DAY 2:
DISPLAY/DESIGN
Another day, another new insight on the OnePlus 5T! Let's start with another video. I really do love the premium design of this phone, and I've decided to highlight some of my favorite features of this sleek black beauty.
Firstly, this is a beautiful phone. Yes, some may disagree with me and say that it's an uninspired design, but I see it as OnePlus having taken all the design elements of the OP5, and brought them one step closer to perfection.
View attachment 630300
Though the addition of the T suggests an incremental upgrade like from the 3 to 3T, the OnePlus 5T has in reality, undergone a complete overhaul in design from the 5. The two seem very similar at a glance, but the introduction of a screen that covers much more of the front while keeping the same general body means that the interior has to have seen some reshuffling. On stricter terms, the Oneplus 5T is actually bigger of a phone than the 5 all around; slightly taller, very slightly wider, and a tiny bit thicker, with the inclusion of the new camera bump (the phone body stayed the same thickness), but that's by no means a strike against it.
To start off with some of the most major design changes to the body of the phone, I'd like to draw attention to the camera bump. It's now about a millimetre more pronounced because of the screen eating up camera space in the housing. However, now the anodised aluminum rear cover curves up around the camera to meet the reduced chromed ring around the glass halfway up the camera bump. This goes miles for the design of the device feeling fluid, and is evidence that a bigger camera bump doesn't have to be a bad camera bump.
View attachment 630303
Next, the rear fingerprint scanner. It was an obvious choice, the massive screen that affords us the new view didn't leave enough space for a front mounted scanner. It seems to be the same as the one on the OnePlus 5, I can't be sure but given the speed, they're both so quick I was hard-pressed to notice any difference. Thankfully, OnePlus stayed true to using premium materials, and this new rear scanner is still ceramic, although in a very fine matte finish that I've never seen before, matching well with the rest of the back. Personally, I like the placement of the scanner better on the rear, but those that have stuck with OnePlus devices from the start may find it harder to adopt this new position.
View attachment 630304
Moving up from the fingerprint scanner, we can see that finally, the dual LED flash is oriented in-line with the scanner and the OnePlus logo, and is centred on the back of the device, unlike its predecessor.
View attachment 630305
Also unlike the OnePlus 5, the 5T's top and bottom bezels are now the exact same size, lending to a much more homogenous and clean feel in landscape mode. Attention to detail in design is looking great so far.
The vibration motor inside feels great and responsive, even better than the OnePlus 5, and I believe it's likely to do with its placement right under the on-screen navigation button area, instead of towards the top of the phone on the 5. This makes the source of the vibration closer to the buttons and keyboard most often used to elicit the vibration, and closer to the centre of the palm in a normal grip.
View attachment 630308
However, all these new design choices don't mean that there aren't important similarities to the Oneplus 5, and even the 3. The buttons are still thankfully as tactile as ever and in the same positions, along with the fan favorite 3-position alert slider. Oh, and the headphone jack survives another generation. Good job, OnePlus.
View attachment 630314
The Sim card tray still offers support for 2 nano sim cards, unfortunately still without microSD expansion, which would have been useful for faster file transfer even on a 128gb phone, considering that OnePlus stuck with a USB 2.0 Type C connection to maintain compatibility with Dash Charge.
View attachment 630309
The back is again coloured with 3 dark coatings, sandblasted to matte perfection. Despite it being matte though, the body of the phone is quite the fingerprint magnet. The gorgeous lustre of the back also once again tapers to the sides of the unibody, into what OnePlus has fittingly named the "Horizon line," making for a premium in-hand feel, and dividing the dark rear of the phone from the headlining feature; the massive vivid and brightly lit display in the front.
View attachment 630310
Make no mistake, the new view introduced by this new 18:9 panel is nothing short of a huge departure from OnePlus's past devices. Yes, it's still a pentile AMOLED display at 401 PPI, but there are no on-paper specs for wow-factor and the amazing feeling of viewing anything on a near-full screen in the palm of your hand. It's everything great about the OnePlus 5 display, just more of it!
The screen is incredibly vivid thanks to the nature of AMOLED pixels; unlike backlit LCD displays, they can dim or turn off when displaying darker colours, making for absolutely stunning contrast when viewing any content or even just having a dark theme on.
View attachment 630311
I really like the rounding of the corners, it does a great deal in helping the massive display conform to the body of the phone, while not reducing space for important info like a larger cut on some other devices would. However, I wouldn't have minded if it were slightly rounder of a curve, but being that the display is AMOLED, one can easily use third party apps to turn some pixels off in the corner to achieve a larger corner cut.
View attachment 630312
The system has a few settings to calibrate the display for a variety of colour options, including the standards of sRGB and DCI-P3 for more true-to-life tones and hues, as well as a new adaptive mode, that constantly checks and adjusts your screen's white balance to accommodate whatever lighting situation the phone is under, for a more pleasant viewing experience.
The painstaking attention to detail that goes into the design of a device like this definitely shows, and absolutely doesn't go unnoticed. The device still lacks the implementation of stereo speakers leveraging the earpiece, or any water/dust resistance rating that some competitor devices feature but these are small shortcomings in what is otherwise an exquisite device at a very competitive price point. OnePlus has stuck with their stunning unique design language despite the advent of new screen technology, and it looks like the design team pulled it off very well.
View attachment 630315
Next review, I'll go into details about the camera and its performance.
Click to expand...
