one plus 5

The OnePlus 5 was a great, affordable flagship smartphone, but it was short lived. Less than six months after its June 2017 launch, you could no longer buy the handset. The reason? The excellent OnePlus 5T showed up for the same price, while offering more.

[Update: You can no longer purchase the OnePlus 5. It's been replaced by the OnePlus 5T, which offers smaller bezels, a bigger screen, face unlock and improved rear cameras - all for the same price as the OnePlus 5.]

Original review

Looking at the OnePlus 5, it’s hard to believe that the company that made it is less than four years old. This is a phone that manages to hold its own alongside flagship devices from companies that have enormous pots of money to spend on research, development and design, and a decade or more of experience making smartphones.

Yet OnePlus has managed to make one of the best phones of 2017, and keep the price lower than most of the competition.

OnePlus has always made impressive phones at sub-flagship prices, but with this iteration the Chinese company has learned from previous mistakes, and built on its successes, to create an all-round fantastic phone.

OnePlus 5 price and release date

• Two versions: starts at $479 (£449, AU$599)
• Out of stock on OnePlus website in US, UK and AUS
• Still available via carriers

Weight: 153g
Dimensions: 154.2 x 74.1 x 7.25mm
OS: Android 7.1.1 Nougat
Screen size: 5.5-inch
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
CPU: Snapdragon 835
RAM: 6GB or 8GB of RAM
Storage: 64/128GB
Battery: 3,300mAh
Rear camera: 16MP + 20MP dual lens
Front camera: 16MP 

The OnePlus 5 costs more than the OnePlus 3T. That’s the hard truth about this new phone, but it’s partly because OnePlus has decided to use more premium materials.

OnePlus has produced two versions of the OnePlus 5, with the base model coming with 64GB of internal storage and 6GB of RAM and costing you $479 (£449, AU$599).

The higher-end version, with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, is priced at $539 (£499, AU$699) and that’s the device we’re reviewing here. 

Whichever version you buy, it’s a big price jump compared to the OnePlus 3T, which cost $439 (£399, around AU$580) for the 64GB model and $479 (£439, around AU$630) for the 128GB version.

And bear in mind that OnePlus had already increased the price for that phone release – the OnePlus 3, released in June 2016, was only $399 (£329, around AU$450). If you’re looking to upgrade the OnePlus phone you bought this time last year, you’re going to be spending quite a bit more than you may have anticipated on the OnePlus 5.

The official OnePlus 5 release date was June 27, but it's now out of stock on the OnePlus website it most countries, including the US, UK and Australia. 

Stock still remains with local carriers though, so if you want to get your hands on the OnePlus 5 all hope is not lost just yet - but you may want to hold off as the lack of stock directly from the firm suggests it may be getting ready to launch the OnePlus 5T.

Key features

• New premium design makes it the best-looking OnePlus phone yet
• Dual-lens camera allows for lossless zoom, like the iPhone 7 Plus

Looking at the spec list for the OnePlus 5, you might think this is a rather limited upgrade, but there a few key features the company is pushing to make this the next phone you’ll want to buy, first and foremost of which is the new camera.

This is now a dual-lens setup that allows you to capture some attractive-looking 'bokeh' shots with artfully blurred backgrounds, as well as boasting a 'lossless' zoom feature, which essentially means that zooming in on subjects will only result in a negligible reduction in image quality.

This feature works in a similar way to the shooter on the iPhone 7 Plus, but here you're getting it on a more affordable phone. The aperture on the main sensor here is also impressively wide, and it means you’ll be able to take some of the best smartphone photos possible right now.

The design of the new phone feels like a big step up for OnePlus. It's still using the same materials as the OnePlus 3T – the body is made of anodized aluminum – but this is the slimmest and most attractive OnePlus phone to date.

OnePlus also wants this to be the most powerful phone on the market – and the good news is it's succeeded, with our testing showing it to have the strongest benchmarking scores of any device on the market at the time of testing.

Design

• Thinnest phone OnePlus has ever made
• There's still a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired headsets
• Only available in two colors – dark gray or deep black

The OnePlus 5 is the best-looking device the company has made to date. When you pick this phone up you can tell right away that it’s made with premium-grade materials.

The new handset has a more rounded design than previous iterations, which means it sits comfortably in your palm. It’s also the thinnest phone yet from OnePlus at 7.25mm – almost as thin as the iPhone 7, which is 7.1mm

It feels light in the hand – it weighs 153g to be precise – but not so light that you feel like it may blow away in a forceful gust of wind.

OnePlus is talking up the placement of the antenna bands here. According to a spokesperson the color has been specifically designed to try and hide the antenna bands for an unspoiled full-metal look, and when you do spot them they don't detract from the design of the phone.

On the right-hand edge of the phone sits the power button, with nothing else to interrupt the clean lines. The left edge features the toggle for silent mode, as well as the volume rocker.

The inclusion of the silent switch is an intriguing one. It's something OnePlus has included on every phone since the OnePlus 2, and it's still the only major Android phone player to do so. 

Apple is the only other manufacturer that has persisted with the silent switch, but its inclusion on the OnePlus 5 is welcome. It makes it super easy to make the handset cinema, meeting and bedtime ready, and we like that.

There’s only one speaker driver, and that sits at the bottom of the phone, next to the USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack… yes, despite all the rumors OnePlus has decided to retain the legacy headphone technology for the OnePlus 5.

No awkward dongles required here (we're looking at you Apple, HTC and Moto), but Bluetooth is also on board if you fancy going wire-free.

OnePlus is also trying to sell us on what it calls the ‘Horizon Line’, the idea here being that half of the phone is cast in shadow while the other is in light. We're struggling to get on board with this, but it’s also easy to see that this is a beautiful-looking phone that feels elegant in use.

One shortcoming in terms of the design of the OnePlus 5 is that it’s not waterproof. A OnePlus spokesperson confirmed to TechRadar that it would survive a drop of rain if you need to use it outside, but it’s not IP-rated, and won’t survive a dunk like the Samsung Galaxy S8, Sony Xperia XZ or iPhone 7 will.

The OnePlus 5 is only available in two colors, and these are tied to the storage/RAM options. The 64GB/6GB version comes in Slate Gray, while the more expensive 128GB/8GB model comes in Midnight Black. 

So if you’re fussy about the color you want then you can’t be fussy about the power and storage you get under the hood, and vice versa.

Display

• 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED screen looks great
• Makes for a display with 401 pixels-per-inch

The big headline display-wise is that OnePlus hasn’t decided to upgrade to a QHD resolution screen for the OnePlus 5 at all. Nope, not a sausage.

That means you get the same 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display from the OnePlus 3T, and it is a little hard not to be disappointed by that considering the increase in price of the handset this year.

Of course, OnePlus needs to cut a couple of corners to keep its price tag competitively below its rivals, and to be fair the screen is one of the very few places where it's decided to make a saving.

The good news is that the screen on the OnePlus 5 still looks beautiful. It’s a shame the company hasn’t opted for a higher resolution, but at 401 pixels per inch it looks great when you’re watching video, and as it’s AMOLED, blacks and other dark tones look great.

Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 tech is also present to ensure you’re getting a fully protected screen, and to ward off scratches.

Battery life

• 3,300mAh battery plus greater optimization gives solid battery life
• Can last around a day with auto brightness on

Battery life is one of the few areas where a flagship phone can stand out from its rivals in 2017, and the OnePlus 5 needs to be able to survive at least a full day on a single charge.

On paper, compared to the OnePlus 3T the OnePlus 5 looks like a downgrade, with the former sporting a 3,400mAh battery while the latter features a 3,300mAh battery.

The processing tech used inside this phone is newer though, and much more efficient in terms of power consumption, and we think you’ll notice that in day to day battery life.

The OnePlus 5 will keep pace with a lot of the devices you’ll find on the market today. We typically found it lasting us the full day, maybe dying at around 10pm with hard use.

For one day we used the phone with the brightness cranked up to full and it died around 8:30pm, which wasn’t good enough. We then tried auto brightness, which was a lot better – if you stick to auto brightness you’re a lot more likely to make it to the end of the day with some charge left in the tank.

During our battery test, where we turn the screen up to full brightness and play a 90-minute Full HD video clip, the OnePlus 5 only lost 12% of its charge. That's slightly better than the OnePlus 3T, which lost 13%, and noticeably better than the Samsung Galaxy S8, which lost 19%.

There’s fast-charging tech here – OnePlus’s version is called Dash Charge – which means you’ll be able to pump some juice into your phone very quickly if you need to. OnePlus continues to claim that it's fast enough to get you a full charge in the time it takes you to get a shower, but that’s not strictly true.

Unless you're taking a long and relaxing bubble bath, you’ll likely only get enough charge for a few hours – but it’s certainly better than your phone dying on you when you need it.

For those times when you really are gasping for battery life the OnePlus 5 also comes with a battery-saving mode; we found that this really restricted what apps we could open, but it will prolong battery life on the phone and that’s all you need when you’re clinging onto the last dregs of power.

OnePlus isn’t offering the best battery life on the market here, but it’s a similar level to most of the flagship competition, and unless you’re a power user you’ll probably get through a whole day of using the OnePlus 5 and still have a little leftover before you plug in overnight.

Camera

• First OnePlus phone to feature a dual-lens camera
• 16MP + 20MP lens on rear offer lossless zoom feature
• 16MP front-facing camera

Perhaps OnePlus’s crowning glory, the camera has been through a number of improvements for the OnePlus 5. OnePlus has been criticized in the past for its lack of innovation in this area, and it’s now delivered a dual-lens sensor.

The two sensors that comprise the rear camera are made by Sony. The primary camera is 16MP, and there’s also a 20MP telephoto lens.

The main camera lens has a super-wide aperture of f/1.7, which ensures that photos are bright without being overexposed. The telephoto lens then has an aperture of f/2.6.

Unlike on the Huawei P10, however, where one of the sensors is monochrome for improved contrast, the two color sensors here are designed to offer improved zoom performance, enabling you to zoom in on subjects with minimal loss of image quality.

During our testing we found this to work very well, and if you’ve always been disappointed with the zoom on your phone camera you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised by what the OnePlus 5 is able to do here.

That said, it’s not going to give you the same level of zoom quality as a DSLR, and it’s not going to revolutionize the way phone cameras work – but it’s a very useful feature to have when you want to shoot objects that are far away.

The OnePlus 5 rear camera also comes with a Portrait mode, which allows you to get beautiful shots of people using the two-lens setup. It means you can place your subject in the foreground of the image and then blur out the background, complete with attractive 'bokeh' effects.

This is especially useful when you’re taking shots of people, but you can use it on objects as well. It allows you to create some interesting effects, but you can’t make as many tweaks to the image after you’ve taken it as you can on the Huawei P10.

On Huawei’s device you can adjust which areas are in and out of focus after you’ve taken the image, but here you’ve got to wait for the camera to focus, and there’s no changing the focal point later. That’s a bit of a shame, but if you get it right the first time you won’t be disappointed with the Portrait Mode.

If you’re a camera fan, there’s also the Pro mode on the OnePlus 5, where you can deep dive into the camera settings. This allows you to play around with the focus, white balance, ISO and much more.

This is the UI for Pro Mode on the OnePlus 5

There’s also a useful spirit level-like feature within Pro mode, which displays a green line to make sure you’re keeping your photos straight – we found it a useful feature when shooting subjects such as architecture.

This is only available in Pro mode though, so you won’t be able to combine the level feature with Portrait mode, although it's less essential for people shots.

As on previous OnePlus phones you can also shoot in raw with the OnePlus 5, allowing you to tweak your photos further when you upload them to your computer.

Swipe left in the camera UI and you’ll be greeted with video recording on the OnePlus 5. You’ve got four quality options here: 720p, 1080p, 1080p at 60 frames per second or 4K video recording.

4K video won’t be useful to you unless you have a 4K device on which to play the videos you shoot, but the other three modes work well, enabling you to record video that looks as good as that from most other flagship phones on the market today.

It's worth noting that currently the OnePlus 5 doesn't offer any video stabilization for 4K video recording, but company co-founder Carl Pei has confirmed that this will be brought to the handset via a software update.

There are also time-lapse, slow motion and panorama modes, which all do exactly what they say and work with relatively little fuss.

We did find a quirk with the OnePlus 5 though, as it appeared to stop saving videos after shooting the first few. We tried resetting the phone, but the same thing happened – after the first few videos, the OnePlus 5 refused to save any more.

The OnePlus 5 we had in for review was running final software, so we hope this bug gets fixed quickly with an update.

On the front of the OnePlus 5 is a 16MP selfie shooter. A lot of the features of the rear camera are available here, although you won’t be able to use the Portrait mode.

This phone will be capable of giving you some of the sharpest selfie shots on the market, and it can also record video in 1080p, which is a big benefit if you plan to record your face often.