OnePlus 5 Review | TelecomDrive.com
It is not too long back that Chinese company – OnePlus started making waves in the market by introducing its unique product proposition in the market, OnePlus One was carrying remarkable hardware at a mid-range price point. And it was only available via the company’s ‘invite system’.
Even though the company has come a long way since then, the only thing which is still synonymous with OnePlus product is its desire towards delivering a perfect smartphone. It is this desire that has the company towards producing great products that compete with flagships in the market.
The company has recently launched its much-awaited offering the OnePlus 5 in the Indian market. The device carries a definitive stamp of OnePlus quality – the front of this device is encased in a 2.5D curved glass which seamlessly flows to the edges of the device.
The Design Element
One of the first things we noticed with the all new device – OnePlus 5 was its unique design. The smooth edges, the slimness factor and its size – all these attributes make this a perfect device in today’s scenario. The rear of the smartphone comes with an anodized aluminium with curved edges, which gives the device a perfect touch feel. When you hold it, you know it’s a premium device.
The front panel of the device houses the home button and the fingerprint sensor along with the two capacitive buttons for menu and back on the bottom. The earpiece, front camera, and ambient light sensor are placed towards the top of the device.
If you closely look at it – the design factor is pretty much similar to its predecessor – the OnePlus 3T. The volume rockers, power button and the alert slider can be found at around the edges. The OnePlus 5 is slightly slimmer than the OnePlus 3T.
Owing to its super slim design it can be easily kept inside any pocket and is easy to hold as well. While reviewing this device, we played games, played videos, browsed internet and used maps – our user experience on this device was lightning fast – this is primarily driven by its 8GB RAM and the SD835 processor – this combination makes sure that there is no lag in the performance of this device.
Display
OnePlus 5 comes with a 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED panel display sporting a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi). With colors looking vibrant and full of life – this display delivers a perfect viewing experience, it’s a delight to watch movies on this device.
During our daily use, we have extensively used this device – no matter what we did, we experienced no lag in its performance – unlocking the phone with the fingerprint and placing a call was quite fast (around 2 seconds or so).
Another aspect which is related to its camera performance is that focusing and firing the shutter action has also been made quicker. On this front, OnePlus claims that this device focusing and firing the shutter is about 40 per cent faster than the OnePlus 3T.
Battery Performance
When it comes to battery, the OnePlus 5 is equipped with a non-removable 3300mAh battery. This battery delivers great performance of well over a day and a half — this is driven by the power saving features by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 10nm chipset. And of course this comes coupled with OnePlus’ proprietary Dash Charging technology – with the help of this we were able to charge the device in under 80 minutes.
Camera Performance
One of the most appealing attribute of OnePlus 5 is its dual camera – and it is sure to impress the photographer in you. Giving photography wings to imagination of users, most of the smartphones today are becoming photographic tools and this device perfectly sits well in this segment.
It is important to note that the dual lens combination offered with OnePlus 5 is quite uniquely different than the usual dual camera smartphones which have one sensor each for wide-angle and monochrome – OnePlus 5 has a 16-megapixel primary lens and a secondary 20-megapixel telephoto lens. This capability provides tremendous photographic power towards shooting portrait images with blurred backgrounds (the Bokeh effect) as easy as a DSLR.
All in all, we found the camera to deliver excellent results while playing with a combination of landscape, macro, bokeh, and low light modes. Powered by a great combination of dual camera, wonderful battery and a powerful chipset heart – the OnePlus 5 is ideally poised to give a serious competition to the Samsung Galaxy S8 or Apple iPhone 7 Plus.
And especially if you look at the powerful specs – with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal memory – in our opinion OnePlus 5 is a clear winner as it offers great performance and superlative experience at a cost effective price point of INR 37,999, if compared to rival flagships — the iPhone 7 Plus starts at a whopping INR 62,000 and the Samsung S8 costs INR 58,000.
Final Verdict
OnePlus 5 comes as a fresh breeze of air when it comes to elegant design that is meaningful too. And the power packed performance delivered by this device makes a big difference for power users.
Comfortably placed at mid price range – OnePlus 5 is delivering incredible performance and hence, it is bound to give great competition to existing and costly flagship products from Apple or Samsung.
This is surely a premium quality device that can be had at ‘not so premium’ price point.
