In less than a week, OnePlus will finally take the curtains off its new flagship at an event in New York, which will be live-streamed in select cities in India. The tickets for the live event of the OnePlus 5T launch in PVR theatres have been already sold out in India.
In the last few weeks, there have been one too many details about the OnePlus 5T, from mobile tipsters and the company itself. While it's up to the readers to believe what they want, the info we have today is simply the closest to the real deal.
Price
The biggest suspense about the OnePlus 5T is its price. Will the company price it higher than the current OnePlus 5 model? This question has been lingering everyone's mind ever since the company's CEO Pete Lau dropped a major hint at OnePlus 5T's pricing.
According to Lau, OnePlus 5T will cost less than ¥4,000, which roughly translates to Rs. 39,000 + some duties and taxes pushing the figure to over Rs. 40,000 in India. But a leaked document from O2 recently suggested that the price of OnePlus 5T will be same as its predecessor as the company is planning to replace the OnePlus 5's 8GB RAM model with OnePlus 5T with the same RAM priced at Rs. 37,999.
It does make sense, but nothing's for certain unless the company confirms.
On a side note, we already know that OnePlus 5T is going to be available on Amazon.in and OnePlus online store on November 21 in an early access sale.
Design
It seems like the whole purpose of launching the OnePlus 5T is to match the industry's design standards. A major visual disruption in the OnePlus 5T comes from its edge-to-edge display, which we will discuss in the next part. The rear panel is likely to be the same, complete with a dual camera setup with LED flash, metal construction and OnePlus logo.
But leaked renders have shown the addition of the capsule-shaped fingerprint scanner on the back panel, which is obvious considering the bezel-free display will leave no room for a physical button on the front. If that's too much to imagine, check out the OPPO F5 for resemblance.
The USB Type-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack and speaker grille at the bottom will remain intact, so will the volume, power/lock and alert slider controls on the sides.
Display
As most premium and mid-range smartphones are adopting the 18:9 aspect ratio display, it is unfair for a company that claims to be a "flagship killer" to remain obsolete. The biggest change in the OnePlus 5T is going to be its display, which will be a bezel-less, 18:9 aspect ratio screen.
Due to this, the screen size will be bigger in the OnePlus 5T, which rumours strongly suggest to be 6 inches diagonally. To equally spread the pixels across the large display, OnePlus 5T will have 2160x1080 pixel resolution.
The new handset will sport 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 for added damage protection and refined finishing touch.
Battery & wireless charging
Rumours have hinted at a bigger battery for the OnePlus 5T as compared to its predecessor. Instead of reusing the 3,300mAh unit, the company is going for a 3,450mAh battery.
Charging this large battery shouldn't be a problem as Dash Charge has proven to be quite effective time and again. And in a recent post titled "Let's talk about wireless charging," the company's CEO stressed how Dash Charge is much superior and reliable than wireless charging.
To simply put, OnePlus 5T is not getting wireless charging support.
Headphone jack
Even though Apple and Google have ditched the good-old audio jack from their flagships, OnePlus – which claims to be a consumer-first brand – understands the importance of a 3.5mm headphone jack in smartphones. This means you won't have to let go of the jack (Jack?) like Rose did in the movie Titanic.
In case you're wondering just how important is an audio jack for OnePlus, the company decided to write a blog post about it. It's an interesting read BTW!
Camera
There's a lot of uncertainty regarding the camera. The cameras on the OnePlus 5 had two 16MP sensors on the back and a single 16MP sensor on the front for selfies. It appears OnePlus might have a surprise in the OnePlus 5T, but you never know.
If true, the OnePlus 5T is expected to get 20MP+16MP sensors on the back for a more in-depth, detailed photographs that you value so much. The selfie camera will remain the same as in the OnePlus 5.
Progress is the persistence and courage to keep moving forward. #ShotonOnePlus #NeverSettle pic.twitter.com/AbFs2HZmg0
— Pete Lau (@petelau2007) November 7, 2017
Impressive photo. Must be a great camera ? pic.twitter.com/rixfXiqaFS
— Pete Lau (@petelau2007) October 25, 2017
The rest...
Since the OnePlus 5T is going to be a mid-cycle upgrade, we do not see a reason why the company would make any changes under the hood. The Snapdragon 835 chipset is already the best we've got, and it's obvious OnePlus 5T will also have the same. The RAM configuration, as we said earlier, will be 8GB (if the company chooses to replace the current 8GB OnePlus 5 variant). The storage will be 128GB – limited.
OnePlus 5 runs Android Nougat-based OxygenOS. Best case scenario, OnePlus 5T will get Android Oreo or the latest OxygenOS at the very least. With support for 4G LTE bands and 34 network bands, OnePlus 5T will be a globally-supported smartphone.
