The 5T Proves that OnePlus Still Gets It (Premium)

There is only one Android smartphone maker that has picked up Google's discarded Nexus mantle and run with it: OnePlus. And today's announcement of the OnePlus 5T proves that this small company still gets it.

I've written and spoken a lot over the past year or so about my love of the OnePlus strategy. But I'm going to do it again.

The reason is simple: Today, OnePlus announced the OnePlus 5T, its latest flagship smartphone. The 5T comes only five months after the release of its OnePlus 5 predecessor, which tells me that OnePlus can move very quickly to adapt to forces that are sweeping the broader smartphone industry. And that OnePlus---unlike Apple, Google, and others---doesn't need to over-charge its own customers to deliver real value.

I cannot stress enough how important this is. If you go back and look at my review for the Google Nexus 6P and compare it to what I've written about the more recent Pixel and Pixel 2 handsets, you'll see one obvious theme: It was a reasonably priced smartphone flagship. Something I've not been able to say since---oh, right---the Nexus 6P. Since then, Google has lost its mind. And, if I understand the endemic hardware issues with the Pixel 2 XL, it's credibility.

But OnePlus has been delivering on the Nexus promise since the beginning. It's a simple value proposition: Flagship components and functionality at a reasonable price.

Apple doesn't do it. The only modern design it offers is the iPhone X, and that starts at $999. Google doesn't do it, either: The Pixel 2 XL---which, again, is fundamentally broken---starts at $850, though the 128 GB version I purchased arrived at my door with a $1000+ price tag once taxes and whatever other fees were included.

So what is OnePlus offering?

As Mehedi notes in OnePlus Officially Launches the OnePlus 5T, the latest OnePlus flagship, which provides the same Snapdragon 835 processor as the Pixel 2 XL, the same 6-inch 18:9 near bezel-less display that I previously pegged as the new flagship smartphone standard, dual high-end cameras, and other similarly high-end specs, starts at just $499.

No, that's not a typo.

The phone costs $499 for a version that includes 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. Want more? How about 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage? Surely, OnePlus is going to stroke us for that little upgrade, right? Nope. That one is just $60 more. Yes, seriously.

Obviously, I will be paying attention to camera quality on this one. But $499 is literally half the price of the iPhone X. And the $560 price of the higher-end version is $440 less than the Pixel 2 XL I just bought like a jerk.

Critics will point out that the OnePlus 5T only ships with Android 7.1.1, which is curious given the recent release of Android 8.0 Oreo. Though as I keep pointing out, Android versions don't really matter all that much. Plus, Oreo is coming.

Others will point to the me-too nature of OnePlus hardware designs. I've written about that in the past too. It ...

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