OnePlus 5T Finally Launched! Should You Ditch Your OnePlus 5?

After innumerable leaks and rumours, OnePlus has finally launched the much-anticipated OnePlus 5T at an event in New York.

It’s been less than four months since the OnePlus 5 was released, and the 5T is already here. This is bound to disappoint the current OnePlus 5 owners whose latest smartphone is already obsolete in less than 6 months!

The new OnePlus 5T has the same specifications as the OnePlus 5, except for the 18:9 screen and upgraded camera setup.

OnePlus 5T – Specifications & Features

The company has claimed that they have made the OnePlus 5T based on feedback received from users and claim to have developed the most appealing smartphone ever.

Design

The OnePlus 5T retains a lot of similarity with it’s predecessor, the OnePlus 5 except for a few changes. The smartphone features a fully anodized aluminum metal unibody build. At the back, the dual camera setup protrudes even more.

Due to the bezel-less screen, the fingerprint scanner has been moved to the back panel and navigation controls are now on screen. The phone is a lot taller now, thanks to its new 18:9 display.

Display

The smartphone now boasts a 6 inch bezel-less Full HD+ Optic AMOLED display. It has a screen resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels with 401PPI pixel density and a screen aspect ratio of 18:9.

OnePlus 5T has a respectable 80.5% screen-to-body ratio. The display is protected by a 2.5D Curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection.

Hardware

OnePlus 5T will be powered by Qualcomm’s most powerful processor yet, the Snapdragon 835 clocked at 2.45Ghz, coupled with Adreno 540 GPU. OnePlus is using LPDDR 4X RAM for their newest flagship, which will be available in two RAM variants, 6GB and 8GB.

Software

The 5T will run its customised Oxygen OS based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. The company has promised an Android 8.0 Oreo update by early 2018.

Storage

The OnePlus 5T will be available in two options like OnePlus 5; 6GB RAM + 64GB storage and 8GB RAM + 128GB storage. The phone will support Dual SIMs with no option for expanding storage.

Camera

The dual cameras on OnePlus 5T is a combination of 16MP+20MP sensors, which is an upgrade from OnePlus 5’s dual 16MP sensors. The primary sensor is a 16 MP Sony IMX 398 sensor with an f/1.7 aperture and the secondary 20 MP sensor comes with f/1.7 aperture and ‘Intelligent Pixel technology’.

The new camera can now take better low-light images. They have made significant software upgrades for a better camera performance. Up front, the device will sport a 16MP selfie-shooter with a 1 micron pixel Sony IMX 371 sensor and f/2.0 aperture.

Connectivity

OnePlus 5T will support dual SIMs and all major 4G LTE bands with 4G VoLTE. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v5.0, NFC, GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou. It has all the requisite sensors on board with a USB Type C port and a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack.

Battery

The 5T gets the same 3,300mAh battery that does duty on the OnePlus 5, with Dash Charge support. The company has claimed that the battery can last a whole day with just half an hour of charge. The new software and hardware optimizations will ensure better performance.

Pricing

The pricing came as a pleasant surprise. OnePlus has hit its competitors hard, again, with the pricing. The 6GB+64GB variant of OnePlus 5T will cost Rs. 32,999/- and the 8GB+128GB variant will cost Rs. 37,999/-.

Yes, those are the exact prices that the OnePlus 5 variants were available for. The new OnePlus 5T will soon replace the older OnePlus 5 in markets.

Availability

OnePlus 5T will be available officially in India starting from November 21 exclusively via Amazon and OnePlus Online Store.

Our Thoughts

So, the crucial question? Should you upgrade to the OnePlus 5T if you are rocking a OnePlus 5? We say, “No”! The OnePlus 5 is an excellent smartphone and still a flagship. The 5T has the exact same internals, right down to the battery capacity.

It doesn’t make sense to ditch the OnePlus 5 and buy an essentially same phone, albeit with a bigger, bezel-less display and slightly improved camera. Now if you have a OnePlus 3 or a 3T, and don’t want to wait for the next iteration, then the OnePlus 5T will make a great smartphone purchase for you.