OnePlus 5 (Review) has grabbed all the attention in the smartphone industry over the past week as it joined the ranks of the handful of devices with the Snapdragon 835 processor inside. The smartphone has gone on sale once already, but is out of stock on Amazon India for now, though you can grab one at the pop-up events in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bengaluru on Saturday. If buying OnePlus 5, whether offline or online, is indeed on your mind, there are a few things you need to know about it as there are a few things that have gotten buried in all the hype surrounding the smartphone.
Tune in to our 'Ask us anything' on YouTube and Facebook at 2pm today if you have any questions related to the OnePlus 5, and we will do our best to answer them.
Much like the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, the OnePlus 5 comes with a scratch guard installed out of the box. For some, it’s a convenience, as it means you don’t have to spend extra on the scratch guard, but for others there’s an unnecessary step of removing it prior to use. It’s a perplexing addition all the same considering that the OnePlus 5 boasts 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5. In the box you get a Dash Charger, SIM tray ejection pin, and a post card from OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei talking up your new purchase.
Despite most Android flagships moving on from full-HD to QHD - and some even 4K - for a couple of years now, OnePlus is still making do with 1080x1920 pixels on the OnePlus 5 screen. It doesn’t look as sharp or crisp as say, the LG G6 (review) or the Samsung Galaxy S8 (review), and is still is one area where OnePlus lags behind the competition, as every one of its flagships since the OnePlus One sports the same resolution - so if you're looking to upgrade from something like the Nexus 6P, for example, then you'll actually be going down in resolution. But for most users, this shouldn’t be too much of a concern.
Another miss is the lack of any form waterproofing or dust resistance. Don’t expect Samsung Galaxy S8-like IP68 certification either. Perhaps it’s the price to pay for a slimmer profile of 7.25mm, versus the S8's 8mm thickness? Regardless of the reason, it’s a perplexing omission in 2017, as even the iPhone 7 (Review) is now fairly water resistant.
As expected, Dash Charging - the company’s proprietary quick-charging tech - makes a welcome return with the OnePlus 5. And while the OnePlus 5’s charger is bulkier and boxier than that of previous variants - it looks more like an iPad charger - you can use a OnePlus 3 or 3T charger as well, which is smaller and easier to carry. You won’t be able to charge as fast as compared to using the OnePlus 5’s charger, but it still works a fair bit faster than using a generic cable and charger.
It might be one of the thinnest phones on the market, but the OnePlus5 still sports a camera bump, although not without good reason. There’s a 16-megapixel main camera, along with a 20-megapixel telephoto camera, to allow for portraits shots and clearer zoom. What this means is that much like the iPhone 7 Plus, LG G6, and Huawei P10 (among others) the OnePlus 5 is capable of taking those bokeh shots that are all the rage, though the dual camera setup has a few quirks. For example, the second camera can only be used to zoom in when in brightly lit surroundings. Also, the video mode is lacking compared to the OnePlus 3T, with 4K recording having no stabilisation at all. You can read about these concerns at length in our OnePlus 5 review.
We discussed everything you need to know about the OnePlus 5, its price in India, and how it compares against the competition on Orbital, Gadgets 360's weekly technology podcast. You can subscribe to Orbital via Apple Podcasts or RSS or just listen to this episode by hitting the play button below.
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