OnePlus 5T Review

The 5T was OnePlus catching up with the year's fashion. The 16:9 OnePlus 5 became a 6.01-inch 2160 x 1080 Optic AMOLED in an 18:9 body of the same size, the fingerprint reader moved to the back, and Face Unlock arrived using the front camera alone, quick enough to be the default and insecure enough that banking apps ignored it. Under the glass nothing changed: Snapdragon 835, 6 or 8GB of RAM, 64 or 128GB of UFS storage, a 3300 mAh battery and 20W Dash Charge. It was one of the fastest Android phones of 2017 and it stayed that way, because OxygenOS 4.7 was still light and the updates ran through Oreo, Pie and, in 2020, Android 10.

The camera was where the value argument thinned. OnePlus dropped the 5's telephoto for a 20MP Sony IMX376K at the same focal length as the 16MP IMX398 main, meant to take over in low light by binning pixels; in practice the phone rarely switched, neither sensor had OIS, and night shots were soft next to a Pixel 2 or a Galaxy Note 8. The 1080p panel was accurate and adjustable but not bright, and the aluminium body carried no water resistance rating. The 5T kept the headphone jack, which the 6T removed a year later, and it kept the price at $499, which OnePlus never managed again.