OnePlus 5T vs. OnePlus 5 – Should You Upgrade ?

OnePlus has finally taken the covers off from their late 2017 flagship, the OnePlus 5T. As expected, the hardware is pretty similar to the OnePlus 5 with a few changes on board. But, the pricing is exactly the same as the OnePlus 5 that’s $499 (US) & ₹32999 (India) for the 6GB, 64GB variant & $559 (US) & ₹37999 (India) for the 8GB, 128GB variant. So, if you already have a OnePlus 5, should you get the 5T upgrade ? Well, let’s break it down.

 

 

The OnePlus 5T differs from the OnePlus 5 by the Display, Rear Camera Setup & some of the Software features. So, let’s start from the Display.

The Display is undoubtedly the Biggest Change on board. coming from a 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080 16:9 OLED Display, the OnePlus 5T now has a 6.01 inch 2160 x 1080 18:9 Display in the same overall form factor.

 

So, using the 18:9 Aspect Ratio, OnePlus was able to fit a bigger screen into the exact same chassis size. So, you get a bit more Screen Space on the front. But, that also made OnePlus to move the Fingerprint Scanner to the Back of the device. But, there’s another thing changed with this Display. OnePlus has tuned the Ambient Light sensitivity a bit to improve the screens outdoor visibility. So, you should get a much better overall viewing experience on the Display of the OnePlus 5T compared to the regular OnePlus 5.

 

The second biggest change is in the Rear Facing Camera or Cameras I may say. Though the main shooter has been kept unchanged with the 16MP IMX 398 sensor & an aperture of f-1.7. But, the secondary Telephoto lens has now been replaced with a 20MP IMX 376K sensor that also has an aperture of f-1.7 & the exact same focal length as the main shooter.

 

 

OnePlus is focusing on two things with this setup. First is good Portrait Photos & 2nd is the Low Light Performance. For Portrait shots, as the second lens isn’t a Telephoto one anymore, it doesn’t require to Zoom-in a little bit while taking a photo in Portrait Mode. So, the subject stays at the exact distance as it would on the main shooter.

Also, the second & the biggest purpose of this Secondary Camera is to improve low light performance. OnePlus has used a combination of a Higher Megapixel sensor, a Wide Aperture & a new trick called Intelligent Pixel Technology to bring out more detailed low-light shots. Now, what that Intelligent Pixel technology actually does is, whenever the device detects a low-light scenario (basically when the light is under 10 lux) it automatically switches to the Secondary Camera & uses 4 Pixels as a single pixel  to bring out more details in the photo. If I am not wrong then ASUS has been using this Pixel-joining Technology in their PixelMaster Camera app in the Low-light Mode since 2014. So, it’s not a new concept if that Matters to you. But, at least the low light performance shall improve from the regular OnePlus 5.

 

The Third but basically some minor improvements have been made to the Software. It’s still a stock-ish OxygenOS on top of Android 7.1.1 Nougat. But, some extra features have been added in the OnePlus 5T.

 

 

The software is now able to recognize your face that literally enables Facial Recognition in the new OnePlus 5T. It’s not a 3D Facial Recognition as we expected so, we cannot say how secure it is but, OnePlus & many others also claim that it unlocks super fast. So, you may or may not find it useful. To me, it’s nice to have this feature but only if it’s also secure alongside being fast.

They have also added a feature with which users can have an app & it’s original clone to use two different accounts at the same time at the same device. Oneplus also claim that they have shortened the app load times for fast & responsive performance and also, optimized the software to increase the Battery Life.

 

And that’s kinda it. Everything else is basically the same with the OnePlus 5. There is still the Snapdragon 835, 6 or 8 Gigabytes of LPDDR4X RAM, 64 or 128 Gigabytes of Internal Storage, the same 16MP Front Facing Camera with f-2.0 aperture, the same Aluminium Alloy unibody construction & the Alert Slider. Oh and OnePlus will release an Android Oreo Open Beta in December of this year.

 

 

Well, if you already have the OnePlus 5, then I don’t see a huge reason to upgrade to the OnePlus 5T. Maybe if you were desperate for this upgrade, then you’ll get it anyway. But, if you’re simply curious if you need this upgrade or not, the only reasons to get this upgrade will be the Screen & the Rear Cameras. The software isn’t looking like a worthy reason to upgrade.

So, if you think you need this upgrade then sure, get it. But, if you’re asking for our recommendation then we don’t think that there are enough reasons to upgrade your OnePlus 5 to the 5T. If you own an OnePlus 3 or 3T though, you can definitely look forward to this upgrade.