With the OnePlus 5 right around the corner, the company has predictably been teasing and hyping up the feature set of their upcoming phone. There’s a lot that has been rumored and hinted at in whispered tones about the upcoming phone but these are the five features that we’ve heard about straight from the horse’s mouth. So without further ado, here are the top five features that we think you should know about the upcoming OnePlus 5.
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First things first, the OnePlus 5 is poised to continue the tradition of being one of the fastest handsets around. The company has confirmed that the phone will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 chipset. The top of the line chipset from Qualcomm has also found use in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Sony XZ Premium. Considering that the OnePlus 3T already had 6GB of RAM onboard, it is a given that the 5 will have at least that much. Combine that with rumors of UFS 2.1 storage and you are looking at some of the fastest specifications around.
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Now specifications might not excite you much anymore considering we’re almost at the point of diminishing returns. The dual cameras on the phone though will potentially prove to be the defining feature of the phone. OnePlus has already confirmed on multiple occasions that the upcoming phone will have two sensors at the back. What remains to be seen though is whether they’ll opt for an iPhone style depth of field focused implementation, Huawei’s black & white first monochrome sensor or perhaps LG’s wide-angle mode. Whatever they opt for, it should certainly be a step up from the camera on the OnePlus 3/3T which already produced some of the nicest looking images this side of flagships priced two times over.
Video and more specifically, the audio capture while recording it is something that gets ignored often when talking about improvements to the camera on smartphones. Indeed, other than LG and perhaps Nokia when they announced their PureView series, not many smartphone manufacturers have talked about the microphones that go into their phones. Color us surprised when we came across this video by OnePlus that showcases the tremendous strides that they’ve made in audio capture with the OnePlus 5. It’s not a stretch to figure out that the company is using wide dynamic range microphones that can capture loud music without much or any distortion at all. The proof however is in the pudding and if the sample is anything to go by, it looks like there’s going to be a huge improvement on this front.
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A new OnePlus phones means a new version of Oxygen OS as well along with all new features. The company has teased a few of these on Twitter starting from what appears to be a reader mode or night mode with adjustable color temperatures. The feature is bound to make reading long form text on the phone a lot more comfortable. OnePlus has also built-in a new feature that prioritizes apps that are used most often. These apps get loaded into memory on boot to boost performance, similarly apps that aren’t used very often are deprioritized to free up resources.
And finally, let’s talk about design. Other than a few leaked images and now, a fresh Twitter header on the official profile for OnePlus, the phone has mostly been kept under the wraps. The leaked images of the dual camera module has gotten everyone talking about how the phone seems to resemble the iPhone 7. It’s too early to pass a verdict on that but if the image officially shared by OnePlus is anything to go by, the phone isn’t quite the copy that it is being made out to be. The matte finish aluminum back panel doesn’t look all that different from the OnePlus 3 but we quite like what the company seems to be doing with the antenna lines that almost merge in along the top edges of the phone. The sides too seem to have a much gentler sloped that wraps around the corners. What the front looks like is anyone’s guess but we’re hoping for something more than simply utilitarian.
The OnePlus 5 launches globally on 20th June with an Indian event lined up on the 22nd. Follow along for the latest on the company’s upcoming flagship.