OnePlus 5

[professor]

nah I think once you built a brand you can sell at whatever price you like, its only really those who are free thinkers who only see specs for a price will be affected by the creeping price creek.

I saw the fact it is a smaller battery and see the compromises. Really, this obsession with phone thinness bears no relevance whatsoever with a dominant problem most have which is battery life. They improved on it in the OP3 to OP3T change but then lost that plot in the battle for subjective aethetics.

“oh my phone is flat but its so pretty, I’ll just sit here and look at it.”

[cdarienzo1]

I personally have never seen a person own one of these phones and have never seen one in a store. where do you buy them? I live an hour from NYC and have never seen one there either. What is special about it and why does it look like and iphone 7?

[Insider]

Exactly. That’s why I don’t they’ve built a brand that can sell at whatever price they like.

[professor]

So the benefit of OnePlus is eroding downwards with the OnePlus5. Their first phone OnePlusOne was $350 for the 64GB model but then its creeped up each iteration and now $439 minimum. Their first phone had very good battery life, they then fell back and then improved it in the previous OnePlus3T.

The primary selling point is specifications as relates to performance for a price. So as they increase their price that primary point is eroding. So they have to compensate with hype and distractions and talk about “curves”.

You buy it are oneplus.net , it ships usually direct from China.

You probably have seen one but as phones all look so similar you probably thought it something else.

[Saad]

I’m pretty disappointed to be honest. I’ll hang on to my OnePlus One until I really need a new phone. The S8+ can be had BOGO so basically like 450 per phone on T-Mobile. I ordered that right after the OnePlus 5 price was revealed but cancelled later on seeing I really didn’t need a new phone. I can do 2017 without a new phone but if the OnePlus 5 truly was a great phone with a nice price under 500 for the 128GB/8GB RAM version, I’d probably have gotten it. But seeing I can get a Samsung Galaxy S8+ with waterproofing, expandable storage, gimmicks like Iris scanner, etc, and higher resolution Infinity Display, just as good of a camera…all for less than a OnePlus 5 after discounts. What do you think I will get?

The OnePlus One from 3 years ago has a 5.5 inch 1080p screen, 64GB storage, 3GB RAM. The upgrades are too incremental and small for me to spend so much on a OnePlus 5. If you were giving me a 2K edge to edge display, a body that isn’t borrowed from a cheap OPPO R11, and a camera that is actually better (initial reviews are not impressed with the camera), i’d probably order one.

consider me a pissed off oneplus fanboy. i’ll wait for the Note 8, iPhone 8, and probably even the S9 and OnePlus 6…as long as my OPO lasts.

[Insider]

What do you think about the 5T?

[professor]

<rant-mode=on>

To me they made it worse.

I don’t like 5.5" phones, prefer 5" but they are all too compromised so forced reluctantly into 5.5". They made the 5 even bigger than 3T I have and made the 5T even bigger than the 5 so its all getting worse every step. They then made the screen bigger but not the battery bigger so predicting worsening battery life to drive more pixels.

Geeks may like bigger phones but I do things like ride a bike and walk with a cup of tea in my hand (as known as having a life) and for me I need 1 handed operation.

I already make use of Android Wear so I can keep the phone in a pocket and glance at my wrist to pick up the phone least, and make heavy use of Anker buds (Life when at home, Slim+ when moving) but a phone which needs two hands to operate, well, I might as well use a tablet and then not have as small as 5.5" might as well have 7"-8". 5" is the sweetspot for phones.

(source)

So many phone designers lost the plot, its a phone.

I just this week got for $270 a 8" tablet with stereo front facing speakers, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, a SD slot (I put 128GB I got for $20) and if I am to bind up two hands then 8" can do that better than 5.5" which needs 2 hands. 1 handed operation needs 5".

<rant-mode=off>

[Insider]

So 0.14” taller and 0.01” wider turns you away?

[professor]

No its 3.4mm wider of a phone already too wide.

I had a Oneplus 2 which was wider than the OneplusOne and I moved to the Oneplus3T (3 and 3T same physical size, 3T had bigger battery).

(source)

(source)

Lost the plot phone designer. It’s a phone. You hold it in one hand. If it is 2 hands then might as well get a tablet.

My other phone is a Moto G4 Play for $99 with removable battery and SD slot, what it suffers from is RAM, CPU, LTE bands, which impacts performance. There is a gap in the market.

[Insider]

iPhone X is smaller than all

[professor]

I always keep phones in cases. The OPO had a full wrap-around case which made it bigger. The OP2 had an intelligent idea of remove back panel and add a case which helped its size but still caused it to be wide. The OP3T (my current phone) had a metal frame and needed scuff protection, but since the OP3T the OP5 is bigger, OP5T bigger in the same metal frame concept so it is 3.4mm wider. In a one-handed mode your thumb has to stretch double the width to hold the phone and touch the far edge so its 6.8mm further to reach. 6.8mm is enough to change from just about able to touch the other side to impossible.

What I thought would happen is the bezel-less leaks was just more screen but no its just bigger. The laziest design change is when you add by making it bigger, any idiot can do that.

[Insider]

Well seems dash charge is still superior. Has it gotten better? Or is this even comparing it to the quick chargers for all the other devices shown?

[professor]

DASH hasn’t got better, no. But it is still in my view an excellent technology, I wish how it works was an open standard, USB-PD could certainly be used instead with some smarts.

Also it is a little unfair here because:

• the test had the screens on all the time. The DASH approach does the DC-DC conversion in the charger, so as the battery inside the OnePlus increases its voltage (from 3.7V to 4.2V typically), the DASH charger does exactly that. So there is no DC-DC conversion inside the phone. This keeps the phone cooler so it can recharger faster. The other technologies do not this so there is some DC-DC in the phone and if the phone is in use that heat from use competes with charging heat and the phone protects itself by charging slower. SO in the video this is showing the phone screens on which makes the DASH charging show maximum relative gain

Compare “inactive” vs “active” and see how DASH jumps ahead best in active

• DASH is only from OnePlus (using same tech as OPPO) meaning you must use their charger with their cable or accept 10W with all the thermal throttling problems. This proprietary is very annoying when you’ve got other than the OnePlus like some buds or a Powercore, where you’d like a Powerport which does it all.

Personally I use the DASH at home and Powerport and Powercore on the road, on the road I know I’m about to enter a period of use of the phone no-wall-socket so I just plug in Powercore proactively and then when stopped moving I have a fully charged OnePlus and recharge the Powercore next wall-socket-opportunity. It works.

[professor]

OnePlus 6 could come with an iPhone X-like notch in its screen

About 3-4 months til the OnePlus 6.

What you think?

I fear the price. My OnePlus 3T is beginning to show battery aging.

[Tank]

A big nope from me, any phone that copies that stupid notch without a proper reason to have it is a failure to me. The iPhone uses facial recognition in that notch so it has a purpose, what’s everyone else’s excuse?
I see people surprised samsung didn’t go with a notch…uh hello people that’s because samsung had their infinity display before the iPhone came out. Still again another phone I won’t get because another’s you mentioned they are all getting too expensive

[professor]

You can get a lot of phone for not much $

e.g. got this email today

[Insider]

So in the near future I see a lot of smartphones with virtually no bezels as all the cameras and sensors will be under the display.

[thetonyclay]

I think that 2018 is going to be a great year for smartphones. I’m due for an upgrade in October/November, and I’m excited what I will see when that time comes. I may end up buying out what I owe on the phone a bit early to coincide with a fresh release if something truly excited me.

[Insider]

What phone do you have now?

I think in 2018 we should see more 120Hz displays and lower prices across the board. We’ll probably also see more phones with cameras that have adjustable apertures following the S9 and more widespread super slo mo video too.

I think Pixel 3 will probably be mainstream with more carriers, and hopefully it won’t have the issues of Pixel 2 (mainly display). Wireless charging hopefully will make a comeback. Not sure how I feel about the current design.

[thetonyclay]

I am currently using a OnePlus 3T. And it’s aging at this point. I have my sights set on the Pixel 3 XL atm.