Technology

OnePlus 5 launched in India

After being unveiled in New York on June 20 and China on June 21, OnePlus today launched its flagship, the OnePlus 5 in India. While the New York event felt more of a pre-recorded keynote, the India launch event was held live in Mumbai, a rarity of sorts for a global smartphone brand although the event itself was replete with Microphone issues. The phone is exactly the same as its global counterparts with a couple of things added in good measure for the Indian audience although the leaks had really barely left anything for the imagination.
OnePlus 5

OnePlus 5 launched in India

To recap the basics, the OnePlus 5 comes with a Snapdragon 835 Octa-Core Chipset that’s powered by 4 Kyro cores clocked in at 2.45 GHz and 4 A-53 cores under-clocked at 1.9 GHz. The GPU is the Adreno 540 which is 25% faster than its predecessor. It has a 5.5 inch Optic AMOLED screen set at 1080P resolution that supports a DCI-p3 color gamut. The phone supports 6 GB and 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM with 64 GB and 128 GB of UFS 2.1 storage respectively. The 3300 mAH battery comes with the famed Dash Charge. It also supports Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and a USB Type-C port. The headphone jack is alive (to a thunderous applause by the Indian crowd) as is the slider on the side to switch between different modes.

Earlier, the company’s global head of marketing Kyle Jen talked about the company’s mission to making the best products. He indirectly slammed the competitors for useless innovation and talked about creating phones people actually wanted to use. He then walked the audience through the company’s history that started with building a community even before the OnePlus One came out. That invite-only phone was well received and OnePlus then went on to make the 2 and the X followed by the 3 / 3T duo of last year – the best received phones in India for 2016. He then went on to showcase the launch trailer.
OnePlus 5 Spec Sheet

The OnePlus 5 has an impressive specifications list

Szymon Kopec, OnePlus Product Manager introduced the OnePlus Camera (again to a huge round of applause). The presentation beats were essentially the same as the New York Keynote. You get a 16 MP f/1.7 Primary Camera sensor accompanied with a 20 MP f/2.0 Telephoto lens. The wider Aperture allows it to capture more light. It supports 2x Lossless zoom and Portrait (Bokeh) Mode. Several open comparisons were made with the iPhone 7 Plus stills (wonder what Apple would have to say to that).

Design Director Brian Yoon explained that it took the company more than 100 prototypes to lock down the design. He talked about the visually sleek lines and sliders (although most people would clearly know where the real inspiration came from). He later on compared the OnePlus’s Dash Charge to the Galaxy S8 with the same videos as were played on June 20. The reading mode was also showcased that warms up the screen colors for a better night-time reading experience. The phone received a 74% Net Promoter Score in India, far above the Average of 40% – 50%.
The OnePlus 5 dual camera received the highest score in a Portrait Mode Photo Blind Test conducted with NDTV

The OnePlus 5 dual camera received the highest score in a Portrait Mode Photo Blind Test conducted with NDTV

The phone comes with Oxygen OS on top of Android Nougat 7.1.1 out of the box. It will come with the option of a Quick Payment Mode for the Indian audience in association with PayTM, India’s leading Digital Payments Platform. This will essentially allow the user to pay with their PayTM accounts on the OnePlus 5 without unlocking their phones. The PayTM team-up wasn’t the only India-specific thing. Bollywood Actor Vir Das, also a OnePlus user, also showed up on stage to announce the winners of OnePlus’s lottery prize winners who were chosen after an on-stage activity.

OnePlus 5 QuickPay

OnePlus ties up with PayTM to make payments easier

The phone is available in two colors – Midnight Black and Slate Gray. It come in two configurations: A 6 GB RAM / 64 GB Storage variant that costs ₹ 32,999 and an 8 GB RAM / 128 GB Storage variant that costs ₹ 37,999. Four cases, a backpack and some other accessories are also available for purchase. The OnePlus 5 is now listed on the official website and goes on sale in Amazon India starting 4:30 PM today.

Update: The phone is now on sale on both platforms and begins shipping from June 27.