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A few years ago you had to spend big bucks to get a smartphone that was actually enjoyable to utilize. Things changed when great unlocked devices like the Moto G and OnePlus Ane came out. Suddenly, you could have a reliable phone without selling your soul to a carrier. OnePlus has been particularly aggressive moving into the high-finish to compete with the likes of Samsung. The OnePlus 5 has much of the same hardware every bit the Milky way S8, merely information technology costs hundreds of dollars less. Is it as good, though? Let's break information technology downwardly.

Design

Samsung has been on a drinking glass and aluminum kick for the concluding few years, and the trend continues with the Galaxy S8. This phone has an aluminum frame and curved glass on the front end and back. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 5 is all aluminum with a black or gray anodized finish. The GS8 is a more attractive device, but the OnePlus 5 is more functional and durable.

OnePlus still has physical capacitive buttons on the front end of the device, including a abode push that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Interestingly, the OP5's sensor is 1 of the fastest available. It's much better than the Milky way S8'southward fingerprint sensor, which is in a strange place high on the dorsum of the phone. Although, the Galaxy 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 5 buttons.

Samsung has an iris scanner to make upwardly for the lack of a fingerprint reader, but that tin be finicky also. OnePlus' unique hardware feature is the notification slider, which lets you toggle between sound, do-not-disturb, and silent without even waking up the phone.

The Galaxy S8 is a more than attractive phone with great build quality, merely the OnePlus five is non far behind. The OP5 seems more than durable, too.

Displays

Samsung turned heads with the Galaxy S8's "infinity brandish," which is a fancy way of saying the screen is curved with almost no bezel. Almost the unabridged confront of this phone is the 5.viii-inch 1440p AMOLED, and OnePlus can't match this kind of engineering for the price. The OP5 has the same 5.5-inch 1080p OLED brandish it used in concluding twelvemonth's telephone. Samsung also has the larger half-dozen.2-inch Milky way S8 Plus with the same blueprint.

Samsung'south AMOLED panels are still the gold standard for brightness and color accuracy. The GS8 has what is simply the best panel you can get. OnePlus' OLED is nil to sneeze at — information technology has solid color accuracy and good viewing angles. Information technology'southward just not as sharp or bright as the Milky way S8.

Performance

The Galaxy S8 and OnePlus 5 both have an octa-core Snapdragon 835 flake, which is the latest from Qualcomm. Yet, Samsung's devices never take full advantage of the hardware'southward speed. The GS8 is non slow, but I wouldn't call it fast, either. The OnePlus 5 is an obviously faster device.

OnePlus likewise equipped the OnePlus 5 with an obscene amount of RAM — either 6 or 8GB depending on the version you choose. It's actually overkill, but the OP5 does proceed apps in memory every bit it should. This aspect isn't much dissimilar than the GS8 with a mere 4GB of RAM, though.

The battery life is a depict. Both phones will become you through a 24-hour interval no problem, and likely most of the next one. The OnePlus five might eke out a little more screen time thanks to the lower resolution, but the difference is negligible. Both phones fast charge when the juice gets low. However, OnePlus uses a proprietary standard called Dash Accuse. Samsung uses Qualcomm Quick Charge, but it's an older version that isn't equally fast as Dash Charge.

Overall, the OnePlus 5 is more than impressive in terms of raw speed, if that's what y'all intendance about.

Cameras

OnePlus took a stride into the world of dual cameras with a 16MP standard shooter and a 20MP sensor with a 2x telephoto lens. The thought is you can "zoom" in to go a better shot without using digital zoom, which lowers quality. Meanwhile, Samsung has the same 12MP rear-facing sensor it used final year. Y'all would recall OP had an advantage hither, simply no.

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Galaxy S8 photographic camera.

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

The Milky way S8 only has one rear-facing photographic camera, but information technology's fantastic. Focus is lightning fast, images are crisp, and HDR is robust. It can take images in low low-cal that put most other devices to shame. The OnePlus 5 takes better photos than other sub-$500 phones, but information technology tin't touch the Galaxy S8.

Software

Both phones run Nougat, but the style 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, but information technology's been streamlined. The style is calorie-free and consistent, though there are notwithstanding a lot of features crammed in in that location. And it tin get a bit sluggish at times.

OnePlus uses its own OxygenOS ROM, which is very close to stock Android. Information technology includes some absurd extras like gestures, a night UI way, and various status bar tweaks. The existent advantage to OxygenOS is that information technology'southward fast and clean. At that place are a few more bugs right now than I'd expect on production software, but they're pocket-sized things.

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

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a better phone, but it's not as much of a blowout as you might take thought. Samsung has articulate wins when information technology comes to the display and photographic camera, but the OnePlus five is faster and has better software. The hardware design is a scrap of a toss-upwards depending on what you like. The GS8 is a beautiful telephone, but the OP5 is a bit more 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, information technology'south an fantabulous value. However, you take to pay it all at in one case. The Galaxy S8 costs effectually $750, just you can pay monthly through a carrier. If you don't mind making a few sacrifices, the OnePlus 5 could serve yous almost too as a Galaxy S8.

Now read: 25 All-time Android Tips to Make Your Phone More than Useful