For a bigger part of the year, OnePlus 5 has been the talk of the town, first with all the leaks and rumours, and now on how it would fare against the competition. Talking about the competition, the OnePlus 5 stands against the top tier smartphones including the Galaxy S8, Google Pixel, HTC U11, and others, despite its mid-range pricing.
The Google Pixel series is quite close to the OnePlus 5 when it comes to the clean software experience that both the devices offer. But, can OnePlus 5 really compete with the Google Pixel XL that costs almost twice its price? We will find out right now in this post.
Design
A lot has already been said about the design of the OnePlus 5 for it being similar to the iPhone 7 Plus, so I wouldn’t be touching that part. OnePlus 5 has its own unique design, which I agree to have not been much experimented with. Front of the phone has a flat screen without any gimmicky features and has a fingerprint scanner below. From the back, it is completely aluminium with rounded corners. Dual cameras sit on the top left corner and the antenna bands come hidden on the top and bottom curvature of the rear side.
Google Pixel XL, on the other hand, is probably the simplest looking phone till date with flat glass on the front, and metal on the back with no protruding camera housing. The only thing that gives the phone its character is the use of glass on the upper half of the phone’s back. Though Google Pixel XL is more than a millimetre thicker than the OnePlus 5, it is available in a handful of colour options, while the latter is available only in two shades of black.
Specifications
OnePlus 5 is definitely a beast when it comes to specifications as it packs the latest technology that the industry has. A 5.5-inch AMOLED FHD panel on the front has a ceramic-covered fingerprint scanner below it. It runs on Snapdragon 835 along with 6GB/8GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of internal storage. The dual camera setup has a 16MP sensor as its primary shooter and a 20MP telephoto lens. A 16MP camera is there on the front. The battery of the phone is 3300mAh and comes with Dash Charge.
Google Pixel XL has a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen with QHD resolution and is powered by a Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, while the internal storage options are 32GB and 128GB. It has a single 12.3MP camera on the back that has proven to be one of the best ones with 89 points on DxOMark. An 8MP camera is there to take selfies, while the battery capacity of the phone is rated at 3450mAh. The phone also has the IP53 rating making it splash and dust resistant.
The OnePlus 5 comes with an advantage of double the RAM, a better processor, faster-charging capabilities, and the added features of the dual camera setup. While the Pixel XL stands strong with a slightly bigger battery, a higher-resolution display, an overall better camera, and regular and fast Android updates.
Software
This section is interesting since Google phones are know all over to offer the best software experience. Google Pixel XL is always the first device to receive any update that Google pushes and it runs the latest Android 7.1.2 Nougat update. The phone comes with Pixel launcher that is exclusive to the Pixel series and offers a slightly better user experience than the other phones running the same version of the OS.
OnePlus 5 comes with OxygenOS that is based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat update. At a glance, it looks very similar to the Pixel launcher from the home screen to the app drawer, but the company added a layer of its own features. The OxygenOS maintains the simplistic looks of the vanilla Android and gives a huge number of customisation options to the users along with many useful features, like the reading mode.
Price
This would be the deciding factor whether you want to go with the OnePlus 5 or the Google Pixel XL. OnePlus phones have always been targeted at the mid-range segment, and the latest one is no different, the only thing is that the prices have slowly risen since the first OnePlus came out. The OnePlus 5 starts at $479 for the 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage variant. The variant with 8GB RAM and 128Gb storage is priced at $539.
The Google Pixel XL competes with the Apple iPhone 7 and starts from $649 for the 32GB variant. The 128GB storage variant is available for $749. These are the launch prices of the Pixel XL and you can get it for slightly lower if you find an online deal.