OnePlus 5T

OnePlus has made a name for themselves as one of the best affordable flagship phones on the market. But the OnePlus 5T comes just 5 months after the release of the OnePlus 5. Does it have enough updates to warrant a purchase?

Read more below!

Compared the previous models, the most notable difference of the 5T is its slimmed down bezels. It swaps out the thicker bezels of the 5 for no bezels on the right and left sides and very thin ones on the top and bottom. It’s a little thicker and taller than the OnePlus 5 and only 9 grams heavier despite the larger screen.

While experts were quite happy with the look, they also note this design change removes the capacitive buttons and the home button. There is still a fingerprint sensor, but it has been moved to the back of the phone. This leave menu navigation, multitasking and other features to the on-screen buttons.

For everyone who dislikes the migration to Bluetooth headphones or USB-C connections, you’re in luck. The 5T still offers the 3.5mm jack.

Like the 5, the 5T’s body is made of anodized aluminum. Despite the slight curve to the sides, reviewers were found the sharp edges made the phone uncomfortable to hold. They also mention that it’s quite slippery, which further exacerbated the sharp edges.

The real show-stealer, however, is the 6-inch 2160 x 1080 pixel AMOLED screen. As expected, experts praise the overall clarity of the display. But it’s not just sharp. They also were blown away by its deep blacks, excellent color reproduction and range, and sunlight legibility. Digital Trends go so far as to call it “wonderful.”

Internal specs haven’t changed at all from the OnePlus 5. It has the same Snapdragon octa-core processor and offers two models: 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage or 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage.

In testing, critics didn’t notice any significant difference between the 6GB or 8GB model when put through the standard benchmark tests. This reflected in their real life tests as well. There was no lag, stutters or crashes in either model, making for a very smooth experience even when pushing the phone with graphics-intensive games or multitasking.

The 3,300mAh battery exceeded reviewer’s expectations as it lasted them a day and a half with moderate usage. It also comes with a proprietary quick charge system called Dash Charge. This allowed them to fully charge their phone in less than 90 minutes or 60% in only 30 minutes.

The camera bump on the back might have gotten larger, according to experts, but that doesn’t equate to more zoom. In fact, OnePlus has dropped the telephoto lens and instead replaced it with a standard 20-megapixel lens for better low light pictures.

While perfectly usable, critics weren’t overly impressed with the image quality, especially in low light situations. For the most part, images were decent but didn’t stand up to images taken on the Pixel 2.

With that said, they were quite happy with the overall color accuracy, sharpness, and saturation of pictures when taken in regular light. They did notice zoom-in photos look blurry and splotchy when compared to the 5. But this is expected as the 5T only uses digital zoom.

Overall, reviewers highly recommend the OnePlus 5T to people who don’t already have the OnePlus 5. Tom’s Guide states, “…it is a perfectly focused device that achieves everything it sets out to do.” Wired adds, “If you want the best, but don’t want to spend the most, the OnePlus 5T is right up there with the fanciest Android phones money can buy, all for hundreds less.”