Kyle Kiang, head of marketing for OnePlus kicked off the show for the OnePlus 5T reveal.
Kiang took some time out of the show to bring up how vital software to OnePlus is, specifically the time they take to focus test new software before rolling it out and ensuring everything works as intended.
Brian Yoon, head of Experience design took the stage to talk about the user experience further. He mentioned how important open source platforms and the Android operating system Cyanogen mod has been for the company, thanking the creator, Steve Kondik who was in attendance.
He also thanked the team behind the OxygenOS rom, the stock rom available on many Oneplus devices. Yoon mentioned his team strives to stay true to the android platform, keeping it as pure as possible while also adding meaningful features that don’t interfere with the core principles of the operating system.
User interaction is the first pillar Yoon and his team focused on, making everything on the device feel initiative and easy to use was paramount while developing the system.
Bloatware is another aspect Yoon mentioned that his team made sure to avoid to deliver the purest and most efficient Android experience. Base Android was described as being the starting off point for the OnePlus team, with an emphasis on delivering Reliability, efficiency, speed and usability for the best end-user experience.
250+ beta testers were present during the conference and were thanked by Yoon and his team for their efforts in providing invaluable feedback.
A sizzle reel trailer dropped for the new device that played homage to the user, touching upon features that help the end-user, such as built-in flash for low-light selfies and the ability to turn off notifications while gaming.
A new feature was unveiled that allows users to sign into the same application using multiple accounts. Yoon mentioned apps like Skype would allow users to have two separate accounts that will help manage social and business matters efficiently. Similarly, to OnePlus’s ability to use multiple phone numbers.
A new application to migrate data was announced, called OnePlusreach, a single button press will allow all data to be transferred to the new device. More information about this process will be revealed next year. Yoon also mentioned the transfer software will also be compatible with Apple’s iPhone, making it easier than ever to switch platforms.
An open beta for Android Oreo will become available soon for beta testers. The full operating system will be out in early 2018.
Co-founder Carl Pei took the stage to talk about the history of the company. He mentioned that in 2013, the android platform was struggling in that there was too much of a focus on having the more features than the competition, rather than a focus on user-experience in addition to stellar performance. He said this was the genesis of the OnePlus brand and their tagline “Never Settle”.
In 2016, Pei mentions they wanted to refocus on what made OnePlus popular in the first place: flagship devices with an emphasis on feedback from the community.
This mantra has been brought into the OnePlus 5T.
A trailer dropped for the OnePlus 5T that highlighted some of the core features of their latest flagship device, such as the dual cameras, 30 minute charge time for a half day’s charge and ultra-thin bezel.
Product Manager Syzmon Kopeć took to the stage and talked about the new aspect ratio of the phone which goes from the standard of 16:9 to 18:9. He said the best way to compare the aspect ratio change is akin to going from an old CRT tube television to a flatscreen HDTV.
The phone will feature a 6.0” screen, 12.5% larger than the OnePlus5, but still has the same form factor, making it easy to use and not feel too large to hold.
The display technology has evolved over the years, with the OnePlusT featuring the ability to automatically change the contrast depending on the natural lighting of your environment or harsher light sources.
The Oneplus 5T also features a new unlocking feature called Face unlock; it uses over 100 facial identifiers to accurately and quickly unlock the device. Safety was a key concern for the team and the new Face unlock application will not work with apps that are tied to sensitive information such as credit card information.
Design wise the phone features a seamless metal chassis with durability in mind. The curved design and the continuous hard edge of the frame allow the phone to break conventional design and make it look unique while functional.
a 3.5mm headphone is also present on the device, so those worried about using earbuds and headphones can rest easy.
The phone will also feature dual cameras (15+ 20 MPs), that features the ability to take great photographs and video in low-light settings. to improve the low-light photography, the OnePlus 5T utilises something called intelligent Pixel technology, when ambient light drops to a certain threshold, the OnePlus 5T switches to a secondary rear lens, which can take a standard pixel and combine it into one larger cluster which allows the more light to come through and improve clarity.
Portrait photography has also improved for the OnePlus 5T, thanks to the dual cameras, which allow the user to take crisper, closer looking cropped and tight shots without physically moving closer to the subject, thanks to the same aperture in both cameras.
The phone also features ultra stable 4k video recording capabilities.
Processing power, memory, app loading and charging are all aspects OnePlus strived to improve on for the 5T, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor which features speeds up to 2.45Ghz, with an impressive 8Gbs of RAM.
The new Oxygen OS will be running Android 7.1.2 Nougat and the soon to be released Oreo platform. Additionally, the phone will include something called app priority, a feature that will actively monitor the user’s most used apps and improve loading times over time to ensure the best user experience possible.
Finally, the OnePlus 5T will come equipped with Dash charging technology, with a half an hour to achieve a base level of charge, making it one of the fastest phones available on the market regarding charging.
The OnePlus 5T will be directly available from the OnePlus website, to save costs by cutting out he middleman. The OnePlus 5T will start at $499 USD for the 64GB variant, with the 128GB model costing $559 USD.
All the proceeds from the tickets for the OnePlus 5T conference will be donated to F-droid, a catalogue that caters to open source developers.
Liked this article and want to read more like it? Check out Remington Joseph’s review of the OnePlus 3T and if Apple is more your thing, be sure to check out Brendan Frye’s review of the iphone 8
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