At just four years old, it’s hard not to be impressed with the achievements of the Shenzhen-based One Plus. Not only is the company the owner of a brand with a wide recognition and acceptance, during this time, the firm has also managed to make impressive progress concerning size and markets.
Strangely, as it strives to becomes bigger, and more like the larger players in the market, will One Plus be able to retain its unique identity, or will each launch and numbers eventually dilute the firm’s brand to an also-ran in the crowded Android space? Increasingly, it’s beginning to look like the latter.
So, for Wired,the One Plus meets most expectations as you would expect with a phone with such high hardware specs, but surprisingly, disappoints with its camera. And of course, the somewhat mildly surprising allowance the phone makes for the screen, which is just a ‘regular’ 1080 HD screen. When the ‘flagships’ it is up against are usually on QHD now.
CNEThas a very positive view on the phone, except for a wrinkle about the price (the highest ever for a One Plus so far), the lack of expandable storage, even though the top end has 128GB to take care of your needs, and of course, a design that seeks approval in the afterglow of the Phone 7, which it reproduces as faithfully as one can without getting a summons from Apple.
For The Verge, the biggest complaint about the One Plus 5 is the price, which, it claims, takes it beyond the mid-range it has bossed for so long to the top range, where the ‘value’ proposition may not be as valuable. The Verge also helpfully tells you that the One Plus 5 and its three cameras offer you 52 megapixels of shot taking power, a view that might fall flat when faced with the Wired’s disappointment with the camera.
So what does one make of the One Plus 5? We believe the phone is up against it in India, with its new price points placing it squarely in the premium league, where everything, from its brand loyalty, its distribution and its after sales support will come up for some serious attention. Unique aspects like the dash charge are no longer hot, with their limitations regarding specific chargers, etc. Expect a slower offtake speed, when compared to its previous cousins, and considering everything, definitely look forward to the One Plus 6 in 2018, which will iron out the issues with the screen and more.