OnePlus 5 First Impressions: Impressively Efficient And A Great Camera

OnePlus 5 Rear Camera

The curtains have finally come off the OnePlus 5 in a grand ceremony at Mumbai today. I got my hands on this much awaited android flagship that has quite literally been in the center of a ton of buzz leading up to the launch. Here are my first readings of this much spoken about and expected device

OnePlus 5 Front View

OnePlus has made a consistent habit of making devices that look good and perform like a dream. Just picking up and holding this device in your hand gives you confirmation that OnePlus has delivered yet again. They have managed to shrink the thickness of the phone without losing out on the screen or the battery. It feels very light to hold and the screen is pretty vivid and clear with a lot of great viewing angles.

OnePlus 5 Rear View

Let me get straight to the elephant in the room. Most people and media houses were agog with speculation that it is a carbon copy of the iPhone 7 Plus, while a 2D image may lead one to think like that, I assure you that the shape and size of the rear are different. The rear is curved and gently tapers to the edges, the iPhone on the other hand is flat.

Agreed that the camera positioning is on the top left corner on the rear side. But then. where else do you put the dual cameras? There are only so many ways one can do a rectangular smartphone. So, I am very happy with the design and for me what matters is what makes the phone tick and how it works when I am using it as a daily driver. Here’s a quick list of what I saw on the phone at first glance

  1. The thinnest and sleekest OnePlus flagship ever, at just 7.25 mm
  2. The highest resolution dual-camera system available on any smartphone, with a 16 MP main camera supported by a 20 MP telephoto camera for beautiful portrait shots and clearer zoom
  3. Dash Charge, which the company claims gives you a day’s power in half an hour, as well as 20% better battery life
  4. Octa-core Snapdragon™ 835 processor (up to 2.45 GHz)
  5. Up to 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage
  6. A refined and bloat-free, nearly stock Android experience with OxygenOS, based on Android 7.1.1
  7. A durable and accurate ceramic fingerprint sensor that unlocks your phone in 0.2 seconds
  8. OnePlus’ trademark Alert Slider, which allows you to effortlessly switch between three notification profiles: Silent, Do Not Disturb and Ring

OnePlus 5 Rear Camera

So, the OnePlus 5 is an effective marriage of the iconic good things that have become customary on OnePlus devices and the really interesting new additions like the Dual Rear Camera that gives you great pictures and a brilliant portrait mode. There is also a system-wide reading mode that you can enable to make the display gentler to your eye when you are reading on it for a long time. This can be customized to enable for apps that you use to consume text. You can configure any and all your reading apps here. That’s very nifty.

Coming to the key selling point of the device, the dual camera on the rear! The OnePlus 5’s dual camera system features a tailor-made 16 MP camera, supported by a 20 MP telephoto camera. Together, they’re the highest resolution dual-camera system on a smartphone today, letting you take extremely clear photos. The 16 MP main camera features a large f/1.7 aperture, which captures 34% more light than the OnePlus 3T camera, resulting in clear images in low light. The larger aperture allowed us to increase the shutter speed for improved image stabilization. Fast AF allows the OnePlus 5 to autofocus up to 40% faster and more accurately than the OnePlus 3T.

I was very pleased with the first set of images the phone gave me when I tried it. I can’t wait to tell you about that in the review that is coming up next.

Another thing that caught my eye is Dash Charge While Gaming – Most quick charge solutions have to throttle down the power during intensive use to control heat. But since Dash Charge keeps the OnePlus 5 cooler, the battery continues fast charging even when streaming videos, playing graphic-intensive games or using the Dash Car Charger to navigate with GPS. This is extremely useful if you have a Dash Charge enabled car charger and are on the move and have to charge while using the phone. Very Good.

My first impression of the OnePlus 5 is that it is Impressive, Efficient and Clicks very detailed pictures on the go. It is definitely on my list for the phone of the year. More information in the detailed review coming next. Stay tuned!

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

View all posts by Shakthi →