Save for the X, all OnePluses in the company's (admittedly brief) history have been equipped with 5.5-inch FullHD displays. In the beginning, it was IPS LCDs, but it was exactly the X that made the switch to AMOLED, and the OnePlus 3 got Optic AMOLED. The 3T followed suit and now the 5 also sports the same 5.5-inch FullHD screen.
A QHD resolution would have certainly looked better on the OnePlus 5's spec sheet. It's 2017 after all and it's more or less taken for granted in the category the 5 is trying to fight in. There's also the matter of the diamond pixel arrangement - the red and blue dots are half the number of the green ones, and you could spot the fine weave of subpixels if you look closely.
Looking at the maximum brightness numbers, the OnePlus 5 may very well be using the exact same panel as its two predecessors, though the 3T was marginally brighter. The OnePlus 5 is as bright as the Galaxy S8 in manual mode, but the S8 can pump out substantially more nits in auto, while there's no such boost on the 5. Contrast is, of course, infinite - blacks aren't lit up at all, as is the case with AMOLED displays. Minimum brightness is 2nits, guaranteed to be easy on your eyes during nighttime scrolling sessions.
Display test | 100% brightness | ||
Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
0 | 433 | ∞ | |
0 | 447 | ∞ | |
0 | 435 | ∞ | |
0 | 440 | ∞ | |
0 | 618 | ∞ | |
0.462 | 603 | 1305 | |
0.308 | 483 | 1568 | |
0.373 | 583 | 1563 | |
0.228 | 468 | 2053 | |
0.277 | 564 | 2036 | |
0.41 | 573 | 1398 | |
0.50 | 681 | 1362 | |
0.463 | 573 | 1238 | |
0 | 425 | ∞ | |
0 | 533 | ∞ | |
0.335 | 547 | 1633 | |
0.399 | 560 | 1404 | |
0.539 | 428 | 794 | |
0.564 | 507 | 899 |
Sunlight contrast has seen a minor dip on the 5, its result being lower than both the 3's and the 3T's. Both the midrange Galaxy A7 (2017) and the flagship S8 fare better than the OnePlus handset in this respect, but in the grand scheme of things it's still an excellent result. Neither the iPhone 7 Plus, nor the LG G6 can match the OnePlus 5 for contrast in direct sunlight.
The OnePlus 5 has three preset color modes for its display, plus a custom setting with a cold-to-warm slider. The default mode isn't particularly accurate- whites were leaning towards purplish blue, and 100% Red was off. Average DeltaE in this mode is 6.
The sRGB mode is much more precise (also very dull, but that's how sRGB modes are - smartphone displays tend to look better when they pack some extra punch). Average DeltaE in sRGB mode is 1.4 and whites have a DeltaE of around 1 which is typically invisible. The wider DCI-P3 color space is also rendered very accurately (in DCI-P3 mode) - average DeltaE is 1.4, again. There isn't a significant change in maximum brightness either, so color accuracy doesn't come at the expense of precious nits.
There are other tricks in the Display settings menu on the OnePlus 5. There's a Night mode which tunes the display color temperature to match the ambient light and reduce eye strain. It can be enabled manually, set to engage between sunset and sunrise, or scheduled between specific hours. The strength of the effect can be tweaked too.
Reading mode turns the colorful AMOLED screen into a grayscale display giving it an e-ink-like look for improved experience when reading long text. It can be engaged manually or set to trigger when specific apps are launched.
The OnePlus 5 is a dual SIM device in all of its incarnations - it takes two nano SIMs regardless of where you get it. A total of 34 bands of 2G/3G/4G are supported, and LTE is Cat. 12/13 for theoretical speeds up to 600Mbps of downlink and 150Mbps of upload - there's no gigabit LTE on the OP5, even though the chipset is heavily advertised to support it, though we don't really see that as much of an issue.
Wi-Fi b/g/n over 2.4GHz and a/n/ac over 5GHz is supported. There's the latest Bluetooth 5 with improved range and speed plus aptX and aptX HD for those who are into high quality wireless audio. NFC support is another check mark in the spec sheet. Positioning is done with GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou satellites. There is no FM radio receiver.
Charging and wired connection use a USB-C interface, but the one on the OP5 only adheres to the USB 2.0 spec. A 3.5mm jack is present as well.
The OnePlus 5 is equipped with a 3,300mAh battery, a marginal decrease from the OnePlus 3T's 3,400mAh. We already speculated that's part of the reason why the phone is now a hair thinner than the iPhone 7 Plus. The 5 is using a newer and more efficient chipset though, so the smaller capacity doesn't necessarily have to mean inferior endurance.
In reality, the OnePlus 5 posted an identical overall rating to the one we got out of the 3T, but did so in a markedly different way. To get the bad out of the way first, standby and voice call longevity have taken a hit, but that seems to be our experience with the Snapdragon 835 in general, so it's most likely not OP's fault. And, at around 20 hours of 3G call endurance, you still have plenty of time.
The really important numbers, the ones with the display on, are quite impressive, particularly the endurance in looped video playback - 18:42h is the all-time fifth highest result we've had. In web browsing over Wi-Fi the OnePlus 5 calls it quits after just shy of 11 hours - not record-breaking, but still very good and 2 full hours longer than the 3T.
When you run out of juice, the Dash charging will top your battery up in no time. In our testing, 30 minutes on power brought the battery indicator up to 56% from flat (with the phone switched on, mind you). The caveat is that you need both OP's charger and OP's cable to benefit from it, so you can't get the same speed with a third-party kit.
Our endurance rating denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the OnePlus 5 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
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