In one word? Yes.
The OnePlus 5 mania has gripped the smartphone buyer, and hype around the ¡®flagship killer¡¯ is at an all-time high. It promises a whole lot of features, without charging a whole lot of money. Seems too good to be true, right?
Here¡¯s a few thoughts on the OnePlus 5¡ for now.
If there¡¯s one thing that¡¯s hands down awesome about the OnePlus 5 then it has to be its quick-charging feature. The OnePlus 5 can go from 0 to under 50% battery in just 30 minutes. You don¡¯t see that in every phone!
Granted it's only (can¡¯t believe I¡¯m saying this!) Full HD -- that¡¯s 1920x1080 pixels -- but the Optic AMOLED screen reproduces very good colour contrast, and the slightly oversaturated panel makes colours pop. The screen also supports a DCI-P3 colour gamut, similar to the iPhone 7¡¯s -- which is a wider colour range, allowing the screen to display more colour than some other phones which only support sRGB (slightly inferior colour range). But this only matters if your eyes can detect the minute differences!
OnePlus has making a big deal about the OP5¡¯s rear dual camera -- which includes a 16MP wide-angle lens and 20MP telephoto lens -- and the camera is very good. It lacks optical image stabilization, but it captures images very quickly. And the image quality is quite good, even in low light, thanks to the camera¡¯s wider f/1.7 aperture. But on closer scrutiny, when you zoom into images they aren¡¯t as detailed as you¡¯d imagine -- due to noise.
The OnePlus 5 is the sleekest OnePlus phone till date, and it feels premium on touch. It¡¯s aluminium body, smooth and curved edges leaves no doubt in your mind that it isn¡¯t an ordinary phone. But it¡¯s a little too similar to past OnePlus phones, at first glance. There¡¯s nothing new in terms of a wow moment in the build and design department, to be honest, especially when you compare it with other flagships. Also, the phone isn¡¯t waterproof.
Skinned minimalistically on top of Android Nougat 7.1, OnePlus 5¡¯s OxygenOS doesn¡¯t overwhelm the stock Android experience, but still adds a whole lot of unique customizations which are useful. Things like the app drawer, audio profiles, and display mode are carefully thought out -- they are anything but bloaty. And with the new ¡°Reading Mode¡±, where the OnePlus 5 cuts down blue light (which causes exhaustion in the eyes) and makes the screen look like an Amazon Kindle¡¯s. These are all very good innovations baked into the OnePlus 5¡¯s operating system.
The OnePlus 5 runs on the latest 10nm octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip clocked at 2.45 GHz and 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM. These are specs comparable with most modern laptops! This makes the OnePlus 5 lightning quick in terms of executing tasks -- whether it¡¯s multitasking, playing games, listening to music or watching videos. Everything is snappy, which is just great!
Even though the OnePlus 5 has 3300 mAh battery, lesser than the OnePlus 3T¡¯s 3400 mAh, it still doesn¡¯t feel less. Because of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, the battery lasts longer and doesn¡¯t get hot at any time. Win win!
Then there¡¯s that thing about the OnePlus 5¡¯s price. At Rs 37,999, the OnePlus 5 offers near flagship like features at a lower price point. If you opt for the 64GB version with 6GB RAM, everything else remains the same, and the price of the handset drops to Rs 32,999 -- which is significantly lower than the likes of the Google Pixel XL, Apple iPhone 7 Plus or the Samsung Galaxy S8.
Right now, all things considered, the OnePlus seems to be pretty much the best Android smartphone to buy. But it doesn¡¯t seem to be a flagship killer -- which is what OnePlus was all about. It's just a very good phone available at an attractive price. What's not to like?
So are you buying one?