OnePlus 5 review: Doing the math

Doing the math

GSMArena Team, 20 June 2017.

Contacts and telephony

Polishing things up is what OP has done with this latest edition of OxygenOS, and current OnePlus owners, as well as most stock Android fans will feel right at home. The contacts manager features a tabbed interface which displays all contacts and the favorites. You can sync your phonebook with multiple accounts including Google and Exchange. A button to add a new contact is constantly present in the top right corner - you can choose which account to sync the new addition with.

Favorites - OnePlus 5 review Call log - OnePlus 5 review Contacts - OnePlus 5 review Viewing a single contact - OnePlus 5 review Dialler with smart dial - OnePlus 5 review
Favorites • Call log • Contacts • Viewing a single contact • Dialler with smart dial

OnePlus hasn't made the jump to stereo speakers with the 5, but it has either fitted a different driver here, or tuned the old one in a new way, as the OP5 is louder than the previous generation. Where the 3 and 3T managed a Good rating, the 5 ups that to Very good. Not quite enough to make us forget about the Excellently loud OnePlus One and 2, though.

Speakerphone testVoice, dB Pink noise/ Music, dB Ringing phone, dB Overall score
BlackBerry Priv 62.1 61.7 66.5 Below Average
Apple iPhone 6s Plus 65.8 65.1 64.6 Below Average
Sony Xperia XZ Premium 62.9 65.2 71.6 Below Average
Sony Xperia XZs 62.4 65.5 73.3 Average
Xiaomi Mi Max 67.1 66.2 68.1 Average
Oppo F3 Plus 62.3 69.8 70.0 Average
OnePlus 3T 61.0 69.3 78.3 Good
Samsung Galaxy S8 66.2 70.5 72.5 Good
LG G6 66.8 68.8 74.5 Good
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge 70.0 69.1 71.8 Good
OnePlus 3 62.4 71.0 77.8 Good
Apple iPhone 7 Plus 68.3 72.2 72.9 Good
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) 66.6 66.1 81.5 Good
Huawei P10 Plus 64.8 69.8 82.5 Good
Xiaomi Mi 6 66.1 69.0 84.1 Very Good
OnePlus 5 69.2 72.9 77.5 Very Good
HTC U11 (Theater) 69.2 72.7 78.4 Very Good
HTC U11 (Music) 68.7 73.0 79.1 Very Good
OnePlus One 74.8 73.5 80.2 Excellent
Google Pixel XL 73.4 72.1 84.1 Excellent
OnePlus 2 75.7 73.5 80.7 Excellent

Text input

Text input on the OnePlus 5 is handled by the excellent Gboard. With a number row, secondary symbols on long presses, emoji, GIFs, glide input, and skins, there's nothing missing. In fact there might be a little bit too much, if you don't like the ever-present G button for instant searches.

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Gboard

Apps

As usual, OnePlus has kept its app package to a bare minimum. There is literally no bloatware to speak of, to the point that even the in-house Music player is gone.

The Community app is your direct source of info on all things OnePlus with forum threads on all models plus announcements and contests. That's your gateway to the active community we talked about earlier.

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OnePlus Community

There is one fine-looking File manager app that can group your things by category or give you the usual folder tree. Batch actions are supported, and you can view you Google Drive through here as well.

You can also access your Secure box from the File manager. Secure box is where you can save private files, and you can only gain entry via a 6-digit PIN (different from your unlock PIN) or fingerprint.

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File manager • Secure box

OnePlus's Weather app is present on the OP5 as well. It features a very minimalistic interface, complete with animations and a parallax effect. All of the data comes from AccuWeather.

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Weather app

Reader comments

still useing this phone.. with my wife.. good for work and others. when you get worst issue, there's from other brand. lol wkkk

  • Anonymous
  • 13 May 2024
  • 6c1

Bought it since august 2017. Still no glaring issue except battery life which is as expected because its already nearly 7 years old, and a bit screen burn in at top right where signal and battery percentage are (no burn in at rest of the screen). Sti...

  • Milo
  • 16 Aug 2022
  • L2s

Bought it July 2017 and stil working perfectly since day 1. Only the battery performance after five years is weaker (lasts little more than one day). Definitely my next one will be OnePlus again.