Chinese mobile manufacturer OnePlus on Thursday launched its new flagship, the OnePlus 5T at a glitzy ceremony in New York. While many wondered why the company chose to make its predecessor the OnePlus 5 obsolete just five months after its launch, it is OnePlus’ attempt to keep abreast with its competitors, especially in terms of display.
The larger display, rear fingerprint scanner and better camera pretty much sum up all that’s new with the OnePlus 5T as compared to its predecessor. It is perhaps for this reason that the company decided to stick to the same price point as OnePlus 5 as well.
The device will be available in 64 GB and 128 GB (midnight black) variants for Rs 32,999 and Rs 37,999, respectively. OnePlus has said it will be made available for open sale starting November 28, while there is an option to get your hands on the new flagship starting November 21 through an early access sale on Amazon, oneplusstore.in and OnePlus experience store in Bengaluru.
Also Read: OnePlus 5T launched at Rs 32,999 in India: Can OnePlus’ latest be another flagship killer? | 10 points
Comparisons with the OnePlus 5 aside, the 5T is also drawing comparisons with the iPhone X, especially given the stark difference in their price. The OnePlus 5T, which packs in pretty much similar features as the iPhone X, is available at less than half of what the iPhone X costs.
Armed with an all-new design, an OLED screen, and Face ID, the iPhone X carries a much higher price tag, starting at Rs. 89,000 for the 64GB variant.
Here is how the OnePlus 5T stacks up against the iPhone X:
Size and Feel
Larger in all departments from the OnePlus 5, the same holds true for its when compared to the iPhone X as well. However, it still manages to be lighter and slimmer than the iPhone X due to the materials used. The OnePlus 5T sports a length of 156mm, is 75mm wide, 7.5mm in thickness and weighs 162 grams.
Its much costlier counterpart, the iPhone X, on the other hand, sports a height of 144mm, is 71mm wide. 7.7mm thick and weighs 174 grams.
While the iPhone X is covered front and back in glass, and the sides in stainless steel, the OnePlus 5T is made of much lighter anodised aluminum.
Even in terms of feel, the OnePlus 5T manages a much smoother finish as compared to the iPhone X. While the steel sides do offer the iPhone X a premium feel, it isn’t really as smooth as the OnePlus 5T’s.
Specifications
Comparing it with the iPhone X, perhaps the biggest feature missing from the OnePlus 5T is wireless charging. In fact, wireless charging has come to be a standard in all top-tier smartphones, but the OnePlus 5T misses out if one goes on to list the features on both phones and compare them.
The OnePlus 5T, however, does make some changes to the fingerprint scanner which has moved from the front to the rear to make room for a larger display. While Apple’s proprietary Face ID may be as fast and reliable as most finger print scanners, what does it mean from the user perspective?
While the iPhone X’s facial unlocking system takes 0.15 seconds to get cracking, the OnePlus 5T normally takes around 0.17 seconds to unlock through its rear fingerprint scanner. However, low light conditions may make the Face ID a drag as compared to finger print scanners, but that nowhere takes away from the fact that Face ID is the future in terms of technology. But does the difference of 0.02 seconds really make up for the price difference? Your call.
Display
In terms of display, the iPhone X has a 5.8-inch, 1125x2436 display, the OnePlus 5T packs in a 6.01-inch, 1080x2160 display, leaving iPhone X users with a much sharper display as compared to the OnePlus 5T. While both smartphones have inbuilt AMOLED panels, the iPhone X supports HDR 10 and 3D touch which the OnePlus 5T does not.
In its defence though, the OnePlus 5T has a 80.5 per cent screen-body ratio, just a bit lesser that iPhone X’s 82.9 per cent. Though the iPhone X may statistically beat the OnePlus 5T in terms of display, put side-by-side, there isn’t really much difference a normal user could point out.
Audio Performance
This is one area where the OnePlus 5T gets beaten hands down by the iPhone X. While the OnePlus 5T’s mono performance offers a single downward-firing speaker, the iPhone X has a dual stereo speaker arrangement – with the bottom speaker handling the bass and the top one handling much of the treble.
Battery
If you are among those who spends most of his time outside, this is one area where the OnePlus 5T could prove a better buy. Apple iPhone X’s 2716mAh battery stands much lower than the OnePlus 5T’s 3300mAh battery. Despite a larger display on the 5T as compared to its immediate predecessor, the OnePlus’ latest should last 15-20 per cent longer than the iPhone X.
The icing on the cake here is the OnePlus 5T’s 20-W Dash charger which charges the device remarkably faster compared to Apple’s standard 5W charger with the iPhone X.
OnePlus 5T launched: Price in India, specifications, features and everything else you want to know
Camera
OnePlus has rejigged the camera department with its latest offering. The rear dual camera has been altered, ditching the telephoto setup that provided a 2x optical zoom for two cameras both using the same fast f1.7 lenses for better low-light performance. One camera has a 16-megapixel sensor and the other a 20-megapixel sensor, which is used in light levels below 10 lux – where a very dark overcast day is around 100 lux.
The iPhone X, on the other hand features two 12-megapixel rear cameras - one wide-angle, and another telephoto. The wide-angle lens sports an f/1.8 aperture, while the telephoto lens is f/2.2. They can combine to enable 2x optical zoom and features such as Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting, which keep the subject crisp and in focus while blurring the background or manipulating ambient light.
While the OnePlus 5T looks better on paper, it is yet to be tested in detail for the highs and lows. On the other hand, the iPhone X’s much-touted Portrait photography, though revolutionary in terms of smartphone experience, has faced criticism for not being sharp enough.
Operating System
While the iPhone X runs on Apple’s new iOS 11, the OnePlus 5T misses out as it does not pack in the latest version of Android, leaving it stuck on Oxygen OS based on Android 7.1.
OnePlus clearly disappoints by not managing to ship with Android 8 Oreo. You’ll get Android 7.1 Nougat at release, with the company making the standard promise to update your device as soon as possible.
