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Two weeks with the OnePlus 5T
I’ve been using the OnePlus 5T for just over two weeks now, and I’m enjoying this phone a whole lot. There’s a lot to like about this phone, and just a few things which I don’t. I’ve been tweeting about my experience with the phone (I’ve linked some of my tweets below where applicable) and here’s my full write-up.
Feel in the hand
First thing I noticed when I took the phone out of the box? This is an extremely slippery phone. I don’t think I’ve ever held a phone this slippery. Thankfully though, OnePlus had the good sense to include a free case in the box, and even though I never use cases on my phones, I instantly slapped it on the 5T. This phone needs a case. Or a skin. The phone also came with a screen protector pre-applied, but I took it off. It was a flimsy plastic screen protector that just feels bad to the touch.
As for the size and shape of the device, I really like it. It’s narrower and shorter than my Nexus 6P, despite having a bigger display. The sides are less angular as well, which makes it nicer to hold.
1080p display
When 1440p displays began becoming the norm, I never really hopped on-board the bandwagon. I still believed that 1080p displays were sufficient, and having moved from my 1440p Nexus 6P to my 1080p OnePlus 5T I still believe that’s the case. I’ve watched videos on my 5T, read articles, played one game (just to try it out, I rarely play games on my phone), looked at photos, and not once did I miss the extra pixels of a 1440p display.
Also of note, the brightness of this display is well calibrated. I think so anyway. At the dimmest setting the display is very dim, so my eyes don’t burn when my alarm wakes me up in the morning, and I haven’t had the need to push the brightness up beyond even 40%, as the phone is bright enough for me below that level.
Long lasting battery + Dash Charge
I’m not a heavy smartphone user but even so, I haven’t had a phone with battery life as good as the 5T. I can easily go an entire workday without needing to charge and still have enough left over to last the night. Then in the morning I just hook it up to my Dash Charger, and it’s ready to go another 24 hours. Dash Charging has been proven multiple times to be the fastest charging solution in the market. I myself measured it once and got a 54% charge in just 30 mins.
The battery life is so good that I no longer need to charge my phone while using Waze. I can use Waze for about 3 hours a day and my phone will still last to the night (https://goo.gl/ugT3R4). On weekends, my phone can even last for about 1.5 days since my usage is much lighter when I stay at home (https://goo.gl/LQe1Wy).
One complaint I do have related to the battery though, is that the default LED colour for Dash Charging is blue, and it can’t be changed (https://goo.gl/BYYA3Y). You can change the LED colour for normal charging, but not Dash Charging, which is weird. Who would want to use a normal charger over Dash Charging?
Two unlock methods = one great experience
While one of the world’s most expensive smartphones only offers one method of biometric identification to unlock your phone, the OnePlus 5T offers both face and fingerprint recognition to unlock your device. This provides a great user experience where you can easily and effortlessly unlock your device regardless of how you are holding/using your phone. OnePlus has always had one of the fastest (if not the fastest) fingerprint scanners in the industry, and face unlock works just as fast. It also helps that you can go directly to the home screen without needing to swipe up first (but if you prefer to have a lock screen, you can change that in the settings). Face unlock is by no means the greatest thing about this device (I’d probably still buy this phone even if it didn’t have it), but it does work incredibly well.
Oxygen OS - My new “stock Android”
We now come to the main reason the OnePlus 5T appeals to me - the software. If you’ve followed my posts over the years, you’ll know I value the software of a smartphone much more than I do the hardware, and that’s why the OnePlus 5T is my new phone. In fact, Oxygen OS is likely my new “stock Android”. My default software experience that will keep me coming back to OnePlus the same way I stuck with the Nexus brand.
Performance, as I’m sure you’ve heard, is incredibly fast. Opening and closing apps happens instantaneously, and switching apps takes no time at all. Out of the box there is barely any bloatware, something which only few brands can boast about (like Pixel and Moto). Apart from a couple of OnePlus apps (Community app and Weather app), everything else is just core smartphone and Google apps.
In terms of Android version, I actually downgraded from Oreo to Nougat when I moved from the Nexus 6P to the OnePlus 5T (although the Oreo rollout has begun for the 5T). I lost some Oreo features but to be honest, the features that come with Oxygen OS makes it feel like more of an upgrade than a downgrade. There are small tweaks like having the clear all notifications button permanently at the bottom of the display rather than dynamically changing position depending on how many notifications you have (https://goo.gl/QcPMaB). You can change the colour theme of the system UI to your liking. There’s also built-in photo editing tools like cropping, doodling, and adding text, which automatically pop-up after taking a screenshot to allow you to instantly edit the screenshot before sharing it (https://goo.gl/WXyiyo). You can also take scrolling screenshots when the content you wanna share is longer than your display.
Then there are big features which really make the user experience special. One such feature is gestures. I’m not talking about navigation gestures like the iPhone X (I will talk about it a little later), I’m talking about shortcut gestures. For example, I can take a screenshot with a three-finger swipe. A lot easier than a power button-volume rocker combo. That may not be that big of a deal, but off-screen gestures are. The most basic is double tap to wake, which is present on many devices, but when paired with face unlock it suddenly becomes a lot more awesome. Just double tap the display and I’m instantly on my home screen as my phone unlocks when I’m looking at it. Works great at my desk (https://goo.gl/b1RgC7). Letter-based gestures are a little more advanced. “O” to launch the camera and a “V” for the torchlight are set by default, while I set “M” for Telegram, “W” for Waze, and “S” for Twitter (https://goo.gl/8rQT6a). Again, thanks to face unlock, I just draw these gestures while my display is off, and when the phone turns on I’m instantly in the app. Lastly, I can even control music playback while my display is off. I can pause/play and even skip tracks, just by using gestures (https://goo.gl/m8Fuuc). Very useful.
Navigation buttons - function over form
When the iPhone X launched with gesture navigation, there was a lot of talk about gestures being better for navigation than buttons. Now that OnePlus is testing a similar mechanism, discussion has started again on the topic. I haven’t tested OnePlus’ implementation so I don’t know if gestures are indeed better for navigation than buttons, but what I do know, is that navigation buttons can be very useful and powerful when they are customisable, like they are in Oxygen OS (https://goo.gl/bKG7ie). With double tap and long presses, each button can have up to three different functions, giving you a total of nine functions from the three buttons. Gestures may be more “intuitive” to some, but they are extremely limited in terms of functionality in their current implementation. Besides, if you want a full screen experience, the navbar in Oxygen OS can be hidden when you want it to be, and most full screen apps automatically hide it anyway.
I do have a couple of small annoyances with the navbar in Oxygen OS though. For starters, I dislike the white background (https://goo.gl/LQENKT). It should be black. The buttons are also strangely close together (https://goo.gl/vxCfC8). Not a huge problem, but just a little weird.
This phone has a camera
Other than my emphasis on software over hardware, you’ll also know from my previous years of posting that camera performance is not a high priority for me. As long as a phone has a decent camera, I’m happy. The OnePlus 5T has a decent camera. Hence, I’m happy. In fact, I’ve been rather pleased with some of the portrait shots I’ve been getting. And EIS on the phone is pretty great (https://goo.gl/WBkmvA).
Random thoughts
There are a few random thoughts I have which don’t really warrant an entire section. The USB packaging was nice (https://goo.gl/C514iJ). Nicest I’ve seen in a smartphone box. Ambient display on my OnePlus 5T works better than it did on my Nexus 6P. The alert slider is good. I prefer it over scheduled DnD. I find myself needing to silence my phone manually more than I rely on calendar events to automatically trigger DnD, so a manual switch on the side of the phone is more convenient than turning the phone on to change sound profiles. The speaker is loud, but a single bottom firing speaker is never better than stereo front speakers. Folders in the stock launcher look good (https://goo.gl/cPuqFM). Having said that, I did go back to Nova after two weeks. I need the customisation more than I need OnePlus' shelf. Keeping the headphone jack is a good move. I’m not supportive of the movement to make wireless earphones a mandate, I still believe it should just be an option, for now at least (https://goo.gl/CRNBWJ).
And that’s it. Just a few “short” thoughts on the OnePlus 5T. I’m very happy with the device. It has many great features and just a few annoyances. Oxygen OS is really great, possibly the best thing about owning a OnePlus device. If the smartphone market doesn’t change much over the next 2-3 years, my next device could very well be from OnePlus as well.
I’ve been using the OnePlus 5T for just over two weeks now, and I’m enjoying this phone a whole lot. There’s a lot to like about this phone, and just a few things which I don’t. I’ve been tweeting about my experience with the phone (I’ve linked some of my tweets below where applicable) and here’s my full write-up.
Feel in the hand
First thing I noticed when I took the phone out of the box? This is an extremely slippery phone. I don’t think I’ve ever held a phone this slippery. Thankfully though, OnePlus had the good sense to include a free case in the box, and even though I never use cases on my phones, I instantly slapped it on the 5T. This phone needs a case. Or a skin. The phone also came with a screen protector pre-applied, but I took it off. It was a flimsy plastic screen protector that just feels bad to the touch.
As for the size and shape of the device, I really like it. It’s narrower and shorter than my Nexus 6P, despite having a bigger display. The sides are less angular as well, which makes it nicer to hold.
1080p display
When 1440p displays began becoming the norm, I never really hopped on-board the bandwagon. I still believed that 1080p displays were sufficient, and having moved from my 1440p Nexus 6P to my 1080p OnePlus 5T I still believe that’s the case. I’ve watched videos on my 5T, read articles, played one game (just to try it out, I rarely play games on my phone), looked at photos, and not once did I miss the extra pixels of a 1440p display.
Also of note, the brightness of this display is well calibrated. I think so anyway. At the dimmest setting the display is very dim, so my eyes don’t burn when my alarm wakes me up in the morning, and I haven’t had the need to push the brightness up beyond even 40%, as the phone is bright enough for me below that level.
Long lasting battery + Dash Charge
I’m not a heavy smartphone user but even so, I haven’t had a phone with battery life as good as the 5T. I can easily go an entire workday without needing to charge and still have enough left over to last the night. Then in the morning I just hook it up to my Dash Charger, and it’s ready to go another 24 hours. Dash Charging has been proven multiple times to be the fastest charging solution in the market. I myself measured it once and got a 54% charge in just 30 mins.
The battery life is so good that I no longer need to charge my phone while using Waze. I can use Waze for about 3 hours a day and my phone will still last to the night (https://goo.gl/ugT3R4). On weekends, my phone can even last for about 1.5 days since my usage is much lighter when I stay at home (https://goo.gl/LQe1Wy).
One complaint I do have related to the battery though, is that the default LED colour for Dash Charging is blue, and it can’t be changed (https://goo.gl/BYYA3Y). You can change the LED colour for normal charging, but not Dash Charging, which is weird. Who would want to use a normal charger over Dash Charging?
Two unlock methods = one great experience
While one of the world’s most expensive smartphones only offers one method of biometric identification to unlock your phone, the OnePlus 5T offers both face and fingerprint recognition to unlock your device. This provides a great user experience where you can easily and effortlessly unlock your device regardless of how you are holding/using your phone. OnePlus has always had one of the fastest (if not the fastest) fingerprint scanners in the industry, and face unlock works just as fast. It also helps that you can go directly to the home screen without needing to swipe up first (but if you prefer to have a lock screen, you can change that in the settings). Face unlock is by no means the greatest thing about this device (I’d probably still buy this phone even if it didn’t have it), but it does work incredibly well.
Oxygen OS - My new “stock Android”
We now come to the main reason the OnePlus 5T appeals to me - the software. If you’ve followed my posts over the years, you’ll know I value the software of a smartphone much more than I do the hardware, and that’s why the OnePlus 5T is my new phone. In fact, Oxygen OS is likely my new “stock Android”. My default software experience that will keep me coming back to OnePlus the same way I stuck with the Nexus brand.
Performance, as I’m sure you’ve heard, is incredibly fast. Opening and closing apps happens instantaneously, and switching apps takes no time at all. Out of the box there is barely any bloatware, something which only few brands can boast about (like Pixel and Moto). Apart from a couple of OnePlus apps (Community app and Weather app), everything else is just core smartphone and Google apps.
In terms of Android version, I actually downgraded from Oreo to Nougat when I moved from the Nexus 6P to the OnePlus 5T (although the Oreo rollout has begun for the 5T). I lost some Oreo features but to be honest, the features that come with Oxygen OS makes it feel like more of an upgrade than a downgrade. There are small tweaks like having the clear all notifications button permanently at the bottom of the display rather than dynamically changing position depending on how many notifications you have (https://goo.gl/QcPMaB). You can change the colour theme of the system UI to your liking. There’s also built-in photo editing tools like cropping, doodling, and adding text, which automatically pop-up after taking a screenshot to allow you to instantly edit the screenshot before sharing it (https://goo.gl/WXyiyo). You can also take scrolling screenshots when the content you wanna share is longer than your display.
Then there are big features which really make the user experience special. One such feature is gestures. I’m not talking about navigation gestures like the iPhone X (I will talk about it a little later), I’m talking about shortcut gestures. For example, I can take a screenshot with a three-finger swipe. A lot easier than a power button-volume rocker combo. That may not be that big of a deal, but off-screen gestures are. The most basic is double tap to wake, which is present on many devices, but when paired with face unlock it suddenly becomes a lot more awesome. Just double tap the display and I’m instantly on my home screen as my phone unlocks when I’m looking at it. Works great at my desk (https://goo.gl/b1RgC7). Letter-based gestures are a little more advanced. “O” to launch the camera and a “V” for the torchlight are set by default, while I set “M” for Telegram, “W” for Waze, and “S” for Twitter (https://goo.gl/8rQT6a). Again, thanks to face unlock, I just draw these gestures while my display is off, and when the phone turns on I’m instantly in the app. Lastly, I can even control music playback while my display is off. I can pause/play and even skip tracks, just by using gestures (https://goo.gl/m8Fuuc). Very useful.
Navigation buttons - function over form
When the iPhone X launched with gesture navigation, there was a lot of talk about gestures being better for navigation than buttons. Now that OnePlus is testing a similar mechanism, discussion has started again on the topic. I haven’t tested OnePlus’ implementation so I don’t know if gestures are indeed better for navigation than buttons, but what I do know, is that navigation buttons can be very useful and powerful when they are customisable, like they are in Oxygen OS (https://goo.gl/bKG7ie). With double tap and long presses, each button can have up to three different functions, giving you a total of nine functions from the three buttons. Gestures may be more “intuitive” to some, but they are extremely limited in terms of functionality in their current implementation. Besides, if you want a full screen experience, the navbar in Oxygen OS can be hidden when you want it to be, and most full screen apps automatically hide it anyway.
I do have a couple of small annoyances with the navbar in Oxygen OS though. For starters, I dislike the white background (https://goo.gl/LQENKT). It should be black. The buttons are also strangely close together (https://goo.gl/vxCfC8). Not a huge problem, but just a little weird.
This phone has a camera
Other than my emphasis on software over hardware, you’ll also know from my previous years of posting that camera performance is not a high priority for me. As long as a phone has a decent camera, I’m happy. The OnePlus 5T has a decent camera. Hence, I’m happy. In fact, I’ve been rather pleased with some of the portrait shots I’ve been getting. And EIS on the phone is pretty great (https://goo.gl/WBkmvA).
Random thoughts
There are a few random thoughts I have which don’t really warrant an entire section. The USB packaging was nice (https://goo.gl/C514iJ). Nicest I’ve seen in a smartphone box. Ambient display on my OnePlus 5T works better than it did on my Nexus 6P. The alert slider is good. I prefer it over scheduled DnD. I find myself needing to silence my phone manually more than I rely on calendar events to automatically trigger DnD, so a manual switch on the side of the phone is more convenient than turning the phone on to change sound profiles. The speaker is loud, but a single bottom firing speaker is never better than stereo front speakers. Folders in the stock launcher look good (https://goo.gl/cPuqFM). Having said that, I did go back to Nova after two weeks. I need the customisation more than I need OnePlus' shelf. Keeping the headphone jack is a good move. I’m not supportive of the movement to make wireless earphones a mandate, I still believe it should just be an option, for now at least (https://goo.gl/CRNBWJ).
And that’s it. Just a few “short” thoughts on the OnePlus 5T. I’m very happy with the device. It has many great features and just a few annoyances. Oxygen OS is really great, possibly the best thing about owning a OnePlus device. If the smartphone market doesn’t change much over the next 2-3 years, my next device could very well be from OnePlus as well.
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I've praised OnePlus in the past for their efforts to keep users well informed, and I still feel strongly about it. I love how OnePlus keeps users up-to-date with what their working on. I don't think any other Android OEM makes as much effort as OnePlus in this regard.
A Tasty Slice of Android Pie - OnePlus Forums
forums.oneplus.com
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My Acer C720P Chromebook has served me well for more than three years, but it's time for an upgrade, and time for Windows. I've always had a Windows desktop at home, and my Chromebook was for work, but since I needed to upgrade my laptop anyway, I thought I might as well get a Windows laptop since my work often requires me to use Microsoft Office. A Chromebook is perfect for my personal use, but for work I need Windows.
I'm sharing my thoughts about my HP Pavilion X360 over on Twitter if you're interested.
https://twitter.com/JazliAziz/status/1035016499683942400?s=09
I'm sharing my thoughts about my HP Pavilion X360 over on Twitter if you're interested.
https://twitter.com/JazliAziz/status/1035016499683942400?s=09
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How many people were waiting for this watch? I know I wasn't 😂
Google Isn’t Releasing a Pixel Watch This Year
droid-life.com
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I've been using my Mi Band 2 for just under two months now [1] and in that time, I've noticed a pattern in the wearable market (in Malaysia). I've seen many other fitness band owners, several Apple Watch owners, but zero Android Wear (now known as Wear OS) owners. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen someone wearing a smartwatch that wasn't an Apple Watch in Malaysia. I've spoken with some friends about this, some with a wearable some without, and here are some thoughts I have on the wearable market in Malaysia.
Why people don't buy smartwatches
There are two main reasons. The first is simply that there's no need for a smartwatch for most people. When you have your phone in your hand for pretty much the entire day, and you're staring at your phone for almost the entire time, there is literally no need for another smart device on your wrist. This fact is compounded by the second reason why people don't buy smartwatches, the price. These gadgets are expensive. Most people won't be willing to spend the money needed to own a smartwatch if they feel like it won't give them their money's worth. If smartwatches were a lot cheaper, then people might be interested. Which leads me to my next point.
Why fitness bands are so popular
The price. Fitness bands are pretty much like smartwatches, but a more "lite" version. For the cost of these fitness bands (I got my Mi Band 2 for just RM88, which is about $21), people can get much better value than buying a smartwatch. And they appeal to all kinds of people. I've seen sales people wearing them, the head of my department in my faculty, my friend's mum has one, I've seen working professionals wearing fitness bands too. The only people smartwatches seem to attract are techies, but not the average consumer.
So why do people buy the Apple Watch?
Having said that, Apple is still seeing some success in Malaysia, though no where near as successful as fitness band makers like Xiaomi or Fitbit. From what I can tell, this is mostly due to one factor - the brand. If Apple didn't make a smartwatch, I don't think these owners would get a Wear OS watch, they'd probably get a fitness tracker.
If there's one thing I've learned about myself from using the Mi Band 2, is that I would probably get better use out of a smartwatch than a fitness band. However, due to the price, I'd probably be more likely to upgrade to a Mi Band 3 rather than a full-fledged smartwatch.
[1] https://twitter.com/JazliAziz/status/1017668013049331712
Why people don't buy smartwatches
There are two main reasons. The first is simply that there's no need for a smartwatch for most people. When you have your phone in your hand for pretty much the entire day, and you're staring at your phone for almost the entire time, there is literally no need for another smart device on your wrist. This fact is compounded by the second reason why people don't buy smartwatches, the price. These gadgets are expensive. Most people won't be willing to spend the money needed to own a smartwatch if they feel like it won't give them their money's worth. If smartwatches were a lot cheaper, then people might be interested. Which leads me to my next point.
Why fitness bands are so popular
The price. Fitness bands are pretty much like smartwatches, but a more "lite" version. For the cost of these fitness bands (I got my Mi Band 2 for just RM88, which is about $21), people can get much better value than buying a smartwatch. And they appeal to all kinds of people. I've seen sales people wearing them, the head of my department in my faculty, my friend's mum has one, I've seen working professionals wearing fitness bands too. The only people smartwatches seem to attract are techies, but not the average consumer.
So why do people buy the Apple Watch?
Having said that, Apple is still seeing some success in Malaysia, though no where near as successful as fitness band makers like Xiaomi or Fitbit. From what I can tell, this is mostly due to one factor - the brand. If Apple didn't make a smartwatch, I don't think these owners would get a Wear OS watch, they'd probably get a fitness tracker.
If there's one thing I've learned about myself from using the Mi Band 2, is that I would probably get better use out of a smartwatch than a fitness band. However, due to the price, I'd probably be more likely to upgrade to a Mi Band 3 rather than a full-fledged smartwatch.
[1] https://twitter.com/JazliAziz/status/1017668013049331712
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Snap. Deal with it.
Wallpaper from Walli.
Huk KWGT widget.
Phix Retro icon pack.
Wallpaper from Walli.
Huk KWGT widget.
Phix Retro icon pack.
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It looks like the Grab (the South East Asian ride hailing service that kicked Uber out of the region) app has a built-in translator that translates messages from drivers and riders automatically. This is a very good feature, especially in a multi-lingual country like Malaysia.
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Proof that consumers need all the ports that Apple removed from its devices? Probably.
Also proof that Apple fans will continue to buy Apple products even though they don't come with all the features (ports) they need.
Also proof that Apple fans will continue to buy Apple products even though they don't come with all the features (ports) they need.
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In case you want to follow me on Twitter if (when?) G+ shuts down - https://twitter.com/JazliAziz
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