OnePlus 5: Full, in-depth review
A value-driven flagship with few trade-offs
Pros
- Great performance
- Outstanding battery life
Cons
- Flavorless design with no IP-rating
- Pretty ordinary display
Bottom Line
If all you care about is getting the best performance for the best price, then the OnePlus 5 is a hard bargain to pass up.
-
Price
$ 599.00 (AUD)
Specs
The OnePlus 5 touts a 5.5-inch AMOLED display and Snapdragon 835 processor. In Australia, there are two variants on offer for the handset. One with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage, the other with 8GB and 128GB. Both come with a 3300mAh non-removable battery and support OnePlus’ proprietary Dash Charge tech.
The OnePlus 5 runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat (spiced up by OnePlus’ own Oxygen OS) and comes in three available colors: Soft Gold, Slate Grey (exclusive to the 6GB model) and Midnight Black (exclusive to the 8GB model).
The rear-side of the device features a dual-lens camera configuration, where both a 16-megapixel shooter (f/1.7 with EIS) and a 20-megapixel one (f/2.6 with phase-detection autofocus) work in tandem to capture both crisp images and video content. There's also a third 16-megapixel camera (f/2.0 with EIS and Auto HDR) designed for selfies on the front-side of the device.
On paper, at least, the OnePlus 5 ticks all the right boxes.
Design
There’s not a lot to dislike about the physical dimensions of the OnePlus 5. Weighing just 153 grams, it’s light, slim and minimalist in all the ways you’d expect from a flagship offering. Plenty of brands and vendors play at being the “Apple of Android-based smartphones” but it feels few have ever gotten quite this close. Squint and you can hardly tell the difference between this and Apple’s lineup.
The only notable visual feature or elements here are the lonely OnePlus logo (embossed on the back of the device) and the similarly iPhone-inspired Silent-mode toggle on the upper-left edge of the frame. Still, there are a few differences.
To start with, it’s a somewhat-larger in form-factor than your standard iPhone. In fact, the dual-lens setup means it’s probably closest to the iPhone 7 Plus. However, unlike Apple’s recent flagships, the OnePlus 5 still features a 3.5mm headphone jack (located on the bottom right corner).
The OnePlus 5's display looks bright enough in action, but only just. On this front, it feels like there’s definitely been some settling. It’s only Full HD (1080p) in resolution and sits in stark (or at least dim) contrast to the displays found in the competition. When watching video content, glare often reared itself as a minor issue.
Another area where the OnePlus 5 falls short is durability. It feels somewhat-fragile to hold and while the display does come coated in Gorilla Glass 5, OnePlus haven’t secured any Ingress Protection certification for the device against water, splash or dust damage - marking another area where the OnePlus 5 doesn’t really challenge the bigger brands.
Sure, comprehensive waterproofing is still a luxury inclusion but now that the feature is starting to make its way into mid-tier offerings, its absence here is little more felt.
Brand Post
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 Acer K242HYL review: An affordable monitor for any occasion
- 4 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 5 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
Latest News Articles
- Apple releases major updates to Logic Pro for Mac and iPad
- Apple posts another quarterly dip as Mac sales drag
- The iPhone 16’s A18 chip will change everything and nothing
- Microsoft may be readying Bing’s AI chatbot
- Security researchers warn of a new Google malware scam that could infect Macs
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers
Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world
Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles
PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D
The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65
This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76
It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Which Lenovo Laptop Should I Buy?
- Every TV in Samsung's 2022 line-up: OLED, Neo QLED and more!
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?