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op5 gs8

A few years ago you had to spend big bucks to get a smartphone that was really enjoyable to employ. Things changed when great unlocked devices like the Moto G and OnePlus One came out. Suddenly, yous could have a reliable telephone without selling your soul to a carrier. OnePlus has been peculiarly ambitious moving into the high-cease to compete with the likes of Samsung. The OnePlus v has much of the same hardware equally the Galaxy S8, but it costs hundreds of dollars less. Is it equally expert, though? Permit's break it down.

Blueprint

Samsung has been on a glass and aluminum boot for the terminal few years, and the trend continues with the Galaxy S8. This telephone has an aluminum frame and curved glass on the front and back. Meanwhile, the OnePlus five is all aluminum with a black or gray anodized terminate. The GS8 is a more attractive device, but the OnePlus 5 is more functional and durable.

OnePlus still has physical capacitive buttons on the forepart of the device, including a dwelling push that doubles equally a fingerprint sensor. Interestingly, the OP5's sensor is one of the fastest available. It'southward much meliorate than the Galaxy S8's fingerprint sensor, which is in a strange place high on the back of the phone. Although, the Milky way S8's on-screen buttons are meliorate than OP's capacitive ones. Luckily, the OnePlus 5 has optional on-screen buttons.

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The OnePlus five buttons.

Samsung has an iris scanner to make upwards for the lack of a fingerprint reader, but that can be finicky likewise. OnePlus' unique hardware feature is the notification slider, which lets yous toggle between audio, practice-non-disturb, and silent without even waking up the phone.

The Galaxy S8 is a more than attractive phone with great build quality, but the OnePlus v is not far behind. The OP5 seems more durable, too.

Displays

Samsung turned heads with the Galaxy S8'southward "infinity display," which is a fancy way of maxim the screen is curved with nearly no bezel. Nigh the entire face of this phone is the 5.8-inch 1440p AMOLED, and OnePlus can't match this kind of engineering for the toll. The OP5 has the same 5.5-inch 1080p OLED brandish it used in last year'southward phone. Samsung also has the larger six.two-inch Galaxy S8 Plus with the aforementioned pattern.

Samsung's AMOLED panels are notwithstanding the gold standard for effulgence and color accuracy. The GS8 has what is just the best panel you can go. OnePlus' OLED is cipher to sneeze at — information technology has solid color accuracy and good viewing angles. It's simply not as sharp or brilliant equally the Galaxy S8.

Functioning

The Milky way S8 and OnePlus 5 both have an octa-core Snapdragon 835 bit, which is the latest from Qualcomm. However, Samsung'due south devices never take total advantage of the hardware'due south speed. The GS8 is not slow, but I wouldn't call it fast, either. The OnePlus v is an obviously faster device.

OnePlus also equipped the OnePlus 5 with an obscene amount of RAM — either half-dozen or 8GB depending on the version you cull. It's actually overkill, but the OP5 does keep apps in retentiveness as it should. This aspect isn't much different than the GS8 with a mere 4GB of RAM, though.

The battery life is a draw. Both phones will get y'all through a day no problem, and likely nearly of the next ane. The OnePlus v might eke out a little more screen fourth dimension thanks to the lower resolution, but the departure is negligible. Both phones fast accuse when the juice gets low. However, OnePlus uses a proprietary standard called Dash Charge. Samsung uses Qualcomm Quick Accuse, merely it's an older version that isn't as fast as Dash Charge.

Overall, the OnePlus five is more impressive in terms of raw speed, if that's what y'all intendance nigh.

Cameras

OnePlus took a step into the world of dual cameras with a 16MP standard shooter and a 20MP sensor with a 2x telephoto lens. The idea is you can "zoom" in to get a better shot without using digital zoom, which lowers quality. Meanwhile, Samsung has the same 12MP rear-facing sensor it used terminal year. You would retrieve OP had an advantage here, but no.

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Galaxy S8 camera.

OnePlus uses ambitious software processing of images, which tends to blur fine details. You actually can't crop photos at all because of this. The zoom lens is also not used in low lite considering of its narrow aperture. Instead, the phone uses the main sensor with digital zoom. There'due south no indication in the software that's what'due south happening, though.

The Galaxy S8 only has 1 rear-facing camera, but it'due south fantastic. Focus is lightning fast, images are well-baked, and HDR is robust. Information technology can take images in low light that put most other devices to shame. The OnePlus 5 takes better photos than other sub-$500 phones, but it can't touch the Galaxy S8.

Software

Both phones run Nougat, but the manner and features are radically different. Samsung has its TouchWiz UI, which has changed a lot over the years. It used to exist clunk and ugly, just information technology'due south been streamlined. The style is low-cal and consistent, though there are withal a lot of features crammed in there. And it can become a bit sluggish at times.

OnePlus uses its own OxygenOS ROM, which is very close to stock Android. Information technology includes some cool extras like gestures, a dark UI manner, and various condition bar tweaks. The real advantage to OxygenOS is that it's fast and make clean. In that location are a few more bugs right now than I'd expect on production software, but they're small things.

While Samsung's modern Android software isn't bad, OnePlus' version of Android is improve. If it can get those last bugs ironed out, it's a existent win.

Conclusion

The Samsung Milky way S8 is a better phone, merely information technology'south not as much of a blowout as you might have thought. Samsung has clear wins when it comes to the display and camera, simply the OnePlus 5 is faster and has ameliorate software. The hardware blueprint is a bit of a toss-up depending on what you similar. The GS8 is a cute phone, but the OP5 is a bit more than understated.

The OnePlus v is an unlocked GSM/LTE phone, so it won't work on Verizon or Sprint. At $479 for the 64GB/6GB RAM mode, it'due south an excellent value. However, you have to pay it all at once. The Galaxy S8 costs effectually $750, only yous can pay monthly through a carrier. If you don't heed making a few sacrifices, the OnePlus 5 could serve yous nearly besides as a Galaxy S8.

Now read: 25 Best Android Tips to Brand Your Telephone More Useful