Date:17/11/17

The OnePlus 5T is official, on sale Nov 21 for $499

For the observant phone geeks, the OnePlus 5T hype cycle and leaks have revealed much of what there is to know about the phone. But of course, we needed confirmation from OnePlus itself: yup, the OnePlus 5T is here, and it's up for sale earlier than many would've thought. Unveiled at its first in-person launch event in New York City, the OnePlus 5T focuses on improving a shortcoming of its predecessor, the camera, while modernizing the design a bit with a move to a larger, taller display.
 
 
Unlike the jump from the OnePlus 3 to the OnePlus 3T where the focus was purely on internal spec bumps, the OnePlus 5T marks changes in the exterior hardware and leaves the internals nearly identical. The most striking change is the move to a 6-inch 18:9 AMOLED display that's quickly becoming an industry standard form factor. It removes a lot of excess bezel in the process, and moves the fingerprint sensor to the phone's back. It's arguably a more ergonomic placement, and it lets OnePlus give you more screen in a body that's only marginally taller than the OnePlus 5.
 
Beyond that larger display, things are identical — you'll find buttons, switches and ports in all of the exact same places, and even the hardware materials and build feel the same. The internal specs carry over, but that's not a bad thing. A Snapdragon 835 with 6 or 8GB of RAM and 64 or 128GB of storage is still great for a 2017 flagship, as is the 3300mAh battery with Dash Charge quick charging. The body still doesn't have an IP67 water-resistance rating, but that's simply one of those corners that has to be cut to keep the price down.
 
OnePlus has interestingly given up on the telephoto secondary camera after less than a year, with the OnePlus 5T's secondary instead being a "low light" specialized sensor with the same focal length as the main camera, which remains unchanged. That second sensor is 20MP with 1-micron pixels, and lacks OIS — which on the face of it is a puzzling decision for a camera meant to enable better low-light photos. The camera app automatically switches to the second sensor in really dark situations, so expect to use the main sensor most of the time — and therefore get effectively the same photos as you would on a OnePlus 5.
 
One other interesting change is a new "face unlock" feature that's much better than promises to be better any other we've seen on an Android phone but nowhere near on the same level as the iPhone X's Face ID. It's designed to be super-fast, but because it identifies just 100 features of your face using the front-facing camera it isn't nearly as secure as Apple's solution. A neat selling feature for sure, but not one meant to replace the fingerprint sensor.
 
The OnePlus 5T is launching on Android 7.1.2 Nougat, rather than Oreo as we originally expected. OnePlus is claiming it will have a beta version of the Oreo update ready for both 5T and 5 owners by the end of 2017, but we'll have to wait until "early 2018" for a stable build on the phones.
 
We've finally shrugged off the whole "invite" nonsense for good, as OnePlus is once again opening up sales almost immediately. On November 21, dozens of countries get a chance to buy. Pricing has bumped modestly, slotting up to $499 (€499, £449) for the 6GB/64GB model and $559 for 8GB/128GB. That's still a relative bargain as flagship phone prices have ballooned over $800 as of late, and even though OnePlus hasn't changed much from the OnePlus 5 it's easy to see this as a great upgrade for fans with a OnePlus 3 or 3T or for someone who wants to keep cost down but still get a "flagship" phone.

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