OnePlus 5T: Release date, specs, price, & features rumor roundup (Updated on November 7)
Official Release As Many Posters, Suggesting That a New Product Oneplus 5T is Coming, And Will Retain 3.5mm Headphone Jack
While OnePlus only released one flagship per year for the first few years of existence, 2016 brought us the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T. Since OnePlus skipped the number 4 for being bad luck in Chinese culture, it looks like this year we’ll be seeing the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T. Much like the 3 and 3T, the 5 and 5T should keep many of the same specs with only a few, but important, changes coming to the phone.
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OnePlus is keeping the details under wraps for now, but has been known to be a bit leaky in years past. It’s possible that it just hasn’t kicked the leaks into high gear yet. We have run across some rumors that give us a pretty good idea of the changes we will see in the OnePlus 5T which you can find below.
OnePlus 5T release date
OnePlus has announced it will unveil the 5T at its “A New View” event in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday, November 16 at 11 a.m. ET.
The best part? OnePlus is giving fans a chance to attend the event this time around, and will begin selling tickets on November 8 at 12:00 p.m. ET. Tickets will be available for $40 each. Event attendees will also receive a OnePlus backpack filled with goodies, which is valued at over $65. All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to charity.
OnePlus has also revealed that the 5T will be available for purchase in North America and Europe on November 21 at 9:00 a.m. ET. There will also be a flash sale in India on November 21, with official sales starting on November 28. China residents will be able to buy the phone on December 1.
OnePlus’ UK partner, O2, will begin online pre-orders at 5:15 p.m. GMT on the November 16 and in-store from the 17.
OnePlus 5T specs
Rumors suggest that the OnePlus 5T will keep many, but not all, of the same internal specs as its predecessor. You may remember that the OnePlus 3 and 3T shared the same design and specs, save for a bump in the processor and battery capacity. But, if new rumors are to be believed, OnePlus is forming a new strategy with the OnePlus 5T.
Since nothing has come out to supplant the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, OnePlus will use it for the 5T. Last year’s OnePlus 3T featured an upgraded processor but that doesn’t appear to be an option this year.
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The OnePlus 5T is also rumored to come in two spec packages that will be familiar to OnePlus 5 customers and fans. The first will have 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage, while the upgraded version will have 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. These are identical to the options on the OnePlus 5. In the past, we’ve seen OnePlus leave out expandable storage and expect that to be the case here too.
Some leaks suggest the OnePlus 5T battery might get an upgrade. We’d expect it to be in the same range as the OnePlus 5 which came in at 3,300 mAh, and according to an AnTuTu benchmark, the battery capacity sits at 3,450 mAh. A minor bump, but more battery capacity is always better. Unless it makes your phone blow up.
OnePlus has also confirmed that the 5T will, in fact, come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack (pictured above). In a forum post, OnePlus said one of the two major reasons for its decision is to preserve audio quality in the phone. It says that a recent survey of its customers revealed that 70 percent of them felt that audio quality was a priority for them. Also, OnePlus said it wants to give its customers more freedom to choose the kind of headphones they want. Going back to its survey results, OnePlus stated that 80 percent of its customers use in-jack headphones.
While the battery capacity is far from confirmed, we do know is that the OnePlus 5T will feature DASH charging. Every phone since the OnePlus 3 has featured the fast charging technology and its a major selling point for OnePlus.
The camera could see a small upgrade too, just like the battery. The OnePlus 5 has a dual camera setup that features a 16 MP RGB lens and a 20 MP monochromatic lens. If new leaks are to be believed, OnePlus will bump that to a 20 MP + 20 MP setup. OnePlus CEO Carl Pei recently tweeted a picture with the caption “Cool photo, must have come from a great camera ” This, obviously, set off speculation that the picture came from the upcoming OnePlus 5T. We must say, if this is the kind of low-light quality we can expect from the 5T, we’re excited too.
To tease us even more, co-Founders Pete Lau and Carl Pei recently tweeted out photos they’ve taken with the OnePlus 5T’s new dual camera. In Pei’s photo, we’re shown what the portrait mode (bokeh effect) can do on the OnePlus 5T, while Lau’s picture shows what the camera can do is a low-light situation.
OnePlus 5T design
A change in design will be the major selling point of the OnePlus 5T. We brought you an exclusive teaser image that shows the OnePlus 5T’s brand new design. The OnePlus 5T will feature a 6-inch 2160 x 1080 resolution display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. This follows the trend of phones in 2017 that have reduced the bezels to almost nothing and stretched out the displays from a 16:9 aspect ratio to an 18:9 aspect ratio.
To make room for the longer display, OnePlus looks to be removing the hardware buttons that have featured on its devices in the past. Since there will be no fingerprint scanner on the front of the device, we can only assume that it has been moved to the back like Pixel and LG phones. The teaser image also gives us a peek at the aluminum frame and bottom-firing speaker on the left side.
Evan Blass has tweeted out a render of the top portion of the OnePlus 5T where we get an even better look at the 6-inch display, bezel-less design, and rounded corners. Above the display, we can see a front-facing camera, sensors and an earpiece which looks to sit flush.
Another render we shared with you last week shows off not only the front of the device but the back too. In it, we can see a familiar camera layout and flash. The back houses the new the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and OnePlus logo. At the top and bottom of the rear casing, we can faintly make out some antenna lines as well.
To add fuel to the all-display fire, a picture has popped up supposedly showing the phone in-hand. The picture comes from the Chinese social networking site Weibo and seems to backs up the teaser image we brought you. Interestingly enough, there are no navigation buttons shown on the display. Samsung and LG give you the option to drop the navigation buttons until you swipe up from the bottom of the device to reveal them. Could we be seeing something similar from OnePlus? Is this just a bad photoshop job?
The Weibo post also compares the OnePlus 5T to the Oppo R11s. Oppo and OnePlus are closely linkedand have been known to share the same design for their phones. Coincidentally, Oppo is releasing the R11s, a phone strikingly similar to the OnePlus 5T, at the beginning of November.
OnePlus 5T price
Replying to a question on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, Lau confirmed that CNY 4,000 ($603) would be “enough” spare change to afford the upcoming handset (see above). This suggests that we’re looking at a sub-$600 asking price for the OnePlus 5T.
Aside from that leak, we can infer what pricing might be based on recent evidence. The base model OnePlus 3 launched at $399 and the OnePlus 3T carried a small increase and launched for $439. If OnePlus uses the same math for this refresh, then we could see the base model OnePlus 5T launched at $519 since the OnePlus 5 was $479 at launch.
The price of OnePlus devices has been steadily creeping up since the company released the OnePlus One for $299 back in 2014 which has lead to some fan dissatisfaction. One thing that is undeniable is that OnePlus’ flagship phones are still much cheaper than flagships put out by Samsung, LG, HTC, or Google, and often come with better specs to boot.
So far, these are all the rumors we’ve been able to dig up about the OnePlus 5T. We’ll keep our ear to the ground for more and update this post as we find out even more details.
In the meantime, head down the comments and let us know what you think of the OnePlus 5T. Will you be picking one up? If not, what features are missing for you?
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