OnePlus 5T review : Sticking up to the flagships [Part 2]

OnePlus has again hit a homerun with the OnePlus 5T, OnePlus 5T, pairs the right hardware, the right design at a very lucrative price point. Thus making it one of the best value phones you can buy anywhere.
We have been using the OnePlus 5T for quite awhile and have been very impressed by the performance and timely updates. For our thoughts on the Design and Software elements check out our Part 1 Review. In this article we'd cover the Performance and Camera aspects.

Performance & Hardware

The OnePlus 5T packs a Qualcomm snapdragon 835, 6/8 GB RAM, 64/128 GB storage. These are top of the line specs. Consider the RAM and processor, OnePlus 5T is very snappy for a device in this price category and is a real value for money device. 
We never saw any lag or slowdown in this device in the 3 weeks time we've used it, which is hard to digest. OnePlus has done a tremendous job with the OxygenOS, app loading and switching times are crazy fast and there's no hiccups. We didn't notice any excessive amount of background apps being killed off, nor any crashes.  

OnePlus hasn't killed the headphone jack yet, which is a delight for us and many users out there. Output via the headphone jack is standard, OnePlus hasn't gone with the fancy DAC's . One thing to point out is the built-in speaker, which gets very loud without overdoing it. We hoped OnePlus adds an IP rating in the OnePlus 6, since we have some dust particles stuck in the camera lens of our unit.

Coming to the battery the OnePlus 5T uses the same 3,300 mAh battery as that of the OnePlus 5, and at first we were worried the larger display will affect the battery life significantly. Thankfully that's not the case, our results have turned out pretty great and we managed to get about Five and a Half Hours of Screen on time on average. OnePlus managed to do this all by sticking to the 1080p resolution and the AMOLED panel which is just great in every aspect.
Dash charge remains the fastest charging solution we've seen till now, the charging times are just crazy. We managed to top up the battery in under 1 Hour. Provided you use the supplied Dash charger and Cable.

Cameras

OnePlus stuck with the 16MP main camera as that found on the OnePlus 5, which still performans good. This time around OnePlus focused on the Rear cameras instead, switching the secondary Telephoto lens with a 20MP camera with 1.7 aperture for better low light performance. Though OnePlus has retained the 2x quick jump in zoom from the OnePlus 5, but it's now being done by the software as opposed to a dedicated lens. This can be tradeoff for some and we leave that up to you guys.

Camera performance is one of the areas where the price of OnePlus 5T feels spot on. The camera performs the best in its price category but isn't at par to the flagships out there. In decent to good lighting conditions the cameras perform well, there's solid dynamic range, colours are accurate. But sometimes details are a bit smoothed out by the algorithm, which is being fixed by OnePlus.
The pictures taken from the OnePlus 5T aren't overexposed or punchy but rather accurate which is fine. The portrait mode on the 5T performs well but we personally liked the ones taken by the OnePlus 5.

Coming to the low light camera performance, its simply not at par with the other flagships and that's acceptable considering considering the price that those flagships come at. The 16MP was more than enough in the low light situations and the 20MP didn't really kick in. But when it does the pictures were simply grainy and unusable.

Talking about the video recording, OnePlus 5T is able to shoot 1080p at 60fps and 4K at 30fps. EIS has been added for better stabilized footage. The videos are clear and less shaky considering the OnePlus 5's footage. The audio quality is great with can be a plus for vloggers or people who do live streamings.
Overall we feel the cameras on the OnePlus 5T are decent and in our opinion OnePlus should have stuck with the Telephoto lens and improved the 16MP sensor.

Specs

	OnePlus 5T
Display	6.01-inch AMOLED 1080 x 2160 resolution 401 ppi 18:9 aspect ratio Supports sRGB, DCI-P3 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Processor	2.45 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, 10nm
GPU	Adreno 540
RAM	6/8 GB LPDDR4X
Storage	64/128 GB UFS 2.1 2-lane No microSD expansion
Cameras	Rear cameras Main sensor: 16 MP Sony IMX 398 sensor, 1.12 µm, f/1.7 aperture, 27.22 mm focal length Secondary sensor: 20 MP IMX 376K sensor, 1.0 µm, f/1.7 aperture, 27.22 mm focal length Front camera: 16 MP Sony IMX 371 sensor, 1.0 µm, f/2.0 aperture
Audio	Bottom-facing speaker Three microphones with noise cancellation Supports AANC Dirac HD Sound
Sensors	Fingerprint Hall Accelerometer G-sensor Electronic Compass Gyroscope Proximity Ambient Light RGB Sensor Hub
Battery	3,300 mAh Non-removable Dash Charge (5V 4A)
Material	Anodized aluminum
IP rating	None
Network	LTE: Supports 3xCA Supports 64QAM & 256QAM Supports up to DL CAT 12 (600 Mbps) / UL CAT 13 (150 Mbps) depending on carrier support Bands:  FDD LTE: Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/ 19/20/25/26/28/29/30/66 TDD-LTE: Bands 34/38/39/40/41 TD-SCDMA: Bands 34/39 UMTS (WCDMA): Bands 1/2/4/5/8 CDMA: BC0 GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Connectivity	Wi-Fi: MIMO 2x2, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4/5 GHz Bluetooth 5.0, supports aptX & aptX HD NFC GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo
Ports	USB Type-C (USB 2.0) Support USB Audio 3.5 mm audio jack
SIM	Dual nano SIM
Software	Android 7.1.1 Nougat OxygenOS
Colors	Midnight Black
Dimensions and weight	156.1 x 75 x 7.3 mm 162 g

Final Thoughts

OnePlus 5T delivers just as that of its predecessor did. It takes the things we liked about the OnePlus 5 and refines the design, making it a bit more flagship like while maintaining the same price. The 6-inch 18:9 certainly adds a bit more value for the media focused buyers while providing an overall good experience for someone trying to get in the Flagship phones category. The only competition we see is the recently launched LG V30+ and the Honor View 10.