OnePlus 5T review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

Where to buy

OnePlus made an initial foray into the Australian market in 2017 by soft-launching the OnePlus 5 in very limited numbers. It's been rather quiet on the local OnePlus front since then, even though the company discontinued the OnePlus 5 in favour of its newer flagship, the OnePlus 5T.

As the name suggests, this isn't an entirely new flagship device, but instead an update of the existing OnePlus 5 model. There's still no sign of an official local release, which means you'll have to look for a direct importer if you're keen. For this review, we used a model supplied by Gearbest.

Design

• 18:9 aspect ratio brings the OnePlus 5T up to snuff with other premium smartphones.
• Screen size and resolution have seen a slight bump up from the original OnePlus 5.

• Read more on the OnePlus 5T's design

  The OnePlus 5T uses the same essential design style as that of the OnePlus 5, or for that matter most of Oppo's output, including the Oppo R11s, and that's not accidental. Both Oppo and OnePlus are owned by the same Chinese parent company and while you could easily accuse them of cribbing heavily from the Apple design playbook, they do deliver some nice looking handsets.

  The big change in the OnePlus 5T's case is the shift to an 18:9 aspect ratio display, bringing it more in line with the 2017 flagships it competes with. 18:9 displays are clearly going to be a big aspect of selling mobile handsets in 2018, with even low-cost makers like Alcatel getting into the widescreen game, but that shift has made some changes to the OnePlus 5's design in the OnePlus 5T's case.

  Most prominently, the full-screen display on the 5T leaves no space for a fingerprint sensor, so that's been shuffled around to the back in a light indented circle.

  The OnePlus 5T measures in at 156.1 x 75 x 7.3mm, just a shade larger than the OnePlus 5, which fits in a 154.2 x 74.1 x 7.3mm frame. However, those extra millimetres do buy you quite a lot of extra screen real estate, with a jump up from a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 display in the OnePlus 5 to a 6.01-inch 1080 x 2160 pixel panel.

  

  The precise model I was able to test was OnePlus' Lava Red model, although it has produced variants in Midnight Black, Sandstone White and even a limited edition Star Wars branded style. No matter the colour, it's a striking design with a metallic body that is rather predictably a little slippy in the hand while still being able to grab onto your fingerprints quite well.

  While the fingerprint sensor has shifted, the rest of the OnePlus 5T's controls mimic those of its predecessor, which means you get a power button and SIM card tray on the right, with volume controls and mute switch on the left. It's worth noting that the SIM card tray, while supporting dual nano SIMs, has no microSD card reading capability.

  Like the Google Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL, what you get in storage is all you get in storage when it comes to the OnePlus 5T. Yes, it does come with 128GB of onboard storage, but flexibility in storage matters is always preferable.

Camera

• Upgrades its predecessor's camera with wider lenses and larger apertures.
• Delivers extraordinary photo and video quality for its price.

• Read more on the OnePlus 5T's camera

  The OnePlus 5T follows on from the already impressive OnePlus 5 in camera terms, with a dual-lens array that's slightly upshifted to a 16MP f/1.7 27mm lens alongside a 20MP f/1.7 27mm lens. Around the front, you'll find a 16MP f/2.0 lens lurking in the top bezel. While the rumour mill suggests we'll see a lot of Chinese-produced phones in 2018 with iPhone X style "notches", the OnePlus 5T dates from late 2017, so bezels are still very much the prevailing style.

  The secondary lens on the rear acts as a low-light sensor, although not with its full 20MP output. Instead, OnePlus combines up to four pixels to give it greater low-light sensitivity, sacrificing resolution in the process.

  If you're looking to shoot for poster prints, this might not be ideal, but for most everyday phone users it's a perfectly acceptable tradeoff that should give your Instagram snaps that little bit more pop when the sun goes down.

  This also means that the 2x zoom function in the camera app is just using digital zoom with a touch of quality loss as a result. In many cases, unless you need the whole frame, taking a regular shot and then cropping down will give you a more pleasing result than fiddling with digital zoom.

  

  The OnePlus 5T's camera app is a fairly shameless clone of Apple's camera app, which means that if you want simplicity, it's on offer, with only three options (video, photo and portrait) available at first. Swiping up the screen will reveal additional slow-motion video, time lapse, panorama and pro modes for those who prefer to tweak their shots a little.

  The OnePlus 5T's camera, like the camera on its predecessor, is exceptional for its price point. That doesn't quite mean that it's the absolute best that money can buy, but when you consider the low asking price for this handset, it shoots right up there in recommendation terms, whether you're shooting portraits, landscape shots or indulging in a little slow-motion malarkey.

  The one caveat here is again that OnePlus doesn't support microSD expansion, so if you fill up the OnePlus 5T with camera shots, you'll have to offload them elsewhere.

  Here's a range of sample shots taken from the OnePlus 5T:

  OnePlus 5T Sample Photos

Performance

• Plenty of power to handle the most demanding games and apps.
• More RAM helps the OnePlus 5T feel snappier than many competing handsets.

• Read more on the OnePlus 5T's performance

  The OnePlus 5T runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 that was the core of the majority of premium Android handsets in 2017.

  While the faster Snapdragon 845 is available in devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S9 or Sony Xperia XZ2, the 835 is still a powerful contender. That's especially true here as OnePlus has once again gone down the route of matching it up with a higher than usual quantity of RAM. While this can vary by model, our test sample had 8GB of RAM to heft around and compete with.

  Here's how it compared using Geekbench 4's CPU test:

  Handset	Geekbench 4 CPU Single Core (higher is better)	Geekbench 4 CPU Multi Core (higher is better)
  Apple iPhone X	4185	10319
  Apple iPhone 8	4270	10272
  Apple iPhone 8 Plus	4113	10221
  Huawei Mate 10 Pro	1888	6787
  Samsung Galaxy S8+	2020	6690
  Samsung Galaxy S8	1989	6628
  Huawei P10 Plus	1863	6544
  Nokia 8	1932	6529
  OnePlus 5	1976	6506
  Samsung Galaxy Note 8	2024	6490
  LG V30+	1926	6387
  HTC U11	1919	6362
  OnePlus 5T	1913	6343
  Sony Xperia XZ Premium	1908	6324
  Google Pixel 2 XL	1914	6254

  The OnePlus 5T performs almost exactly as you'd expect it to, matching up nicely with the rest of the Snapdragon 835 pack. It is worth noting that OnePlus has been in hot water for seemingly artificially peaking its performance to juice benchmark results in the past, although it is on the public record as backing off from that kind of behaviour for the OnePlus 5T.

  For gaming too, the OnePlus 5T impresses. Here's how it compares using 3DMark's Slingshot Extreme test:

  Device	3DMark Slingshot Extreme OpenGL	Vulkan
  Sony Xperia XZ Premium	3721	2717
  Google Pixel 2 XL	3599	2826
  OnePlus 5T	3537	2506
  LG V30+	3169	2205
  Apple iPhone 8 Plus	2762	N/A
  Samsung Galaxy Note 8	2649	2185
  Samsung Galaxy S8	2633	1857
  Apple iPhone X	2595	N/A
  OnePlus 5	2279	1909

  Benchmarks are only part of the smartphone application story but in day-to-day use the OnePlus 5T doesn't disappoint. The first versions of the handset launched with Android 7 ("Nougat") and OnePlus had a somewhat rocky road to stable Android 8.0 ("Oreo") release for its OxygenOS modifications. However, the unit I tested had few issues for real world use. The OnePlus 5T is NFC-capable, so it should work with payment systems such as Google Pay without issue.

  The OnePlus 5T is sold at a discount price compared to other flagships and that does mean that there are a few compromises along the way. While the display is 18:9, the resolution is still only 1080p in a world where premium phones are pushing towards 2K or 4K displays. There's absolutely no stated water resistance at play either, so immersion of your OnePlus 5T would be very unwise indeed.

  The OnePlus 5T also supports a face unlocking feature, but this is a simple image recognition style affair rather than anything complex in the style of the iPhone X. As such, it's convenient when it works, which it mostly does, but it's not really secure.

  Then there's the challenge of repairs and warranty issues. The OnePlus 5T I've tested is an import model, because there's no sign as yet of OnePlus setting up shop in Australia full-time.

  That does mean that if anything goes wrong with the OnePlus 5T, while you should be protected by Australian consumer law, actual repairs will involve shipping times to sort out any claim issues.

Battery life

• A single charge should see you through a day of moderate usage.
• "Dash" charging allows for speedy topping up when the battery does run low.

• Read more on the OnePlus 5T's battery life

  The one area where OnePlus made no change with the OnePlus 5T is in battery life, with a 3,300mAh sealed battery to power it through the day. Like the OnePlus 5, you do get a "Dash" fast charger, although as mine was an import model you do need a plug adaptor to get that working. Actual charging is via USB-C and any standard phone charger should be able to handle that via OnePlus' rather distinctive red USB-C cable.

  Still, the OnePlus 5T does have more screen real estate to deal with than the OnePlus 5 did, so it's pleasing to see it track just a little better than its predecessor in Geekbench 4's tough battery test:

  Device	Geekbench 4 Battery Score	Geekbench 4 battery time
  LG V30+	4910	8:11
  Google Pixel 2 XL	4805	8:08
  Sony Xperia XZ Premium	4796	8:06
  OnePlus 5T	4526	7:39
  OnePlus 5	4426	7:28
  Oppo R11	4253	7:29
  Oppo R11s	3599	6:14
  Samsung Galaxy Note 8	3240	5:24
  Apple iPhone 8 Plus	3058	5:07
  Huawei P10 Plus	2974	5:23
  Apple iPhone X	2836	4:44

  Geekbench 4's test is very linear and most people's usage of their phones won't reflect that. In day-to-day testing of the OnePlus 5T, I've had few issues with getting it to last through a full day, although clearly if you pushed it you may find yourself resorting to its power saving measures. Like most, they're on the brutal side in terms of utility but can do the trick if you just need a little longer until you can plug back in.

Verdict

• Premium-level performance at an attractive price.
• The only hassle is the absence of local Australian stock.

• Read our full OnePlus 5T verdict

  The OnePlus 5T is very much a 2017 premium flagship phone and if it's premium performance you thirst for, it's rather hard to argue with its basic proposition.

  However, as with all import phones, there's a fair bit of price variance at play that does affect the OnePlus 5T's value proposition. Generally for the 128GB model tested, you'll find it around the $700 to $800 price point depending on your storage needs and colour choices. Obviously, you're better off buying on the lower end of that curve, because the more you pay, the closer you'll get to the prices of 2018's flagship phones.

  While the OnePlus 6 has since superseded the OnePlus 5T in terms of raw performance, the OnePlus 5T still very much hits the sweet spot of affordability and performance against its competitors.

  

  What the other reviewers say

  Site	Comment	Score
  Ars Technica	"An outstanding combination of specs, design, and price."	N/A
  CNET	" The OnePlus 5T is a superb, affordable phone for new buyers, despite only minor changes from the OnePlus 5."	8.9/10
  The Guardian	"The OnePlus 5T propels the Chinese company into the brave new era of full-screen smartphones."	5/5
  TechRadar	"The flagship killer returns in style."	4.5/5
  Trusted Reviews	"The OnePlus 5T is one of the best deals in tech, offering fantastic features for a great price."	4.5/5

Pricing and availability

• The OnePlus 5T is no longer available for purchase in Australia.

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