Let’s talk about OnePlus. The brand that has maintained the position in the range of affordable flagships, and the same brand that was criticized for overdoing things with the number of launches in quick successions. But hey, that was all good for the market even though the buyers of the phones would certainly be disappointed to see an upgrade to their phone in just a few months.
The OnePlus 5T was such a good phone that came in with that upgraded display size and resolution, and the phone also had a change in the camera module. I would usually not do these long-term reviews because most of the phones tend to slow down with time, thanks to how hard we are at filling them with content, apps, and a lot more. Every smartphone tends to slow down, but how much? That’s the reason for this long-term review of the OnePlus 5T. Not really long-term here if you ask me, because the 5T is just a few months old while we are already looking at the news of OnePlus 6, some of them officially from the company itself.
I’ll keep it short and precise here, with the important Pros and Cons of the phone when compared to the other phones in its range.
What is still good in OnePlus 5T
The battery
This is clearly a reason why I was still using the phone for months, as I didn’t find any other good phone offering a good battery life for the heavy usage that I have. Alongside this, I’ve used the flagships like the Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy S8, and now the Galaxy S9+ for about three weeks, and there is still no phone that is able to give that many hours of screen-on time or a good standby that OnePlus 5T is able to offer.
The Face Unlock
How much ever the other brands try, coming close to the speed of Face Unlock access recognition and unlock is hard. To be frank, this thing spoiled me and I look for the same on every other phone, only to be disappointed. What I don’t like is the fact that the Face Unlock doesn’t work as well in low light but the company has at least given the screen brightening to recognize the face.
The build and design
If it isn’t a great design, it should not be a concern until you are happy with what you have got here. The OnePlus 5T has a decent design, and we have to someday stop cribbing about whether it has coped a certain phone’s design. Although a 6-inch screen is what you see, it still isn’t a large phone, thanks to the new 18:9 aspect ratio, which was a major change from the OnePlus 5.
The performance
The phone doesn’t give up on the performance even after using it heavily. I would easily call myself a heavy user, given that I travel a lot, switch networks, take a lot of photos at meetings and photos, and share them right away on different social apps, and a lot more is involved in the usage. The OnePlus 5T doesn’t break a sweat, really.
What should have been better on OnePlus 5T
The cameras
The megapixels don’t matter. Seriously, to this date, if you are thinking that having a 16MP + 20MP camera is good enough for great photos, you are completely wrong. I am not as satisfied with the cameras on the OnePlus 5T as I am with the other phones that I’ve used, including the Honor View 10. But then, these cameras aren’t as bad to write off completely because they still do a decent capturing, and this includes the selfie cameras. It is just the point that the quality should have been better than this when you are looking for a flagship smartphone. The color reproduction and the resolution is good, but the cameras don’t do much justice in low light conditions. When you use phones like Pixel 2, Galaxy S9+, and Honor View 10 around this one, you sure are spoiled and expect a lot more and that is the case with me here.
One thing commendable about OnePlus is that the company doesn’t ignore the work once they launch a product. The camera performance has been improving since the launch of the OnePlus 5T but still, they haven’t reached the level at which you would call it the best of the lot.
Verdict – Is the OnePlus 5T still a good phone?
The only worry for me, right now, would be the OnePlus 6. That phone is going to launch soon, only to disappoint the OnePlus 5T users. For now, let’s still stick to the 5T. The phone is still a good choice, considering that you give the performance and the battery the utmost importance and are okay to go on with a little compromise with the camera department.
The phone does have a flagship-level performance and the offering from OnePlus doesn’t compromise with the core specs like storage, RAM, and the numbers here are always good. But, we are already in the second quarter of 2018 and there are a flurry of flagships coming into the market, which would just make the situation rather confusing. Still, you can always rely on a phone like the OnePlus 5T if you have a tight budget and are looking at something that gives you a good performance in the longer run.
