at the bottom also incorporating a fingerprint sensor. Even though it hasn’t given up on bezels entirely, the OnePlus 5 comes with a screen-to-body ratio of 73 percent, which shows that the company spent a considerable amount of time to make the device look as sleek as possible. For comparison, the iPhone 7 Plus sits at 67.7 percent, even though it also has a 5.5-inch display.
The right side of the phone is the home of the power/lock button and the SIM tray, while the left one includes the volume rocker plus a three-mode alert slider that’s undoubtedly inspired by the iPhone.
“The typical Android phone, but with a dual camera.”
The bottom holds a speaker grille on the left, a USB Type-C connector for charging and data transfers, a headphone jack, and a microphone. There’s no secondary speaker grille, as the phone is mono, and OnePlus didn’t want to go for full symmetry with a fake grille, even though this has become more of an industry standard these days.
The back of the phone is the bigger attraction thanks to the dual cameras, but there are a few subtle tweaks here as well. For example, the camera bump comes with a very small vertical line right in the middle, and this is the NFC antenna.
Many people believe they actually scratched their phones, and the antenna certainly looks like that, but OnePlus thinks this is an elegant approach that aligns with the rest of the phone. I would have used the OnePlus logo on the back as an NFC antenna, but the location obviously comes down to many more factors, including the space inside the phone.
A continuous hard line wraps around the device, and OnePlus calls it “a horizon line” that separates light from shadow, which after leaving the fancy words aside means that this line separates the display from the rest of the body.
OnePlus says it spent a considerable amount of time to make the phone so sleek, and it even tested over 100 versions of the curvature in order to achieve a mix of look, feel, and durability.
And while the phone feels nice in hand at just 7.25mm 153 grams (versus 188 grams on the iPhone 7 Plus), the build quality isn’t entirely exquisite, though you would’ve expected this from a $500 phone. The device does not feature glass on the back, but only a hardened plastic cover which in turn offers a somewhat cheap look that the device does not deserve.
All in all, the OnePlus 5 is a typical Android device with some premium touches, so at this point, beauty seems to be in the eye of the beholder.
HARDWARE
One of the best things about the OnePlus is the hardware that it features, as the device was developed from the very beginning to stand against more expensive models like the iPhone 7 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. And just by looking at the spec sheet, there’s no doubt it should be able to do this easily. Yet, there are moments when the OnePlus 5 simply feels substantially behind its rivals.
#Display
The OnePlus 5 features a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with 1080x1920 pixels resolution and protected by Gorilla Glass 5. This is pretty much the best protection you could get right now and OnePlus thus aligns with more expensive models like the Galaxy S8 Plus which features the same coating.
With a 73 percent screen-to-body-ratio and 401 ppi pixel density, the OnePlus 5 looks good and feels very responsive, though there’s nothing out of the ordinary here. It does have vivid colors and good contrast, but it lacks in terms of sunlight readability where it’s hard to see anything unless you get very close to the screen.
The display is also the subject of a huge controversy these days. The OnePlus 5 features the same screen as the OnePlus 3T, but because of the upgraded internals, the company could only place it upside down under the hood.
“You're looking at it wrong.”
This, in turn, leads to what many described as a jelly effect visible mostly when scrolling either in the browser or in third-party apps. We had the same issue on our review unit, though we barely considered this a problem, and you can continue living with it just fine.
One thing that is worth knowing is that this isn’t a defect of the display, but an issue caused by the inverted screen installation. It’s also not affected by the scrolling direction, and the jelly effect is caused by the direction the screen is refreshed because by installing the screen upside down, the refresh happens the other way around. In other words, the majority of phones with the same type of display should experience a similar effect if you turn them upside down and start scrolling, though on some it is substantially less visible.
#CPU, GPU, RAM, storage
As far as the other specs go, the OnePlus 5 is definitely a powerhorse. It comes with the Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835, which is the same processor available on the US version of the Galaxy S8, though OnePlus slightly boosted speed (4x2.45 GHz Kryo & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo on the OP5 versus 4x2.35 GHz Kryo & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo on the S8).
The device features an Adreno 540 GPU chip, again just like the US version of the S8, as well as 6GB RAM, in line with the Korean version of the Samsung flagship. On the other hand, the OP5 can also be ordered with 8GB RAM, so it actually outscores Samsung this time.
Depending on the version you choose, you get either 64GB or 128GB storage. There’s also one big drawback in this department, as a card slot is not available, so you won’t be able to expand storage should you want to (unless you turn to a USB Type-C adapter similar to the ones developed for iPhones).
This whole mix provides a performance that there’s no doubt you’ll be pleased with. The OP5 feels snappy and responsive all the time, and albeit it gets hot while playing games or using navigation apps, you won’t feel it like melting in your hand.
#Camera
The camera is where OnePlus put most of the effort when designing the new model and it wanted the device to serve as a powerful alternative to Samsung’s and Apple’s flagships.
The dual camera system isn’t necessarily inspired by Apple, since other phone makers come with this configuration too, but it uses an approach similar to the one embraced on the iPhone 7 Plus and which includes a telephoto lens.
First and foremost, the OP5 features a wide-angle lens with a Sony IMX 398 sensor featuring 16 megapixels and 1.12 um pixel size. This particular lens features EIS, autofocus, and F1.7 aperture. The telephoto lens uses a Sony IMX 350 sensor with 20 megapixels, 1.0 um pixel size, f2.6 aperture, and autofocus.
The mix leads to flagship performance, including 4K video recording, slow motion support, 2x optical zoom like on the iPhone 7 Plus, HDR support, and several shooting modes for the camera.
The performance of the camera is most of the time excellent, with bright colors, sharp details, and well-balanced contrast. What we’ve noticed, however, is that it all depends on the light and sometimes it takes more than a single shot to get the correct photo with natural colors and fine details.
In low-light, however, the lack of consistency is increased, and you might need to either take more shots to get a better photo or to switch to the pro mode and to adjust all settings manually.
The Pro mode is something that we’ve tried on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and which proved to be quite brilliant, especially for more tech-savvy users who enjoy playing with settings like exposure, ISO level, and aperture. On the OP5, the Pro mode provides just as many options, though you won’t take the perfect shot from the very beginning.
We’d say it requires some photography skills, but the more pictures to take, the faster you improve, and you certainly need to give this mode some time.
Without a doubt, OnePlus’ efforts to make the OP5 camera an advanced piece of technology are paying off, and this is why most poeple are pleased with it.
Focus is blazing fast, though we’d recommend the company to spend more time on improvements aimed at camera performance in non-optimal light conditions.
Taking more shots to get the perfect one is very often a must, though we all know that this isn’t quite the most convenient thing to do, especially when trying to take a photo of a moving object.
UPDATE: Our monster review comparing the iPhone 7 Plus and the OnePlus 5 cameras is live, so read more about it here.
#Battery
The OP5 ships with a 3,300 mAh battery, almost as large as Samsung Galaxy S8’s 3,500 mAh unit, but substantially bigger than iPhone 7 Plus’ 2,900 mAh pack.
Thanks to optimizations in Oxygen OS, the battery can provide between 26 and 32 hours of battery life per charge, but depending on your usage patterns, it could go even higher than this. What we can tell for sure, however, is that the device is capable of getting you through the day quite easily.
“One day easily.”
The battery also supports a fast charging mode that OnePlus calls Dash Charge. Thanks to this mode, you can recharge the battery from 10 to 100 percent in approximately 70 minutes, with 50 percent reached in about 30 minutes.
What’s important to know is that Dash Charge appears to work with its charger only, which has an output of 4A – we tried to use an original Samsung charger with fast charging, and it didn’t work.
#Other features
Aside from all the goodies mentioned above, the OP5 comes with Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C, Wi-Fi, and NFC, with the antenna placed in the middle of the dual-camera system on the back.
One thing that is worth mentioning is that the device comes with mono speakers, which is quite an issue given that the most flagship phones these days are moving to stereo. The biggest drawback in this regard is when playing games or watching videos in landscape, as the hand covers the only speaker and thus substantially reduces the audio quality.
And last but not least, it’s worth mentioning that the OP5 is not water resistant, and this is again one the things that put it years behind its rivals.
For most customers, water resistance is not a mandatory thing, but it’s always good to be there. Nobody, or almost nobody, takes a shower with their phone, but an IP68 rating can help withstand water splashes, rain, or accidental liquid spills, so it’s surprising to see OnePlus not going in this direction with its flagship.
The side lock button, in particular, can easily be moved up and down, which means that liquids could easily slip in, so if it were to be waterproofed, OnePlus obviously needed to pay more attention to such details.
SOFTWARE
The OnePlus 5 comes with Oxygen OS, the company's own custom Android that features a pretty user-friendly approach and including several customization touches that you typically get with third-party apps or on rooted Androids with Xposed modules.
There are several customization options and there’s even a dark theme for the operating system, as well as options to configure the status bar, icons, themes, and everything else.
And while the power of Android is not a secret, let’s discuss something that’s at least as important: software updates.
“Oxygen OS. Frequent updates FTW.”
In the time we spent with the OnePlus 5, we got two different updates, both of them improving things and addressing bugs that appeared to be quite widespread. For a new device like the OnePlus 5, it’s critical for the parent company to ship as many updates as possible, but it’s obviously a challenge to keep this pace in the long term.
OnePlus has pledged to continue rolling out updates to the new model, especially because the more customers buy it, the bigger the number of bugs that are discovered in the operating system.
For the time being, however, Oxygen OS, based on Android Nougat, is getting better with every release, and hopefully, the company holds its promise and doesn’t disappoint its users.