I recently got my retail unit of OnePlus 5T from Amazon and to be honest switching from OnePlus 5 seems to be a pretty good deal for now. The fewer bezels on the front make it look more like a phone made in 2017 and the price tag almost makes it an irresistible deal.
The new OnePlus 5T does not have much to differentiate from its predecessor, probably one of the main distinguishing features is the display and the 18:9 aspect ratio.
After spending two days with the phone and using it extensively, I’ve had my initial impressions on the phone. I do not want to get on the full review just yet but this overview will give you an idea of how different is this device from OnePlus 5 and how some of the newer features like face recognition and low light photography preform.
OnePlus is known to provide premium looking mobiles at a price tag which is far less than other flagships and that is the case with OnePlus 5T. On unboxing you get a premium looking device with an almost bezel-less screen put up front. Along with the handset itself, the box contains the Dash Charger and Type-C cable.
Unlike any other premium smartphone of 2017 OnePlus still has a headphone jack which is actually pretty great.
Design
OnePlus 5T has the same exact design as its predecessor, you won’t see any difference between both the devices until the front is visible and the screen size shows the difference. As the bezels on OnePlus 5T are quite less, there was no room for placing fingerprint reader on the front, so the company decided to place the fingerprint reader on the back similar to we are used to seeing on Pixel and other devices.
The position of the fingerprint scanner is really great which rests on the finger pretty nicely, this is not some weird stuff like Samsung did.
The camera bump on the backside is now slightly more pronounced, probably because of the fewer bezels on the top.
Display
OnePlus has decided to take similar footsteps as other flagship smartphones of 2017 and decided to go with 18:9 aspect ratio which was earlier 16:9 in OnePlus 5. The screen is now bigger, it is 6-inch Full-HD AMOLED display.
Camera
This is one of the significant changes besides the screen that OnePlus 5T has, OnePlus decided to replace the telephoto lens on OnePlus 5 with a 20MP ordinary shooter on OnePlus 5T. The secondary camera is also f/1.7 aperture along with primary 16MP f/1.7 aperture camera.
@oneplus 5T vs @oneplus 5 Low light camera test. (Guess which picture taken from which camera) #OnePlus5t @MKBHD https://t.co/Wh9S0kFRSo @TechnicalGuruji @UnboxTherapy pic.twitter.com/wy09NXuCHj
— KNineVOX (@KNineVox) November 25, 2017
OnePlus 5T still provides the 2X zoom but still, it is digital zoom as there is no telephoto lens. OnePlus said the inclusion of second 20MP camera is to focus on good low light photography. Well, we tied both OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T in similar low light conditions the results were actually good in OnePlus 5T.
On the front, it has a 16MP f/2.0 camera which does provide portrait mode photography.
Hardware
OnePlus 5T packs the same hardware as was in OnePlus 5. It has a Snapdragon 835 with 6GB/8GB of RAM and an internal storage of 64GB/128GB. This spec sheet can handle about anything that you throw at it.
It has got the same volume rockers, the power button, and very useful notification switch.
Face Recognition
OnePlus decided to add a new security feature which was face recognition and to our surprise, it was working quite amazingly and was accurate most of the times. But OnePlus has said that face recognition is not completely secure but in our testing, it seemed quite fast and worked good in daylight.
Overall 5T looks like a good replacement for OnePlus 5, it takes all the positives from OnePlus 5 and adds a stunning display and refines the software a bit. It provides almost stock Android experience and that at a similar price of OnePlus 5.
We will come up with a detailed review of the device and will uncover all the pros and cons this device feature. For that stay tuned to us on twitter and facebook and subscribe to our newsletter.