OnePlus 5 Aims To Be An Android And iPhone Flagship Killer

Another flagship smartphone has made its debut, this time in the form of the OnePlus 5, a high-end mobile at a more affordable price to other Android alternatives.

Boasting an anodized aluminium body housing a full HD 5.5inch AMOLED display, the latest flagship smartphone from Chinese firm OnePlus, has a premium construction if arguably unremarkable design.

It looks a little too like an iPhone 7 and lacks a standout feature like the Samsung Galaxy S8’s edge-to-edge curved display.

The OnePlus 5 is also the thinnest mobile OnePlus has made to date, with its rounded design slimming the phone’s girth to 7.25mm; it’s svelte as well weighing in at 153g. Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 protects the screen from too much damage from scratches and drops.

On the bottom of the phone, you will fins a USB Type-C port for rapid charging and other connections, while a single speaker provides audio playback. OnePlus has also decided to stick firmly with the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Android alternative

Under the hood, the OnePlus 5 sports Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 chipset matched  with an Adreno 540 graphics processors, which should give the smartphone more than enough grunt to handle demanding mobile workloads and apps.

In terms of memory and storage, the OnePlus 5 comes in two variations linked to its brace of colour options. The first available in Slate Grey offers 6GB or RAM paired with 64GB of storage; the second offers 8GB of RAM with 128GB of on-board storage capacity and comes in the Midnight Black colour.

Both phones run a customised version of Android 7.1.1 Nougat, dubbed Oxygen, which appears to keep fairly close to stock Android but adds a few tweaks to the user interface rather than heavily customise Android as seen with Samsung’s TouchWiz and Huawei’s Emotion UI.

OnePlus appears to be championing the new handsets dual lens camera array as its main selling point, rather than the solid specification.

The rear camera setup sports a 16MP sensors from Sony with an aperture of f/1.7, aimed at capture 34 percent more light than the OnePlus 3T handset, and a 20MP telephotos lens with an aperture of f/2.6, designed to provide better zoom performance with negligible losses in quality.

Tweaks to the camera software have also added a portrait mode with thw ability to get ‘bokeh’ effects. 4K video capture is also on offer.

On the front a 16MP camera, should enable solid video calling and the odd ‘selfie’ if one is that way inclined.

The camera array may not set pulses racing in terms of using the OnePlus 5 as a strictly business phone. But given it is not aimed at being as readily available as say the latest iPhone,  due to OnePlus’ limited stocks often selling out rapidly, the OnePlus 5 is likely to appeal to fans of the brand or people looking for an alternative to other Android handsets with the feature for both work and play.

The OnePlus 5 goes on sale June 27 in the UK, with the  Slate Grey option costing £449 and the Midnight Black costing £499. O2 is the only network offering the OnePlus 5 on contract, with tariffs starting at £34 per month.

At first glance the OnePlus 5 offers an rather capable looking smartphone for a price that significantly undercuts those of flagships from bigger brands. A lack of a QHD display and water proofing may be a disappointment to some, and there is stiff competition forming up in the affordable Android handset arena. But we have no doubt the OnePlus 5 will sell rapidly and could pick up some new fans on its way.

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