OnePlus 5T versus Nokia 8: Which one wins the battle of the best
One of the most-eagerly awaited phones – OnePlus 5T – is finally here. Barely five months after the launch of OnePlus 5, the 5T is all set to take the market by storm and become the new mid-range flagship winner. There's no denying it has all the tools to do so – a shiny new six-inch 18:9 edge-to-edge display, refreshed design and an improved camera setup.
But before it can be crowned the new king, there are a number of battles that it will need to win. The most important of them being against HMD Global's offering for the segment – Nokia 8. So without further ado, let's take a look at how OnePlus 5T fares against Nokia 8 which is arguably its biggest competitor in the market segment.
Design
In terms of design, both phones are extremely attractive and solid options.
OnePlus 5T comes with a design scheme which borrows heavily from its predecessor – the OnePlus 5, but because of the inclusion of a larger bezel-less display and repositioning of the fingerprint scanner at the back, the phone looks and feels more in line with the times. The OnePlus 5T is expected to sport an aluminium unibody chassis and have bottom-firing speakers with the 3.5mm jack again finding a place on the device.
The Nokia 8, on the other hand, has a design that is anything but flashy. There are no sexy infinity displays or a squeezable colour-changing body. However, that takes nothing away from the phone's looks. The design draws inspiration from the iconic Nokia Lumia handsets of the past to create a handset that is wonderfully slim as its crafted from just a single block of aluminium. The device does not call out for attention, but it still looks and feels like one that commands your focus for more than a second.
Display
Probably the biggest talking point about OnePlus 5T is the display on the phone which has been dominating the headlines for a while now. The OnePlus 5 came with the dated 5.5-inch 1080p panel found in the previous generation 3T and 3 smartphones from the company. However, with the 5T, the company has gone ahead and used an edge-to-edge Full HD+ AMOLED panel which is also bigger in size at six-inches and gives it a more futuristic look.
The Nokia 8 also sports a more than capable display which despite not following the bezel-less fad does not fail to add to the phone's beauty. The device comes sporting a 5.3-inch Glance Screen Quad HD display with an impressive pixel density of 544ppi. The display, Nokia claims, is one of the brightest in the market and is capable of producing maximum brightness of 700 Nits. The 2.5D display is covered with a sheet of Gorilla Glass 5 to guard against scratches and minor falls.
Under the hood
In terms of specs, both the phones are very evenly matched, with the Nokia 8 and the OnePlus 5T only slightly differing some in key specs.
The Nokia 8 comes packing Qualcomm's top-of-the-line 835 SoC paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 256GB. The OnePlus 5T, on the other hand, also brings with it the same Snapdragon SoC, but pairs it with a larger RAM module (6GB/8GB) and even offers its customers the choice of buying the phone in two different storage variants.
The OnePlus 5T also sports a larger battery – 3300mAH – in comparison to the Nokia 8 which brings with it a slightly smaller 3,090mAh battery pack.
Camera
Even though both the devices come with above par camera modules, it's Nokia 8 which takes a slight lead when it comes to clicking pictures. HMD Global is building up the Nokia 8 as a device created for "storytellers" and at the centre of this attempt is the camera modules that company has added to Nokia 8.
The device comes with a dual camera setup at the rear with ZEISS optics - a 13MP primary RGB (colour) sensor paired with a 13MP monochrome (black and white) sensor, which allows for capturing depth and aids low-light photography. At the front, there's another 13MP RGB shooter – same as the one on the back.
The OnePlus for what it's worth has also tried to bring a really good camera setup with the 5T, but it still misses out on some crucial elements that could have made it a perfect package.
The OnePlus 5T sports a tweaked 16+20 Megapixel dual camera module. The company has added a larger f/1.7 aperture on the second lens to improve low light photography, but it has done so at the expense of the telephoto lens. Apart from this, OnePlus claims to have improved "portrait" shots on the phone through software enhancements. The proof of the pudding, however, will be in the eating; so, for now, we would like to reserve our judgement on that.
Price
In terms of price, OnePlus 5T is available in two different storage variants, with the cheaper 64GB/6GB RAM variant available for as low as Rs 32,999. The Nokia 8, on the other hand, is only available in a single variant which retails at a price of Rs 36,999. And this is where the difference between the two phones may boil down to – a more aggressive pricing strategy.
The Nokia 8 despite its understated elegance and top-of-the-line specs may mark itself out as a brilliant phone, but the OnePlus 5T with its bigger bezel-less display, and slightly better specs at a more affordable price just ends up winning the battle.