OnePlus 5 Review Price and Features

OnePlus 5 Review

BEST PRICES TODAY

Retailer	Price	Delivery
OnePlus	From £449		View

ONEPLUS 5 REVIEW

OnePlus just graduated. It’s no longer in the second division, pushing for the big time. The OnePlus 5 is technically brilliant and is the natural product of the last three years for the company. Also see: OnePlus 3T vs OnePlus 5

From 2014’s OnePlus One to today, these phones have shown mobile tech’s natural progression to where it is now. The only thing is, when you release a phone every few months there is only so much you can change.

The OnePlus 5 is an exquisitely designed, high-spec flagship phone with outstanding cameras, a decent display and a sense of individualism. But so were the OnePlus 3 and its successor just five months later, the 3T. 

Just 12 months after the OnePlus 3, it is no longer an out-and-out bargain. It has joined the top table of smartphone royalty and still undercuts the price of most of them, but not by quite the distance it once did a long time ago.

With only one network partner in the UK, OnePlus might find it hard to find a wider audience who are willing to spend £449 outright rather than get a similar phone on contract.

ONEPLUS 5 PRICE AND WHERE TO BUY

The OnePlus 5 will be on sale direct from OnePlus on 27 June from £449. This gets you the Slate Grey model with a set 6GB RAM and 64GB storage.

Pay £499 and you’ll get the Midnight Black OnePlus 5 with a set 8GB RAM (yes, eight) and 128GB storage. If you like the black, it’s definitely the better value for your money in the storage you get for the extra £50 and still save nearly £200 compared to the Galaxy S8.

View the OnePlus 5 on the company’s store here. 

This puts it at roughly the same price as the Sony Xperia XZ and iPhone 6s. Those phones are a generation behind the OnePlus 5, so OnePlus is still the better value option SIM-free compared to 2017 flagships.

In the UK it will also be available exclusively on contract with O2. Pricing is as follows:

From 22 June (Contract only):

• OnePlus 5 64GB £9.99 upfront and £49/month for 30GB data
• OnePlus 5 128GB £9.99 upfront and £51/month for 30GB data

From 29 June, standard pricing will apply:

• OnePlus 5 64GB £9.99 upfront and £34/month for 500MB data
• OnePlus 5 64GB £9.99 upfront and £38/month for 1GB data
• OnePlus 5 128GB £9.99 upfront and £36/month for 500MB data
• OnePlus 5 128GB £9.99 upfront and £40/month for 1GB data

See all OnePlus 5 O2 contracts here.

ONEPLUS 5 DESIGN AND BUILD

Ignoring past phones for a moment, the OnePlus 5 is a brilliantly well thought out and designed premium slab of a phone. I reviewed the Midnight Black model (8GB RAM, 128GB) and it is impressively thin yet sturdy - just 153g.

The aluminium rear of the phone is slick and clean, with no aerial lines breaking the design, but rather hugging the top and bottom of the phone. This means it now looks akin to an iPhone 7 Plus with its dual cameras and clean back, broken only by cameras, flash and logo.

The front of the phone has a forehead with a camera, ambient light sensor and earpiece and a chin with the excellent ceramic fingerprint sensor, but very slight side bezels. The bezels have an ever so slight dip to them, not an edge, but it only adds to the exceptional feel. The display remains 16:9 and even with my small mitts I was able to do a few things with one hand.

The right edge is clean save for a power/lock button with the Alert Slider and volume rocker on the left. The top edge is clean while the bottom houses a single down firing speaker, USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack.

OnePlus describes the ridge that runs all around the edges of the phone as the ‘horizon line’, showing dark on one ridge and light on the other in the right light. More simply, it makes the phone look and feels premium while allowing for a better grip on what is undoubtedly a fairly slippery phone. You may want to invest in one of the attractive cases OnePlus sells (I like the carbon fibre one).