OnePlus 5T launch today: Facial recognition to water resistance; five features to expect

Battery life improvements

Battery life continues to be an issue for smartphone owners and OnePlus has scope for improvement in this area. Although the OnePlus 5 sports a 3,300 mAh battery, in my daily experience, the phone did not last a full day on a single charge, though it does last for 10-12 hours. I would like the OnePlus 5T to have a battery that lasts all day with heavy usage. I do not care much about wireless charging on the phone, I genuinely want to see more battery life on the OnePlus 5T.

Sure, there are phones with 5000mAh battery that can last more than two days on a single charge, but they are not powerful enough to be my daily driver. All I need is a phone that lasts all day, but does not compromise on overall performance.

Just make the Portrait mode better

OnePlus 5 has two camera sensors: one is a regular sensor, which is a 16MP primary shooter with an f/1.7 aperture. The other is a telephoto lens for 2x zoom, which is 20MP with an f/2.6 aperture. There’s a lot to like about the phone’s camera, but I’m not impressed with how the Portrait mode works.

Battery life continues to be an issue for smartphone owners and OnePlus has scope for improvement in this area.

No doubt the Portrait mode adds nice bokeh effects, but it struggles with details, especially around the edges of the so-called portrait. It would be good to see an improvement on the camera front.

Water and dust resistance

OnePlus 5 does not come with water-and-dust resistant feature, and that is something many people did not like about the device. If we consider the competition, most top-end phones offer some sort of water-and-dust certification, so it is somewhat odd to find this missing on the OnePlus 5, which is supposed to be a flagship killer.

In contrast, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Apple iPhone 8, iPhone X can survive a pool accident. This is a convenient feature and average consumers would like a phone with such a certification. Hopefully, OnePlus 5T will come with some sort of water and dust protection rating.

Facial recognition

Apple’s iPhone X has the ability to unlock using face recognition, thanks to infrared and 3D sensors along with its TrueDepth front-facing camera. The Galaxy Note 8 also has a facial recognition feature, as well as an iris scanner and fingerprint scanner. OnePlus 5T is expected to be the first OnePlus phone to support face recognition.

OnePlus 5T is expected to be the first OnePlus phone to support face recognition.

It will be a big deal if the company manages to add the facial recognition technology into the OnePlus 5T. I’m still not certain how the Face Lock will work, as it is revealed in leaks, but it will not be the Face ID that you get on the iPhone X.

The headphone jack is not dying

When Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus last year, the company had to bear a lot of criticism and backlash from the community. Since then most companies, including Google, are doing away with the 3.5mm jack on a phone. For many the headphone jack doesn’t exist anymore, but the fact remains that the vast majority of headphones in the market come with a 3.5mm plug.

For me, the wired headphone is more practical than wireless. And yes I will say that wired headphones still sound better than wireless buds anyday. If Apple showed courage by removing the headphone jack from its smartphones, OnePlus is not keen to jump into the bandwagon just yet. The company has confirmed the OnePlus 5T will keep the headphone jack, so the news should bring cheer for those who prefer wired headphones.

Disclaimer: The reporter is in New York attending the launch of OnePlus 5T at the invite of OnePlus India, which is paying for accommodation and travel.