Rapid Review: OnePlus 5T

When OnePlus arrived in Australia they began positioning themselves as providing a flagship product, that could match the best smartphones on the market, at a bargain price. The predecessor to the OnePlus 5T – the super quick, super powerful OnePlus 5 – released to critical acclaim, and with the suite of updates made to the OnePlus 5T, this could be the phone to lock the big dogs out of the yard.

Is the OnePlus 5T too good to be true? Or can it find a place beside the Apples and Samsungs of the world? Let’s find out.

What Is It?

OnePlus is a newcomer to the Australian market, releasing their highly-lauded OnePlus 5 towards the end of last year. The OnePlus 5T is a slight upgrade on that phone with high-end specs, excellent dual rear cameras, a zippy OS and a ton of features usually reserved for flagship phones marked ‘Apple’ or ‘Samsung’.

What’s Good?

A phone that can offer the same features and design quality as its high-end smartphone competitors but for around half the price is an incredibly alluring prospect. If it feels too good to be true, it often is, but the OnePlus 5T is essentially a flagship phone with a mid-level price tag. The dual cameras take photos that aren’t quite as crisp or clever as Samsung and Apple’s top phones, but damn, you can still take some great photos.

It has a strong battery life that competes with (and destroys) other Android devices such as the Galaxy S8 and man, it is fast. Taking a consumer-centric point of view, this phone is exactly what you want. Quick, takes good photos, has a battery that lasts a long time. Everything else is a bonus.

What’s Bad?

Well, for one, picking up the OnePlus 5T isn’t as simple as walking into your nearest retailer and slapping down some hard-earneds on the counter. It is possible to get an international model of the phone in Australia, but it’s worth taking note of which version you’re buying. There are different versions dependent on the region it’s been designed for.

Second – the phone sports some cool high-end tech features, like face unlock, but these are easily fooled and nowhere near as impressive as Apple’s FaceID. Depending on how you look at it, the cameras can be an upside or a downside. You won’t get the crispness you get with Samsung and Apple’s top phones, but damn, you can still take a nice photo.

Then there’s the things it doesn’t do that the high-end phones do well: It’s not water resistant. It doesn’t have wireless charging. There’s no microSD card support.

Should You Buy It?

For value, it can’t be beat. There are a good range of phones in the sub-$700 mark, but there are very few great ones. The OnePlus 5T is definitely one of the greats. If it’s too much hassle to worry about importing, you can always look at the previous model, the OnePlus 5, which also received glowing marks when Gizmodo reviewed it last year.

You can read the full review at Gizmodo, by clicking the link below.

[referenced url=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/11/the-oneplus-5t-is-very-a-damn-good-phone-for-a-reasonable-price/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_original/bdkrhvuakcsx6hrlnezl.jpg” title=”The OnePlus 5T Is A Very Damn Good Phone For A Reasonable Price” excerpt=”The price of high-end smartphones has gotten out of control. The iPhone X starts at $1579, while Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 retails at $1499, and as much as I like nice things, ponying up that much for a phone is kind of ridiculous. Do we really need a notch that lets you turn your face into an animated pile of poop, or a stylus that won’t make your shitty stick figures look any better? But don’t fret, because it’s still possible to get a very good phone for a decent price.”]

Rapid Reviews is Lifehacker’s bite-sized buying advice on the latest technology products.