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Why OnePlus 5T was launched a few months after OnePlus 5

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Sushant Talwar
Sushant TalwarNov 17, 2017 | 17:17

Why OnePlus 5T was launched a few months after OnePlus 5

It was on June 22 that Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus announced what was expected to be its flagship for 2017. But as fate would have it, the still highly popular phone — the OnePlus 5 — was relegated and left looking obsolete barely five months after its launch by none other than its makers who only yesterday (November 16) brought to the market an all-new flagship for the year: the OnePlus 5T. 

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It's worth noting that even the OnePlus 3 had to face a similar fate last year, but owing to the fact that its successor only came with non-cosmetic improvements under the hood, which only revealed themselves when put to the blade by benchmarking tests, the news of the upgrade did not seem as harsh on the millions of users who had invested their money in the OnePlus 3.

Fast forward to 2017 and it's a different story altogether. With this year's upgrade being more cosmetic in nature — 18:9 edge-to-edge display, bigger size — the OnePlus 5 has been left looking stale overnight. Needless to say, many OnePlus 5 owners feel betrayed by the move. A case in point is this thread on a OnePlus forum. 

So, for a company that stresses the need for prioritising the wishes of its fan community first, it thus becomes important to ask, if there really was any need for the kind of mid-cycle upgrade we've seen with the 5T. Well, the short answer to that is, yes.  

Rationale behind the madness

Regardless of the fact that the launch of the 5T will leave new fans feeling angered and even betrayed, understandably so – many of whom may even decide to stay away from the devices created by the smartphone maker in future – the company was absolutely right in going ahead with the move. 

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Even though bezel-less displays have been around for a while, in the last couple of months, the smartphone industry has found itself increasingly smitten by the edge-to-edge display trend. For OnePlus – a brand which survives on the idea of bringing the very best in terms of hardware to the market at a competitive price – not being able to flaunt a Full HD + bezel-less panel on its 2017 flagship was starting to become detrimental to its sales.

Then there was also the matter of phones like the Nokia 8, Mi Mix 2 and the Honor 9 undermining its position as the king of the mid-range flagship segment. A solution was needed – that too quick– and by bringing the OnePlus 5T, the company did just that. 

Despite the fact that Carl Pei and co would like you to believe that the 5T was announced keeping in mind the company's core philosophy, in all honesty, it is only because the smartphone maker was pushed to the corner that it decided to jump the gun with the 5T. 

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Is it worth the upgrade?

Essentially, the OnePlus 5T is the same phone as the OnePlus 5 but only inside a bigger body and equipped with a better display. Despite feeling like a new phone instead of an incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 5, the core hardware – Snapdragon 835 SoC, the 3300mAh battery, RAM and storage – remains the same, but so do the core issues faced by the OnePlus 5.

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My biggest gripe is with the camera. Though with the OnePlus 5T the company has tweaked the existing 16+20 Megapixel dual camera module by adding a larger f/1.7 aperture on the second lens to improve low light photography, it has done so at the expense of the telephoto lens. A step in the right direction? We're not sure. 

With the telephoto lens gone, the camera loses its optical 2x zoom capabilities. 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 judgment on that.

But what we do know for sure is that the phone still does not improve on certain flaws that held back its predecessor – lack of Optical Image Stablisation for clicking pictures and waterproofing.

There is no denying that overall, the 5T comes off as a more well-rounded device because of the addition of the bigger display, better design, tweaked camera module and inclusion of a surprisingly fast facial recognition-based unlocking system. But it cannot be ignored that there was a bit more that needed to be done to make it a worthy upgrade over the OnePlus 5.

As for how it fares against the competition, the OnePlus 5T still does not beat the likes of Nokia 8 on some key fronts – fluidity of the operating system, camera performance, et al – yet, owing to its latest addition, the gimmicky bezel-less display, it will put up a better fight against the competition and for some may even represent a better buy than the Quad HD display-clad Nokia 8.

Last updated: November 17, 2017 | 17:30
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