OnePlus 5T Review

Overview

While 2015 marked the first year for OnePlus that launched two smartphones from the brand, it was 2016 with OnePlus 3 and 3T that marked a trend that's here to stay. Quadrophobia made the manufacturer to launch the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T in 2017. While the differences between OP3 and OP3T lie in the chipset, front camera setup and battery capacity, the main differences between OP5 and OP5T are hidden in the display, design and second rear camera. The company has shared that OnePlus 5T is the most expensive smartphone it has made, yet it has retained a price tag of around USD 500 aiming to maintain the "affordable flagship" status of its smartphones. After reading our in-depth review of OnePlus 5T below you'll be definitely able to reply to yourself whether the 5T offers a real upgrade over the OP5.

Specifications

OnePlus 5T (A5010) is built around a 6.01-inch Optic AMOLED display with an FHD+ resolution (1080 x 1920 pixels) and a pixel density of 401 ppi. It is protected by a 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and graces a thin and lightweight body made of anodized aluminium that houses a 3300 mAh battery - the same one found on OnePlus 5. Of course, it is coupled with a 5V/4A DASH charger. The device is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 MSM8998 chipset that houses an octa-core Kryo CPU with four cores clocked at 2.45GHz and the other four - at 1.9GHz. A 710MHz Adreno 540 GPU manages the graphics department. The model has two variants in terms of RAM and storage combo - a 6GB+64GB one and an 8GB+128GB one. The RAM is double-channel, LPDDR4X type, clocked at 1866MHz. The internal memory is UFS 2.1 2-LANE one and cannot be expanded in either version. The advanced chipset ensures advanced connectivity options, which in OnePlus 5T include support for 35 network bands across the globe, 4G LTE Cat. 12/Cat. 13 speeds, VoLTE, NFC with Android Beam and Tap & Pay, Bluetooth 5 with aptX & aptX HD support, DLNA, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with 2x2 MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display. There's no radio, but the device is equipped with a 3.5 mm jack and a USB Type-C 2.0 that supports OTG and USB Audio. The model works with all satellite positioning systems currently available: GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo. The audio setup includes Dirac HD Sound, 3-microphone noise cancellation, AANC support, a single bottom-facing speaker. OnePlus 5T retains the dual camera setup but has changed the sensor for the second rear camera. Hence on the back, there are a 16-megapixel Sony IMX398 Exmor RS and a 6-element lens with an f/1.7 aperture. The second rear shooter is equipped with a 20-megapixel Sony IMX376 Exmor RS sensor and an f/1.7 lens. Both cameras are aided by a dual-LED flash, CAF and PDAF. The front-facing snapper relies on a 16-megapixel Sony IMX371 Exmor RS sensor with an f/2.0 lens. There's a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor from Fingerprint Cards/Goodix. OnePlus smartphones arrive either with Oxygen OS (international version) or Hydrogen OS (China version). Our review unit runs on Oxygen OS 4.7.6 based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

Full OnePlus 5T (A5010) specifications.

What's in the box

There are no surprises as long as it concerns packaging and box contents. OnePlus 5T is placed inside the signature red and white box with the brand and model names imprinted on top of the lid and its sides. While the OnePlus 5 box bore the "Dual camera. Clearer photos" slogan, the box of OnePlus 5T has a sign reading "A New View". The smartphone lies in a solid plastic "bed" that's part of a thick red envelope containing a number of accessories. Below them, the charger and cable are positioned. Here's a detailed list of the contents:

• 5V/4A DASH charger (US plug)
• USB Type-C data cable
• SIM tray pin
• Transparent silicone case in dark grey colour
• Quick start guide