Style Over Substance

At first look you could be forgiven for mistaking the new One Plus 5 with iPhone 7 Plus because they quite literally look, nearly identical. They both have dual cameras, they both have the same screen size and they both have the same form factor. For the only difference between the two phones you literally have to see the bottom of the devices. One plus has only one speaker next to its charging port, while the iPhone 7 has stereo speakers. But that doesn’t mean it lacks in the sound department. We found it to be a little louder than we expected.

When you look at the spec sheet, the one thing which stands out is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. One Plus has so much faith in this chipset that they opted for the 3300 mAh battery compared to 3400 mAH in their previous model, One Plus 3T. This chipset with its Octa-Core Processor also makes the 5 really snappy. Games load really fast, multi-tasking happens within a blink of an eye and even updating the phone (yes, we ran an update) was a breeze.

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Coming back to the cameras, compared to an iPhone, they on paper are better. But, in a burst mode, the OP5’s camera stops at 20 clicks while an iPhone keeps going. Also, the lack of Optical Image Stabilisation means the picks from One Plus often end up being blurry. However, where the One Plus shines is in low light. There is hardly any noise in dark settings and the photos come out really well.

Compared to other flagship Androids the OP5 sports a 1080p display rather than a 2K display. When we asked about the same. Representatives from One Plus said they opted for the Full HD display to conserve battery and we think it was the right decision. After all, how many pixels can you actually see on a phone’s small screen? A 2K display is quite often an overkill and we prefer a longer battery life over a 1440p display. One plus has listened to their community nailed it there.

But here is the catch, One Plus said in a video, they were aiming for 5 stars with this phone. We, in good conscious, cannot give it 5 stars. The phone is truly wonderful and we are enjoying fiddling around with it but is it a flagship killer like the previous One Plus variants? The answer is a no. However, it is a great flagship phone by itself and One Plus should be proud of it. It has something most phones in the market don’t have, Gravitas. So, if you are looking to upgrade, at the price range of 37,999 (8GB RAM / 128 GB Storage), the One Plus 5 could most definitely be the phone for you.

From the July 2017 issue of FHM India.