OnePlus 5 Launched In India Starting At Rs 32,999: The Best And The Worst

OnePlus 5, the most awaited and highly anticipated smartphone of the year, is finally here and the smartphone has been launched in two variants in India. The 6GB/64GB variant is priced at Rs 32,999 and the 8GB/128GB variants will cost you Rs 37,999. Yes, you read it right. Gone are the days when you can have a flagship killer under the sub-Rs 30,000 mark because OnePlus 5 is here with ‘More’, at least that’s what the company said.

Were you expecting top-notch specs at a rock-bottom price? Well, you were mistaken. It’s not like OnePlus 5 doesn’t come with some of the best features for a flagship killer, it’s just the fact that the price tag has made it one of the mainstream flagship, the likes of which OnePlus 5 will be competing against.

OnePlus 5, by far, is the costliest smartphone from the brand but while the 6GB/64GB variant will sell like hot cakes, it’s the 8GB/128GB variant that will have to justify its price. Yes, it has an SD 835 Chipset, it even has a dual camera setup but with around 25% extra moohlas, a user can for either an iPhone or Google Pixel, which, until last year, was not possible.

OnePlus 3T, the smartphone that OnePlus 5 will be replaced made a segment of its own but this year, things are different and we would really like to see how the smartphone tackles the challenges it will face after poking Samsung Galaxy S8 and the iPhone 7, which the OnePlus 5 looks, too similar to digest, from the back.

OnePlus 5 Specifications

• Material Anodized Aluminum Body
• 5.5-inch (1920 X1080) full HD AMOLED display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5, offering 401 ppi
• 2.45GHz Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC coupled with GPU Adreno 540
• 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB/128GB of internal storage
• Android 7.1.1 Nougat With OxygenOS on top
• 16MP Sony IMX398 sensor at the rear with f/1.7 aperture, DCAF (autofocus) and Dual-LED Flash plus a 20MP telephoto zoom lens that comes with optical zooming functionalities, PDAF, and f/2.6 aperture.
• The rear camera offers features like Portrait (with bokeh), Pro Mode, HDR, Panorama, HQ, Dynamic Denoise, RAW Image and Clear Image. For videos, it supports Slow Motion (720p videos at 120fps) as well as 4K recording.
• At the front, there is a 16MP Sony IMX 371 that comes with fixed focus and f/2.0 aperture. Additional features include 1080P resolution video at 30fps, 720P resolution video at 30fps, time-Lapse, HDR, Smile Capture, Screen Flash and Face Beauty
• Fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button
• 3300 mAh battery with Dash Charge 5V 4A Support
• 4G LTE/VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, NFC, GPS/ A-GPS, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C (v2.0), accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light sensor, gyroscope and proximity sensor.

What We Like The Most About OnePlus 5

• OnePlus 5 runs on the fastest processor ever known, which is the Snapdragon 835 SoC. a feature that even Samsung Galaxy S8 can’t boast about in India.

• With both the 6GB and 8GB RAM variants, multitasking is just like a walk in the park. You don’t need to worry about lags anymore.

• Phenomenal design for a budget smartphone with easy handling ergonomics

• The biggest feature of this device is the dual-camera setup at the rear. With a slew of additional modes, this might be the best we have ever seen in this price bracket.

• Android 7.1.1 Nougat With OxygenOS on top is one of the lightest yet the brightest UI in the market.

What we hate about OnePlus 5

• Despite the camera performance being the best in the segment, OnePlus 5 has come on the verge of being a mainstream flagship, when we take the price of 8GB/128GB variant into consideration. With iPhone 7, Samsung Galaxy S8 and even the LG G6 being priced very near to OnePlus 5, we couldn’t help but notice where the 16MP+20MP rear camera lacks behind. Be it the noise in Zoomed out pictures or the low light visibility.

• The 16MP front shooter is the same unit we saw on OnePlus 3T.

• At this price point, an IP68 water and dust resistant rating should have been there.

• While the design is way too similar to that of an iPhone 7 at the rear, the ‘premium’ factor seemed missing at the front with huge bezels and the absence of an edge to edge display.

• 3300 mAh battery is somewhat lower to that of other flagship offerings and this became even more irritating when the take the fact that OnePlus 5 is not a flagship killer anymore, into consideration. Even wireless charging has not been made available with this device.

Verdict

While there is no denying the fact that OnePlus 5 is the best smartphone we have ever seen in this segment and it will still be bought in huge numbers, the company is slowly and gradually is moving towards a category where ‘if you want more, you have to pay more’ and this is not what OnePlus meant for the users, in the first place.

However, there is nothing wrong in doing so, but the edge that earlier OnePlus devices had over the other flagships, has gone missing in the way. The company has positioned OnePlus 5 on that stage, where a user might think about going for a flagship-like device or shell out more and buy an actual premium flagship.

In short, there is nothing like OnePlus 5 in the market as of now and that too below the Rs 40,000-mark but with a little bit more from your pocket, you can go for mainstream flagships like Samsung Galaxy S8 and an iPhone7.

Now the choice is yours!!