The OnePlus 5T is one of the best deals in Android hardware that still manages to feel like a missed opportunity.
Between the original OnePlus 5 hogging headlines and the 5T quietly cleaning up some of its mistakes, OnePlus nailed the spec sheet but played it way too safe where it mattered.
OnePlus 5 Hype: All Eyes On A Familiar Flagship
In the run-up to launch, the OnePlus 5 completely dominated the Android news cycle.
Leaks of its back design showed a horizontal dual camera and a silhouette that looked a lot like an iPhone 7 Plus from the top.
Pricing rumors painted a picture of a not-so-cheap “flagship killer”: a reported INR 32,999 starting price in India and up to 550 euros in Finland according to contest rules.
OnePlus confirmed the phone would ship with a wide dynamic range microphone, and Amazon India said the device would carry up to 8GB of RAM.
The company also pushed teasers, camera samples, and even a night shot from CEO Pete Lau himself, with metadata pointing to a 16MP camera.
On paper, and in marketing, the OnePlus 5 looked like a serious flagship play — but it wasn’t exactly original.
Meanwhile In Android Land: Real Competition, Real Variety
While OnePlus grabbed most of the headlines without actually shipping hardware, other brands were quietly rolling out real devices.
Samsung announced the Galaxy J5 (2017) and J7 (2017), mid‑range phones with Super AMOLED screens, octa‑core processors, Nougat, and 13MP cameras — not flashy, but grounded in what budget buyers actually use.
Oppo launched the R11 and R11 Plus with Snapdragon 660 chipsets, dual cameras with a telephoto lens, and a 6-inch AMOLED panel plus 4,000 mAh battery on the Plus model.
Xiaomi added a Coral Blue option to the Mi 6, and Nokia kept pushing global launches for its 3, 5, and 6 series across markets like Finland, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
In the background, rumors swirled about a Snapdragon 836-powered Galaxy Note8 and schematics for the iPhone 8 and 7s Plus, plus the debut of Apple’s 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro with iOS 11 exclusives.
Google’s Pixel XL 2 leaked in benchmarks with a bigger screen and Snapdragon 835, while Moto had multiple dual-camera phones in the pipeline.
The short version: OnePlus wasn’t operating in a vacuum, even if the hype made it feel that way.
Oreo Lands On OnePlus 5: Good, But Bare Minimum
Eventually, the OnePlus 5 did get the kind of update it deserved: Android 8.0 Oreo bundled as OxygenOS 5.0.
The rollout started in Canada and Germany and was supposed to hit all regions, with users able to check via Settings, try a VPN, or sideload from the OnePlus forum.
The changelog checked all the standard Oreo boxes: picture‑in‑picture and notification improvements from stock Android, plus OnePlus’ own tweaks.
There’s an updated Camera UI, image quality optimizations, a beauty effect for Portrait Mode, Parallel Apps for cloning log‑in‑based apps, and refreshed designs for Quick Settings and lift‑up display.
One genuinely important addition is the Android December security patch — security patches tend to be the least glamorous but most critical updates.
This is all fine, but not impressive.
For a company that markets itself as community‑driven and fast to update, pushing Oreo as part of a full OxygenOS version jump feels more like catching up than leading.
OnePlus 5T: Same Brain, Bigger Screen, Familiar Compromises
The response to the OnePlus 5’s very 2016 front design was the OnePlus 5T — a fix that arrived just a few months later.
There’s no new Qualcomm silicon to lean on this time; the Snapdragon 835 with 6/8GB of RAM and 64/128GB of storage is carried over wholesale from the OnePlus 5.
So OnePlus focused on the display, and only the display.
Out of the box, the 5T feels premium: metal unibody, slim chassis, clean antenna lines.
You get Dash Charger and cable in the box, but no earbuds or extra adapters.
The company keeps the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a rare consumer‑friendly decision in a year when everyone else was ripping it out.
The big story is the new 6‑inch 18:9 1080p Optic AMOLED panel from Samsung with a Diamond Pentile layout.
The bezels shrink, the fingerprint reader moves to the back, and OxygenOS scales cleanly to the taller aspect ratio.
Brightness goes as low as 2.1 nits for comfortable night reading and around 440 nits max, with a very strong sunlight contrast ratio that GSM Arena measured just behind the iPhone X.
This isn’t a spec monster like a 1440p HDR panel, but for normal use the display looks good and remains efficient.
OxygenOS supports Reading Mode (black‑and‑white with tuned color temperature) and a lightweight Ambient Display.
There’s no Always‑on Display, which feels like a missed trick on an AMOLED panel.
But you do get tuning options like sRGB mode and color temperature sliders — the kind of practical customization OnePlus usually gets right.
Performance, Battery, Audio: Where OnePlus Still Delivers
If there’s one area where the 5T doesn’t disappoint, it’s raw performance.
Snapdragon 835 plus 6–8GB of RAM and minimal software overhead means everything opens fast and stays in memory.
Animations feel quicker than on something like a Pixel 2, even if that’s mostly perception.
Battery life on the unchanged 3,300 mAh cell holds up surprisingly well despite the larger screen.
In testing, the 5T managed around 5.5 hours of screen‑on time, and in some stretches closer to 7.5 hours.
It’s not chart‑topping endurance, but it’s more than acceptable for a slim 6‑inch device running flagship hardware at 1080p.
The single loudspeaker gets respectably loud without distorting badly, and the headphone jack works exactly how you’d expect — no dongles, no drama.
There’s still no official IP rating, so water and dust remain a risk.
That’s increasingly hard to excuse in a phone positioned as a flagship alternative, even a cheaper one.
Camera: Big Promises, Meh Delivery
The camera is where OnePlus keeps talking a big game and then tripping over execution.
On the 5T, the company ditches the 1.6x telephoto secondary lens from the OnePlus 5 and swaps in a 20MP 1x lens that bins pixels in groups of four to improve low‑light performance.
The 2x zoom button stays, but it’s now entirely digital.
In theory, this should give you cleaner night shots.
In practice, the low‑light gains are modest and often get beaten by phones that lean harder on image processing, like the Pixel 2.
Ultra‑low‑light situations still leave the 5T struggling, and the secondary sensor only really kicks in under those extreme conditions.
Portrait mode still works and actually includes more background than the OnePlus 5 or Pixel 2.
But beyond the bokeh tricks, the secondary sensor’s promises feel largely unrealized.
Side‑by‑side, you can spot more aggressive post‑processing on 5T zoom shots compared to the sharper optical zoom from the older OnePlus 5.
4K video does get a real upgrade with electronic image stabilization, which noticeably reduces shake while keeping footage sharp.
Audio capture is solid and clear, good enough for casual vlogging and live streams.
Still, compared to the expectations OnePlus set, the total camera package lands a step behind the marketing.
OxygenOS: Light, Fast, But Incremental
The 5T ships with OxygenOS based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat, with an Oreo beta promised by the end of 2017 and a stable build in early 2018.
Given that the OnePlus 5 is already seeing Oreo as OxygenOS 5.0, that timeline is more catch‑up than flex.
The software itself is still one of Android’s better skins.
It’s close to stock, with just a OnePlus Community app as removable “bloat” and a few smart extras.
Face Unlock is fast when it works, though OnePlus itself leans on more secure methods like fingerprints or passwords for sensitive operations.
The rear fingerprint reader is extremely quick, with claimed unlock times around 0.2 seconds.
Parallel Apps lets you run multiple instances of services like Instagram or Snapchat for different accounts.
Reading and Gaming modes get refinements with adjustable contrast, and the Shelf remains a handy place to park widgets.
You can flip between light and dark themes, tweak accent colors, enable gestures from standby, and customize the navigation bar.
The problem isn’t what’s here — it’s what’s missing.
By 2017 standards, two platform versions (Nougat then Oreo) across two phones (5 and 5T) in the same cycle is the minimum bar for a brand aiming at enthusiasts.
OxygenOS feels mature, but the update strategy still feels reactive instead of proactive.
Premium On A Budget, But Not Without Trade‑Offs
Hold a OnePlus 5T and it absolutely feels like a premium phone, especially compared with plastic‑heavy mid‑range devices.
Third‑party and first‑party cases, including a Sandstone option as a nod to the early OnePlus days, help with grip and identity.
And the price undercuts phones with similar performance and more polished cameras.
But the pattern is hard to ignore.
The OnePlus 5 launches looking and pricing closer to mainstream flagships than ever, then gets visually outdated almost immediately.
The 5T shows up a few months later to fix the screen and tweak the camera, without adding longevity in areas like water resistance or a clearly better imaging pipeline.
Oreo arrives, but framed as a full OxygenOS revision rather than part of a transparent long‑term update plan.
The hardware is strong, the software is clean, and the display upgrade was needed.
Yet between the fast refresh cycle, the undercooked low‑light camera strategy, and just‑good‑enough updates, OnePlus feels like it’s coasting instead of pushing.
Check back soon as this story develops.