Find your new OnePlus smartphone right here

23 October 2018

OnePlus might be a recent addition to the Australian smartphone market, but it has plenty to offer savvy phone buyers looking for premium performance.

Updated December 17th, 2018

Name	Processor type	Display size	Display resolution	Internal storage	Provider in CTA
OnePlus 5T	Snapdragon 835	5.5	1920 x 1080	64GB 128GB	Buy at Amazon View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
OnePlus 6	Snapdragon 845	6.3	2280 x 1080	64GB 128GB 256GB	Buy at Amazon View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
OnePlus 6T	Snapdragon 845	6.41	2280 x 1080	128GB 256GB	View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...

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Fast OnePlus phone facts

OnePlus was formed by the former vice president of smartphone manufacturer Oppo with the goal of creating premium smartphones at a lower price than the competition.
Despite beginning operations in 2013, OnePlus only recently expanded to Australia with the launch of the OnePlus 5 in late 2017.

What to consider when choosing a OnePlus phone

OnePlus is a relatively recent contender in the smartphone space, especially here in Australia. Its range of available handsets is considerably smaller than most of the competition, and they are almost exclusively targeted at the high-end smartphone crowd. However, because OnePlus takes a more affordable approach to premium design, its handsets come with a few caveats that you'll want to be mindful of before committing to any purchase. We've laid these out along with other important factors to consider below.

Internal storage is a bigger concern with OnePlus smartphones than many competing handsets since OnePlus does not include a microSD cart slot on any of its phones. If you want to go beyond the storage limits of a particular handset, you'll instead need to rig up an external storage device over USB-C or make use of a cloud storage service. Thankfully, OnePlus sells multiple versions of its handsets with internal storage capacities of 64GB and higher, which is typically sufficient for the average smartphone user.
One of the tell-tale features of a premium smartphone is a big, high-resolution screen, and OnePlus doesn't stray from this tradition. All its handsets boast a display of at least 5.5 inches, with some going all the way to up to 6 inches. This is great for watching videos, playing games and easily navigating dense websites, but don't forget that size comes at the expense of portability. Operating a 6-inch phone with one hand can be awkward, and some pockets and sleeves are simply too small to accommodate phones of that size.
OnePlus was established with the ambition of providing high-end smartphones at lower-than-average prices, and it has so far delivered on this goal. When a new OnePlus handset launches, it typically retails for around $700 - $800 instead of the $1000+ that most premium brands charge for their flagship models. This gives OnePlus a big advantage over the competition, although the price difference is less beneficial for Aussies since most OnePlus handsets must still be imported from overseas and carry associated premiums.
The lack of local stock also means you won't find OnePlus handsets on contract through Australian telcos, so your only option is forking out the full cost of a handset upfront. You can minimise the cost slightly by opting for an older handset, but since OnePlus hasn't been around all that long, even its oldest handsets still fetch a pretty penny.
When your smartphone is the nexus of your digital life, it's critical that it's adequately secure against data thieves and other threats the online world has exposed us to. OnePlus takes a lean approach to its custom OxygenOS Android operating system, so you won't find any additional protective measures there, but you can use the fingerprint sensor built into all OnePlus handsets to better protect your phone from unwanted intruders. The latest OnePlus handsets also feature a facial unlocking system, but it's important to note that this relies on image recognition software and is in reality less secure than a traditional PIN code.
Photography is one area where OnePlus definitively delivers on its promise of premium quality at an affordable price. The Sony sensors in its cameras are top-notch, supporting 4K capture, slow-motion video and high megapixel counts for detailed photos. Newer handsets boast dual-lens arrays, too, combining wide-angle and telephoto lenses that are superior to nearly anything else at the same price point.
If you're shopping for a premium smartphone, odds are you're going to want a fast mobile Internet connection to go along with it. Not only does this mean signing up with an Aussie telco that offers good network coverage in your area, you also need to ensure that your phone itself is capable of handling the high speeds you desire. This is indicated by the network category of a particular handset, with higher categories reflecting support for faster speeds.
You won't have to worry about a OnePlus handset throttling your Internet speeds any time soon, as even the OnePlus 3 is rated at a respectable Category 6. More recent handsets even go all the way up to Category 16, which is more than sufficient for handling the maximum speeds current mobile networks can provide.
Just as OnePlus packs many of the beneficial aspects of premium smartphones into its handsets, so too does it bundle in some of their less desirable shortcomings. Limited battery life, for example. While hardly the worst performers in the market, OnePlus smartphones are bound to the same single-day battery life that most premium handsets top out at under average use. Unfortunate, yes, but the support for fast-charging at least minimises your downtime.
In achieving its goal of undercutting the premium smartphone market, OnePlus has typically designed its handsets without any sort of official waterproofing. Only with the recent OnePlus 6 has water resistance become a standard feature, and even then it doesn't support the traditional IP rating that most smartphones use to indicate the extent of their protection. Instead, OnePlus simply claims that the OnePlus 6 will survive a fall in the sink or having a glass of water spilled on it. Keep in mind that since older OnePlus handsets feature no official water resistance at all, light rain or a sudden splash could prove fatal in some cases.
OnePlus smartphones really come into their own when comparing their raw power to other handsets on the market. It's here that OnePlus really delivers on its promise of offering premium performance without the premium price tag, as the hardware inside its handsets often mirrors that of phones hundreds of dollars more expensive. In both benchmark results as well as real-world testing, this sees OnePlus handsets punching well above their weight. The OnePlus 5T, for instance, performs roughly on par with the Google Pixel 2 XL, a handset that retails for around $300 more.
For as impressive as this is, do be sure to read plenty of reviews before dropping your dough on a new OnePlus smartphone. Good performance can mean different things depending on what you use your phone for, so seeking out multiple perspectives is crucial to making an informed purchasing decision.

Which OnePlus phone is best?

While OnePlus has so far taken a relatively linear approach to its smartphone line, upgrading technology and adding new features with each iteration, picking a single "best" handset isn't as simple as pointing to the latest model. Price drops and the wildly disparate ways in which we use our phones make it practically impossible to declare a single phone the ideal match for each and every person on the planet, which is why we here at Finder prefer to select our favourite handset instead.

We don't claim that this handset is "the best", but as long-time reviewers of smartphones in Australia, we believe that it represents top value for the average person looking for a OnePlus handset. Just remember that your personal budget or specific needs may mean our pick won't be ideal for you.

finder's pick

OnePlus 5T

Premium performance at a killer price

The OnePlus 5T delivers all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a premium smartphone for hundreds of dollars less than the competition.

Buy Now

If you're looking for an outstanding example of the OnePlus design ethos, the OnePlus 5T is it. Not only does it pack as much raw power as top-tier handsets like the Google Pixel 2 XL and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, a crisp and capable dual-lens camera and a sleek 18:9 display, it clocks in at several hundred dollars cheaper than the high-end smartphones it's stacked up against. If you're looking for all the trimmings of a premium smartphone without the four-figure price tag, the OnePlus 5T is an excellent choice.

Read our full review of the OnePlus 5T here

Looking for a OnePlus Phone on a plan?

OnePlus has only recently made its handsets officially available in Australia, but that doesn't include getting a phone on a mobile contract. Instead, you can get the phone outright and partner it with a SIM-only plan, like the plans below:

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