I've been happy with my OnePlus 1 for around 3 years, but there have been a few contributing factors that led to me jumping at the opportunity to purchase the new OnePlus during the pre-order and get the phone before it is officially released on 27th June:
The battery life has degraded noticeable (and there is no, easy, way to replace it) - initially, with careful control of the applications running I could get 2 days' of battery out of the phone before recharging it. I now find myself charging my OnePlus 1 as much as twice per day.
The photos feel sub-par - now that I am blogging on Steemit.com frequently, I use the camera on my phone on a daily basis to capture moments that inspire me and that I feel like blogging about. I also use the camera for filming to make short GIFs. Don't get me wrong, I've taken some decent photos with my phone and it has performed admirably over the years, but now when I compare the quality of the photos to those of the iPhone 7 and other flagship phones, the photos feel dated and sub-par; the technology has moved on. I can't wait to check out the new dual camera on my OnePlus 5
The phone has become sluggish - I have quite a lot of apps on my phone and I'm constantly on it taking pictures, blogging, messaging people, checking the news and social media, playing the odd game, checking the price of Cryptocurrencies etc. The old hardware in the OnePlus 1 just doesn't seem to be up to the task anymore - it feels sluggish. I can't wait to see how the latest processor and 8GB of RAM on my new OnePlus 5 perform
Unboxing
OnePlus 5
The OnePlus 5 comes in a minimalistic, white box with the OnePlus logo and an embossed 5 on it. It's pretty sexy and I can't wait to see what is inside.
Informational booklets - a "Quickstart Guide", some "Safety Information" and some stickers; all of which I will probably never use.
SIM Tool - for ejecting the dual SIM card holder tray.
promotional information - a pretty picture of Iceland that according to the information on the back of the image was taken on a "OnePlus camera". They appear to be going for a similar marketing campaign to Apple with their "shot on an iPhone x" advertising banners.
The phone looks very pretty, and shiny, but does look very similar to the iPhone 7 in many regards:
There were a couple of choices of specs for the OnePlus 5:
The entry-level OnePlus 5 with 6GB RAM, 64GB of HDD space and is a Slate Gray color
The top-end OnePlus 5 with 8GB RAM, 128GB of HDD space and is a Midnight Black color
Other than the increased RAM and storage space, the two versions of the OnePlus 5 both came packed with some impressive harware such as
Dual Camera on the back
Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 835 (Octa-core, 10nm, up to 2.45GHz) CPU
Adreno 540 GPU
3300 mAh (non-removable) battery
I opted to go for the larger, more expensive, version of the phone.
Accessories
As part of the pre-order of the OnePlus 5 there was a promotion to get 20% discount off of accessories for the phone. Since the launch of the OnePlus 1, I've always wanted a faux-wooden cover for my phone (the juxtaposition of old and modern really pleases me).
Unfortunately OnePlus quickly discontinued the line of Bamboo backs for the OnePlus 1 because the design of them meant replaced the casing of the phone (rather than adding a cover to the phone) and this was resulting in people damaging their phones. It's also hard to find 3rd party providers of accessories for phones that aren't the high-end, flagship phones like an iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy X.
So I took the opportunity to get a bundle that included a wooden-looking cover and a new set of headphones included in my order.
Similarly to the box for the OnePlus 5 phone, the ear buds come in a minimalistic cardboard box - with the OnePlus logo at the top and an embossed design taking up a large proportion of the front of the box. Let's see what's inside.
The packaging is very sleek and attractive, but there is quite a lot of packaging for the small amount of goodies that the box actually contains:
The ear buds - or as OnePlus call them the "OnePlus Bullets (V2)" - quite a grand name. I chose to go for the Black ones (there was also an option on the website for white ones too). The ear buds are attractive, but they are a lot lighter than the picture on the website makes them look - in real life they are closer to silver. They also come with a microphone and control on the cable. OnePlus claim that they have taken "audio experience to the next level" by working with "German audio experts over at LOFO". I look forward to testing these out.
Extra silicon tips - of a smaller and larger size compared to the silicon tips that come with the headphones in the box.
User manual - which I'll probably never look at because I think that I've got a good handle on how to use headphones.
I really like that under the cardboard tray containing the headphones, embossed on the box are the words "Best Buds For Life" - a nice pun and a clever little touch.
And here is the OnePlus 5 in all of its glory with the 'Rosewood' version of the protective case.
There were also options to get the case in 3 other colours:
Ebony Wood - that is another wood-effect case, but I didn't find it as attractive as the Rosewood wood-effect case.
Sandstone - which looks just like the back of my OnePlus 1 phone; this came in a close second for me, since it's also a very cool looking design, but I wanted my new phone to look different to my old phone
Karbon - I'm sure that many will like this design, but for me it's just not to my taste.
I'm very happy with my new phone and the way that it looks.
Here it is with everything together.
Once I have gotten it set up, then I'm going to go out into the wonderful sunshine and take some picture to compare them with my old OnePlus 1
