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OnePlus 5: Everything you need to know

By JC Torres/

In just four days, OnePlus will finally reveal what it has been cooking for the past 6 months. Actually it has almost revealed all of that. Most of its user base will probably be more interested to see not just whether OnePlus still has what tit takes to play in the big leagues but to also keep its commitment to its faithful customers after a series of mishaps and miscommunication. But what does the OnePlus 5 bring to the table anyway? Here are some of the things you'll want to know, some of which come from the horse's mouth itself.

It will have *mostly* high-end specs

OnePlus has never been one to shy away from the latest specs. In fact, much to the shock and disappointment of OnePlus 3 owners, it put out the OnePlus 3T mere months after, whose only real difference is the Snapdragon 820 on the older model and Snapdragon 821 on the newer one. Suffice it to say, many were not amused. Unless Qualcomm comes out with a Snapdragon 836 this month or next, it probably won't happen again. Hopefully.

The OnePlus 5 has already been confirmed by OnePlus itself to run on that Snapdragon 835. It may or may not use the faster UFS storage instead of the more common eMMC found on almost all smartphones. Another variable is whether it will have 6 or 8 GB of RAM, though 6 GB is still plenty compared to most flagships these days.

Except perhaps for the screen

OnePlus, however, might once again skimp on the display 4th year in a row. Just as there seems to be some uncertain whether it will get a 5.5 or 5.7 inch screen, there's also some debate on its resolution. Earlier rumors would have us believe that OnePlus is finally jumping on the QHD train but the latest word is that it will stick to FHD yet again. And it might not exactly be a bad thing.

OnePlus users have made it known from the beginning that they value performance and battery life over higher screen resolutions, something that fellow Chinese OEM Xiaomi seems to also take to heart. With a lower resolution, the processor is less taxed and the system uses up less power. Plus, many users seem to be perfectly fine with 1920x1080 resolutions. That said, despite its raw power, the OnePlus 5 would make for a very poor Daydream or even Cardboard VR device because of that 1080p resolution.

It's got two cameras for bokeh and more

OnePlus has also already confirmed that the OnePlus 5 will have a dual camera. Of course, it hasn't yet said what kind of dual camera. Although the latest leaks talks about a 20 megapixel and 16 megapixel duo, it doesn't really say whether both will be RGB sensors or if one will use a monochrome sensor.

There was one teaser, however, that showed off the OnePlus 5's night time prowess, which seems to hint it would be the latter. Either way, OnePlus has made it known that you can do the bokeh, no matter which way it goes.

There might not be a headphone jack anymore

So will the OnePlus 5 ditch the headphone jack. Keeping score of the hints, it probably will. Co-founder Carl Pei teased about why the headphone jack crossed the road ("to get to the other side"), which could be interpreted in two ways: it was killed off or it went to the top edge of the phone.

However, OnePlus' own teaser of a render of the smartphone from that angle shows no familiar hole. So it would seem that, indeed, OnePlus has put the venerable headphone jack to rest. That or Pei was just trolling us from the beginning.

It's got a conventional iPhone 7 Plus design

Again, unless OnePlus was trolling us, there will be no shortage of remarks on how the OnePlus 5 looks like the iPhone 7 Plus, even if it came in different colors or sheen. Although some would argue there's really no original design these days (some would, of course, disagree), it doesn't seem like OnePlus tried hard to not look like an iPhone 7 Plus anyway.

It doesn't seem like OnePlus has also done anything out of the ordinary as far as the front goes. Which means we'll be seeing some familiar bezels there. While bezel-less is the new black, it is not something that is easily be pulled off, especially by a small company like OnePlus. Users probably prefer that OnePlus fix its touch screen issues rather than spend time slimming down edges.

It'll probably be running on Android Nougat for a while

It's probably no secret that the OnePlus 5 will come with Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. OnePlus 3 and 3T owners have been testing the Oxygen OS 4.1 release, based on Android 7.1, both for themselves and for the upcoming phone. What remains to be seen are the still undisclosed features that will come in that new Oxygen OS version. One official teaser hints that OnePlus may have implemented its own blue light filter, for example.

Perhaps an even bigger question is for how long it will remain with Nougat. Given it is launching next week, it will still be a few months before Android O gets launched. But while still faster than Samsung, OnePlus isn't exactly the fastest in coming out with updates, despite the fact that it has fewer models to support. Perhaps that's because of the smaller team, which brings us to the next point.

It will hopefully be supported far longer than its predecessors

The past few weeks have been a trying time for long-time OnePlus fans. First was the news that the OnePlus 3T would no longer be manufactured, followed by semi-official confirmation that the OnePlus 2 will no longer receive updates, including Nougat. We can all chalk that up to the fact that OnePlus is a significantly smaller company than the giants it is playing with. But it won't be able to use that excuse for much longer.

With the OnePlus 5 comes a new opportunity to not only do right by its customers but to also do it properly. Most users these days expect their phones to be supported for at least two years or to not be made obsolete four months in. The OnePlus 5 launch and the months that will follow will be a test to see if it is really listening, just as it claims it has.

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