Dual cameras. Large bezels. 1080p screen. One may think this is an iPhone being described, but this is actually Chinese tech company OnePlus’s new flagship, the OnePlus 5. A modest upgrade from the 3 & 3T handsets from last year, let’s dive in and see what’s changed. First off, the design. Many outlets, including us at the beginning of the article, have said this phone strongly resembles Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus. However, the OnePlus 5 was actually modeled off it’s sister company Oppo’s R11. The phone comes in two colors, Slate Grey & Midnight Black, and sports an aluminum build. It has two cameras on the top-left of the device, one being a 16-megapixel sensor with a f/1.7 aperture (which is good), & a 20-megapixel telephoto lens. However, even though these specs seem promising, early reviews point out that the camera continues to lag behind those of Apple & Google, especially in low light situations. Turn the OnePlus 5 around and you’ll see a 16-megapixel selfie camera. Below that camera is a 1080p, 5.5–inch display, similar to that of the 3T. OnePlus has taken a lot of heat for keeping with a 1080p display, but in my experience with 1080p phones it’s hard to even tell that the resolution is low. OnePlus also removed the pee-yellow colour for night mode & introduced ‘reading mode,’ which turns the display to monochrome for books or long articles. OxygenOS, OnePlus’s Android skin, continues to be a pleasure to use. It’s near-stock, but comes with several great improvements, especially for tinkerers. It works well with the OnePlus 5's impressive spec sheet. That means the Snapdragon 825 chip, Adreno 540 GPU, and 8 gigabytes of RAM on the higher end model. It also has a 330 mAh battery, which roughly amounts to 4–5 hours of screen-on time. While the battery is pretty normal, OnePlus is again packing their phones with Dash Charge products, which can charge the phone to around 60% of battery in only 30 minutes. Finally, the price. OnePlus has always been famous for being a budget phone brand, but the OnePlus 5 is it’s most expensive phone yet. The lowest-end model costs $479, while the highest-end model goes up to $539. At these prices, it merits the question: “Why not just spend one hundred dollars more & get a Galaxy S8, iPhone 7, or Pixel?” That’s a question for another article, of course, but it still would be wise to observe the OnePlus 5 for the months to come. Roan Thibault is the editor-in-chief of Mirror Journal. Please note that this is not a review and should not be treated as such.
Comments are closed.
|
NewsThis page is filled with bite-size tidbits of technology news as it breaks. Archives
September 2017
|