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One Day with the OnePlus 5T Oct 13, 2020

KeBlam , Oct 13, 2020 :

Hey everyone!


@KeBlam at it again! This will be my second article as a OnePlus Writers' Club member! @dsmonterio has paved way and suggested that a handful of us members write what it’d feel like if we got back to our old (but gold) phones just for a day. He wrote an amazing article featuring the OnePlus One and as for me, I decided to write about my favorite phone for quite a while: the OnePlus 5T.


Deep in my mind, I knew going back to the OnePlus 5T from the OnePlus 8 Pro would be a nostalgic feeling, but I am so glad that I did.





With just a week till the launch date, where OnePlus will introduce the new line of phones, I reminisced back 3 years ago. Where I spent my first paycheck on purchasing a brand new OnePlus device. The 5T was released on November 16, 2017, just weeks before Black Friday. I was sitting on an old Samsung Galaxy S5 that was barely running and drained of battery, despite the constant battery change.


I was patiently waiting for the phone one day, sitting in front of the door like a patient puppy waiting for his owner to come home. And right when I heard the doorbell, I shot down 3 flights of stairs from my apartment building in San Francisco. I tore through the packaging and opened the 5T’s box. I mean I couldn’t believe my sight; a few weeks ago I saw an ad and thought I got scammed, but here I was admiring the beauty. And this moment I knew that this was going to be a very beautiful journey.


Fast forward 3 years and here I am writing this article. I decided to use the 5T for one day after using the 8 Pro, an absolute behemoth of a machine, for a few months. This was definitely a tremendous transition at that. I turned the phone on and popped the SIM in. I came to notice that the 5T was running OxygenOS based on Android. In addition, there was this light blue wallpaper that has been sitting there, right where I last left it. Although it’s only been 3 years, all of this feels extremely foreign to me since I’ve utilized a variety of OnePlus phones, which have continued to impress me time over time. Now that I’m back with my original favorite, I must say that the OnePlus 5T has aged well.





As I’m holding the 5T, I couldn’t help but notice the massive difference in size. The 5T was sporting a 6.01" display with an aspect ratio of 18:9, meaning that the height of the phone is around double the width. Compared to the 8 Pro’s extraordinary 6.78” display with a 19.8:9 aspect ratio, the 5T seemed like a Tic Tac compared to a stick of gum! The display also wasn’t as clear as I remembered it, sporting 1080p, when the 8 Pro is running quad HD. This was definitely a weird feeling since the colors weren’t as vibrant, and the details weren’t as clear as I imagined it.




One of the key features that I loved on the phones like 5T and even on the 6, before OnePlus introduced the fingerprint-on-display (FOD) with the 6T, was the fingerprint sensor that allows you to do various things such as activating your phone or even dragging down your notification window (I don’t know if you knew that!).


I loved the Portugese quote that @dsmonterio brought up: “Never return to a place where you were once happy”. I was blown away, at that time, by the quality that $540 dollars could buy me on a phone, the OnePlus 5T was an amazing beast! However, fast forward 3 years later, which is eons in the tech world, the 5T seems like a grandma. I mean don’t get me wrong, I was exceptionally impressed. I mean 8GB LPDDR4X with 128 GB storage, a fingerprint sensor on the back, with Adreno 540 GPU, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, with an amazing front and back camera was amazing at that time! I was very blown away by the value that I got at that time. Many say that money can’t buy you happiness; but I was pretty darn happy since I had my hands on the 5T.



Of course, I had to eventually charge this phone. And as I pulled out the cord, I faintly remembered that this was one of the last devices to be charged via “Dash Charge”, before OnePlus switched it over to “Warp Charge”.




Eventually, I wanted to test the waters by playing a game or two of Call of Duty. I was rather impressed that the game was still loaded onto my device. The 5T loaded updated COD rather fast, hitting around 12MB/s, but that’s partially due to my internet speed being quite fast. I quickly queued up for a game and changed the settings to Low, but surprisingly, I wasn’t as rusty as I thought. Holding the phone, I originally thought it was quite small, but the 6.01” screen fit quite snuggly in both of my hands.


There were few characteristics/differences that I’ve noticed when gaming. The biggest thing that threw me off was the lack of dual Dolby Atmos speakers to up the gaming experience. Gaming on the 8 Pro is an amazing experience. And for those who are very into anime, Genshin Impact is absolutely breath-taking when you inject the audio into the game. While playing COD or battle royale games, I’ve noticed the lack of spatial awareness since the game sounds only came out of one speaker; and that definitely threw me off!

While I’m here playing a game or two, I couldn't help but noting something. The animations weren’t as smooth compared to gaming on the 8 Pro, which is explained by the higher refresh rate in some games that do support it, or simply by the increased processing power in others. However, playing this game was quite seamless on the 5T and I was absolutely crushing it; maybe I’m just spoiled since I’ve taken a liking to the 8 Pro!


Unpopular opinion: the notification dot needs to come back! With the introduction of the “Horizon Light”, we have an alternative to the notification dot since the edges of my 8 Pro show a beauty rim of lights whenever I receive a notification, but I still miss it. Although I know it probably won’t be coming back, I know that it was a good phase at that time. Would I go back to three years ago and pick up the 5T because of it, though? Definitely not, but the phones have aged pretty darn well if you asked me.




My favorite part about my 5T: Midnight Black! I mean the phone wasn’t a fingerprint magnet and was magnificent and sleek at that. I will always credit OnePlus for their choice of design, especially with color choice (I mean 7 Pro’s Nebula Blue was amazing). With that said, I’m glad that I visited back this device just for a day. It brought me joy and brought me memories. However, I know I won’t go back. There’s a famous Chinese saying that I’m pretty sure you’ve heard before: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And I’m sure every step that OnePlus made, as a company, was calculated, leading up to the upcoming 8T!