OnePlus 5 Review

OnePlus is a known brand for creating a smartphone that has a flagship or premium hardware but still manage to have a lower price compared to its competitors with almost the same specifications. Recently, their newest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 5 has been made available in the Philippines. Well, It’s a really decent smartphone as this one packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and up to 8GB of RAM. Not only that, the smartphone is also the first from the brand that comes with a dual lens camera. Interested? Check out our review of the smartphone below.

A simple but sexy design

The OnePlus 5’s design is simple for a flagship but the smartphone does have a premium feel and materials. On the front, there’s no curved display just a 5.5-inch Full HD display and at the back, you could see and feel the metal back that feels really premium and ergonomic to hold. The curves of the phone feel just right and it’s very handy to my hand and oh yes, the smartphone is really thin and sexy.

Below the 5.5-inch Full HD display on the front is the home button and also the two capacitive buttons. The home button of the smartphone also serves as the fingerprint scanner that can’t be pressed down like the iPhone 7 while there are the two capacitive buttons beside it that also serves as the back and recent task button. However, it annoys me that these capacitive buttons appear only as two dots which is really confusing if you’re switching smartphones. Nonetheless, it isn’t a dealbreaker because you could actually switch those button assignments.

One weird thing with the OnePlus 5 is the inclusion of the volume slider which is placed on the upper left of the smartphone. This volume slider lets you choose between silent, do not disturb, and ring. Very convenient for some people but I still prefer to use the volume rocker which is placed below it. The power button of the smartphone is also placed on the right which is really accessible but you can just use the fingerprint scanner to easily wake up the device.

Below the smartphone is where you can find the USB Type-C, speaker grill, and of course, the 3.5 mm audio jack. Yep, thankfully they listened to consumers and they didn’t ditch the audio jack in exchange of courage. The speaker does fare well in my use and I’m actually satisfied with it.

One thing that you gotta hate with the OnePlus 5 is the lack of expandable storage but c’mon man. The OnePlus 5 comes in 64GB or 128GB which is pretty spacious enough. I mean, why would you need more than 128GB of storage for a smartphone.

At the back, you can see the dual lens camera along with the LED Flash. I know, the back of the smartphone is very similar to the on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in where some people might find it boring and uninspiring. But for me? It’s just fine. The OnePlus 5 just proves that their smartphone is a great iPhone 7 Plus alternative.

A fine Full HD display

Some people might argue that the OnePlus 5 only packs a 1080p display in a world where flagships now pack a QHD or more display. Well, with the OnePlus 5, it might only be 1080p but the AMOLED display is pretty damn fine. The display is vibrant and the colors are just right. It’s 16:9 unlike the LG G6 and Galaxy S8 but the display of the OnePlus 5 packs only a small bezel which is gorgeous and still fine to hold. The OnePlus 5 is probably one of the best if not the best 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display that I’ve seen

A powerful hardware inside

The best thing about the OnePlus 5 is the hardware inside it. It’s the most powerful smartphone that you can find out there. Inside the smartphone is Qualcomm’s best Snapdragon 835 processor and then there’s the 8GB of RAM. If you opted for the more affordable OnePlus 5, you’ll get the 64GB storage with 6GB of RAM.

Yes, the OnePlus 5 is accused of cheating in the benchmarks but who the hell cares. This is the most powerful smartphone that you can get right now. I’ve been playing different games on this smartphone and I’ve set it to the highest settings and I didn’t see any of these games slowed down or lagged. I’ve played NBA 2k17, GTA:SA, Lineage II, GTA:LCS, Mobile Legends and yes, no problems at all. This smartphone is just damn fast and amazing. Oh, and if you’re curious about the benchmarks, the smartphone managed to get a score of 178,719 on Antutu. Jesus.

A smooth and flawless software

One of the strengths of having a OnePlus smartphone is its software. They’re using their own OxygenOS which is based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The experience of the smartphone is near stock and the smartphone just loads fast and without problems. The UI is snappy and I barely experience any slowdowns with it.

And yes, there are no bloatware on this smartphone. The OnePlus 5 is just smooth and snappy AF.

It’s long-lasting

The OnePlus 5 packs a 3300mAh of battery despite its thin and sexy profile. The smartphone’s battery life is actually pretty good and I’m pretty sure that the smartphone can last a day with average to heavy use. In my use, I was using the smartphone at 9 AM and the battery conks out at around 10 PM. Not bad if you ask me. And in case you want to charge your smartphone quickly, the OnePlus 5 comes with Dash Charge which lets you charge up to 60% from 0 in just 30 minutes.

The Dual-Lens camera

The OnePlus 5 is the first smartphone from the company that packs a dual lens camera. The dual lens camera of the smartphone works similarly to the iPhone 7 Plus but this time, it only has 1.6x of optical zoom. But still, that’s not bad! The main sensor of the smartphone is a 16-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture while the secondary sensor is the 20-megapixel telephoto lens with only f/2.6 aperture.

Again, the camera of the smartphone works similarly to the iPhone 7 Plus and the camera software of the smartphone is just fine and very user-friendly. The smartphone can take decent sharp photos and the color reproduction of the OnePlus 5 is pretty good, however, in portrait mode, I notice that the quality of the photos isn’t as good as the on normal photo mode.

Yes, the portrait mode can take shots with good bokeh and the blurring was on point however I noticed that the portrait mode isn’t as sharp on normal mode but nonetheless, the quality of the portrait mode shot is still acceptable. Check out the shots that I took using the smartphone:

 Verdict

The OnePlus 5 is a great smartphone. Yes, there are a lot of things to praise about the OnePlus 5 but compared to other flagship smartphones there are still some features that the OnePlus 5 lacks like the lack of water-resistance and also a curve or a near bezel-less display. But despite that, the smartphone still looks and feels great. The hardware is top notch, the battery life is long, software is great, and the camera isn’t the best one in the industry but it still performed well.

Well, If you’re looking for a cheaper flagship smartphone and you don’t care about the gimmicks like the curved display and water-resistance then the OnePlus 5 is the right flagship smartphone for you. The OnePlus 5 is now available at Widget City and it comes in 6/64GB and 8/128GB variants.

Get the OnePlus 5 here: http://www.widgetcity.com.ph/one-plus-5