After a series of many leaks and revelations, Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus on Tuesday finally launched its most awaited much-awaited flagship smartphone and the successor of the OnePlus 3/ 3T from last year, dubbed as the “OnePlus 5” at a global event. The main highlights of the smartphone are its all-new design, latest and fastest Snapdragon 835 processor, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, Full HD Optic AMOLED display, and Dual-rear camera setup.
Pricing and Availability:
The OnePlus 5 will be available in two variants, wherein one comes with 6GB RAM/64GB inbuilt storage variant at a price tag of $479 (approximately Rs. 31,000) and the second variant comes with 8GB RAM/128GB inbuilt storage, which is priced at $539 (approximately Rs 35,000). The smartphone will be made available for purchase in the US starting June 27 in Slate Gray and Midnight Black colour options. At the moment, the OnePlus is the most powerful smartphone (in its range) from OnePlus and will compete against other flagship-class smartphones in India, although the availability and pricing of the device in India is still unknown. Don’t worry, the second generation “flagship killer” will be officially made its debut in the Indian smartphone market at 4:30pm IST on Thursday, June 22, with sales of the smartphone expected to commence on the same day on Amazon India, and India pricing and availably will be disclosed then. The company is also holding pop-up events (where OnePlus fans will have the opportunity to use the new smartphone and even purchase the OnePlus 5 purchase offline), in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai over the next few days. The speculated India pricing of the OnePlus 5 is Rs. 32,999 for the base model (6GB RAM/64GB) and Rs. 37,999 for the top-end model (8GB RAM/128GB).
So now the question is why OnePlus going straight to 5, apparently skipping OnePlus 4? Because the number four is considered unlucky in China, where OnePlus is based. However, the company said that the naming of its upcoming flagship didn’t factor, but was rather influenced by the number five jersey of former NBA player Robert Horry, who is liked person by a number of OnePlus employees.
OnePlus 5 design:
In terms of design, the OnePlus 5 sports a sleek Anodised Aluminium chassis with a Horizon Line all around, making it a “slimmest OnePlus flagship yet”. “The new crescent-shaped antenna blends seamlessly into the top and bottom edges of the phone to maintain an elegant, minimalist look,” the company says. Basically, the OnePlus 5 looks very identical to the Apple iPhone 7 Plus with respect to design, including the horizontal rear-side dual camera arrangement. The new OnePlus 5 also features hardware capacitive buttons (with the option of onscreen navigation) and a front-mounted fingerprint scanner, that is housed underneath the physical Home Button of the device. The company claims that the fingerprint sensor will unlock the phone in just 0.2 seconds. The volume rockers are placed on the left-hand edge along with OnePlus toggle switch (Alert Slider) for different modes, while the power/lock button is situated on the right-hand edge of the smartphone. The speaker grilles, mic, a 3.5mm audio socket and a USB Type-C charging port are all housed at the very bottom edge of the smartphones. The rear panel houses a 20MP+16MP dual rear camera setup with an LED flash module, while the top front panel features a 16MP selfie camera and an earpiece.
OnePlus 5 Camera:
In terms of photography, the OnePlus 5 smartphone comes with a dual rear camera setup along with an LED flash module. OnePlus 5 claims that the new flagship phone sports the “highest resolution dual-camera system on a smartphone today”. Among these two camera, the main camera sports a 16-megapixel Sony IMX398 sensor with a large f/1.7 aperture and 1.12-micron pixels, while another camera comes with a 20-megapixel telephoto lens with Sony IMX350 sensor, 1-micron pixels) and an f/2.6 aperture. The rear camera features include 2X lossless Zoom, 8X digital Zoom, fast AF (autofocus), Portrait Mode, Pro mode with manual control, Face Detection, RAW format support, histogram and 4K video recording with EIS, ISO, white balance, shutter-speed, etc. On the front, OnePlus 5 features a 16-megapixel front-facing shooter with an f/2.0 aperture and 1-micron pixel Sony IMX371 sensor. Selfie camera features include auto HDR mode, screen flash and full HD 1080p video recording support.
OnePlus 5 Specifications and Features:
In terms of specifications, OnePlus 5 comes equipped with a 5.5-inch full-HD Optic AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a scratch resistance 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 coating on top. The display supports sRGB and DCI-P3 colour standards, which gives more realistic colour output. The device is powered by a latest 64-bit 2.45GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor coupled with Adreno 540 image processing unit that offers up to 25 percent more graphical performance. In terms of memory, the OnePlus 5 is backed by a 6GB/8GB of RAM and 64/128 GB of internal storage, which can’t be further expanded due to the absence of microSD card slot. The OnePlus 5 now features LPDDR4X RAM, which the company claims it is 17 percent more power efficient than the previous LPDDR4 model. Talking about its software fronts, the dual-SIM (Nano-SIM) OnePlus 5 runs company’s proprietary OxygenOS custom UI skin, based on Google’s latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. The latest OxygenOS version introduces notable changes to the OS (operating system) and its development platform. So all the latest features of the OS are present in the device such as Reading Mode, Expanded Screenshots, Auto Night Mode, Secure Box, and Gaming Do Not Disturb Mode.
In terms of Connectivity, the OnePlus 5 supports dual-SIM dual standby using the (nano-SIM + nano-SIM) slot. Connectivity options on the smartphone also include 4G voLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with MIMO, NFC, GPS/A-GPS/Glonass, BeiDou, a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB 2.0 Type-C port for superfast charging and data transfer. The OnePlus 5 is fuelled by a decent 3,300mAh non-removable battery with company’s Dash Charge technology support for fast-charging. The OnePlus 5 sports a slightly smaller battery compared to its predecessor, the OnePlus 3T, which had 100mAh extra battery capacity. But the OnePlus 5 smartphone’s power management processes and software optimisations allows to deliver 20 percent more battery life than the OnePlus 3T. The Dash Charge can charge the phone up to 60 per cent in just 30 minutes. Sensors on the device include a Proximity sensor, E-Compass, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Ambient light sensor and Fingerprint (front-mounted) sensor. Dimensionally, the handset measures 154.2 x 74.1 x 7.25mm and weighs just 153 grams.
