OnePlus’s current flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 5T is a great piece of hardware, that everyone can appreciate with its state of the art full metal unibody design, flagship class internals and some shiny new display aspect ratio. In reality, how different is this smartphone with respect to its predecessor AKA, the OnePlus 5? Let’s find out.
Price point: Both OnePlus 5 and the OnePlus 5T are priced exactly at the same price point. The 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage variant retails for ₹32,999 and the 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant retails for ₹37,999. So, for the amount of money you get some interesting feature with either of the smartphones, so, it is not always like the latest one is the greatest one, and some of the old phones do offer a lot more than the newer models. So, in this case, whichever the model you go can choose and you have to spend the same amount of money on both the models.
Design and build quality: From their first smartphone model, OnePlus was known for their “inspired” designs from Oppo and Apple. So, the design is something which is always been the highlight of those smartphones, and the OnePlus 5 and the OnePlus 5T does follow the trend as well. The full metal unibody with an engraved OnePlus logo will surely turn the head towards the device. The premium build quality with all metal unibody solution is something inspiring and makes it par with the other flagship smartphone. As the OnePlus 5T is a successor of the OnePlus 5, so, both models have the same design nerve with a premium appealing. However, the one deal breaker would be the placement of fingerprint scanner. The OnePlus 5 has a front-facing fingerprint scanner and the 5T has a rear-facing fingerprint scanner. So, make your choice between the two models, which suits you the best.
Display: The OnePlus 5 features a typical 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED screen, protected by 2.5D curved tempered glass (Corning Gorilla Glass 5) and the OnePlus 5T features an all-new 6.01-inch Optic AMOLED screen protected by the same 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5. So, here two aspects come to play. First one is the battery life and the second one is the actual screen real-estate. The 5.5-inch screen is expected to last longer than the 6.01-inch screen model. Even coming to the multimedia content, a lot of content has been made for the 16:9 aspect ratio screen, so, the new resolution might go waste all along. As the new norms are with the OnePlus 5T, it goes well with the future. So, if you are into a better battery life, then go with the OnePlus 5, however, if you are into futuristic display norms with larger footprints, then go with the OnePlus 5T once in for all.
Hardware: Both models are powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Octa-core SoC, paired with either 6 GB or 8 GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64 GB or 128 GB onboard flash storage, like every other OnePlus smartphone, this phone doesn’t support an SD card. As this is a top-tier flagship Mobile Solution, one can expect a premium tier experience with these smartphones and can perform any tasks thrown at it. So, whichever the model you choose, you will have a premium software experience.
Camera: Both cameras have a similar Mega Pixels count. These smartphones feature a rear dual-camera setup with a 20 MP + 16 MP rear-facing camera and the engineering behind these cameras is bit different. The OnePlus uses a 16 MP wide-angle lens (F/1.7) with a 20 MP telephoto lens (F/2.6) with features like X1.6 optical zooming capability with portrait mode and 4K video recording capability. The OnePlus 5T uses dual wide angle lens with 16 MP and a 20 MP sensor with a F/1.7 aperture on both the models, so, this model doesn’t have the optical zooming capability as this doesn’t have a telephoto lens, so, no optical zooming capability. For the selfie camera, the smartphone uses a 16 MP selfie shooter with F/2.0 aperture with autofocus capability. If you are into optical zoom stuff, then go with the OnePlus 5, otherwise, the OnePlus 5T would be a nicer option for those who are looking for a low light photography with a wider aperture on the secondary lens as well.
Software: This time OnePlus has tweaked around the software capability. The company have added many features like splint window, dual apps, faster app launches, improved notification panel, and, other hidden refreshments. The company has also added a feature to change colour gamut for your own linking. The OnePlus 5 has the capability to switch between the software navigation keys or the capacitive navigation keys via a setting. However, in the OnePlus 5T, a user has to settle down with the software navigation onscreen keys. So, if you are a user who likes to tweak these settings then go with the OnePlus 5.
Conclusion: If you are into a larger screen with newer screen resolution with a 6.01-inch screen, low light photography, software navigation keys, then go with the OnePlus 5T. If you are into customisation, front-facing fingerprint scanner, then go with the OnePlus 5.