What's up guys ! We're back with the hottest comparison between OnePlus 8T and Google Pixel 5.
So on paper the new OnePlus 8T, it's so specked out that it kind of looks like it could eat the Google Pixel 5 for breakfast.
FEATURES
For a similar price you've got a 120Hz display versus 90 Hz, a quad camera setup versus dual 32 MP selfie camera versus 8, the high-end chipset versus a mid-range one, way faster UFS 3.1 storage and a significantly bigger battery and it doesn't really work the other way around what does the Pixel have that the OnePlus doesn't.
The water resistance rating yeah kind of but the OnePlus still has seals to protect against water damage. Anyways the Pixel has wireless charging and OnePlus doesn't. So I guess that's a positive but really wired charging is way more efficient. But the 65 watt OnePlus charging kind of demolishes Pixels 18 watts.
You don't even really get the historic software advantage that Google has had because OnePlus software has improved to a point where I would say it's not just visually similar but it actually offers a lot of features and granular customization that Google's Pixel 5 doesn't plus they're shipping with the same android 11 and the same three years of promised software updates.
The 8T really feels like OnePlus took their best phone and just turned a couple of things down but the Pixel really feels like Google started with a budget phone and turned a few things up but like not quite enough. It genuinely almost comes across as if Google doesn't care about the Pixel 5 and there's a couple of other things that back this up how their budget phones are out selling their flagships many times over and how they're apparently only producing something like 800 000 Pixel fives as if they're already preparing for it to not sell.
Well plus I was watching their launch event just feeling a bit puzzled. Google spent 20 minutes talking about their smart speaker and Google TV and literally 8 minutes talking about their phones and of that I want to say 1 minute talking about the Pixel 5 itself. Now just for a second contrast that to OnePlus you held a one-hour event almost exclusively for the 8T and the 8T isn't even their main launch this year. It's just a bit of an unusual event.
Comparing the retail box of the two phones it feels like we've got one scrappy company fighting to provide as much content and as unique an experience as possible at every step of the customer journey versus a company who thinks it's just a box it doesn't really matter what it looks like.
So far as the kind of the mindset I had going into this, the promise of these two phones, it feels like OnePlus is ahead but how do they stack up in practice?
DESIGN
Well externally the OnePlus is fine. I'm a fan of how the color completely flips from blue to green depending on the angle you hold it. It feels tough and well made but it's not an all-round upgrade compared to the last OnePlus 8. It's bulkier. It's heavier and they swapped the slightly curved display to a completely flat one which makes the side bezels look thicker plus they just straight up got rid of that premium matte finish in place of a more standard glossy one. If I had to guess they've probably done this just to give people a reason to still consider the more expensive OnePlus 8 Pro.
Also Read : The New Google Pixel 5 !
Now while this is happening OnePlus seems to become more conventional. Google's gone rogue the Pixel 5 is remarkably small for a flagship. It's got a fingerprint scanner on the back. In a world where literally every other android has one in the display. It comes in this super unusual almost recycled looking sage finish. The whole body is made out of aluminium which you know was a popular material back in 2014. But was phased out because of how metal tends to block the transmissions your phone needs to make but seems like they figured that out here.
I will say that from my point of view almost everything about the way the Pixel 5 feels the smaller footprint, the textured finish is spot on kind of like technology meets nature, minimalist vibe but I have also asked a couple of other people for their opinion and their consensus was that it feels light and cheap and that it kind of looks like a bathroom tile which I now can't unsee.
BATTERY
So the feel of the phones is subjective but as soon as you start to pitch these two against each other in any meaningful way it doesn't look good for Google as I guess you'd expect the smaller battery leads to less battery life. I cycled through a whole load of apps for a couple of hours and even though the OnePlus has a larger, slightly brighter and higher refresh rate display; it still managed to finish on 76% while the Pixel 5 was left with 72%. Also OnePlus did this all while staying at a lower temperature. Thanks to a redesigned heat dissipation system.
Both have a pretty good dual speaker setup but you can also tell that just because the OnePlus is a bigger phone it's got more room to push air so it sounds a bit fuller.
PERFORMANCE
The Pixel can't escape from the fact that it's got a chip that is two-thirds of the power and storage speed ; that is literally half as fast. However you notice the performance gap in other areas. While the Pixel 5 is a pretty snappy phone. The OnePlus feels quicker when doing almost everything; searching for things, the loading of applications, processing time for photos. It's not even close. I actually handed 8T to someone who was a user of the already fast OnePlus 8. And one of the first things they said was, “Oh wow ! It's even faster.”
CAMERA
Aside I do have a bone to pick with both of these camera systems. They're both good cameras but they're also both disappointingly unambitious. If you put the OnePlus 8T camera next to its predecessor you might first think wow they've completely redone it. This is true next generation but honestly the biggest change is just the aesthetic.
The main 48 MP camera is identical to not just the OnePlus 8 that came before but the affordable OnePlus Nord, the OnePlus 7T before that and the OnePlus 7 before. That it's two and a half year old hardware and if that seems unambitious then the Pixel 5 is even lesser. The main 12.2 MP sensor is the same as the one seen on the Pixel 4 last year, the Pixel 3 the year before that and the Pixel 2 the year before that and fun fact this sensor is actually smaller than the one found on the very first original Google Pixel.
It's more like four-year-old hardware and if I had to guess I would say that of any $700 phone on the market right now no phone has a lower cost of parts than this Pixel 5. They're good cameras though both of them.
These are both companies who are making the most of what is there. They're really taking advantage of the fact that they've spent a long time using one specific set of hardware. So each year they've managed to kind of squeeze a little bit more out of it. So if you're coming from a three four year old flagship phone you're going to be really happy.
These are reliable cameras. They're cameras which you can pick a subject, snap a photo and you can trust that it's going to be good. Sometimes the OnePlus is better. It generally gets in more detail just being a larger higher resolution sensor and actually both in the day and in the dark. Thanks to a better night mode than the last phone and OnePlus dynamic range algorithm is a little more aggressive than Google's so it often does a better job of keeping bright sky from overexposing. They've swapped out the 2 MP macro camera for a 5 MP micro camera which means you can now get close-ups that don't completely suck. The addition of a new monochrome sensor adds a hint of additional sharpness and detail when I should say if you decide to capture in black and white.
Sometimes the Pixel is better. In fact the Pixel is better in pretty much every situation. That relies more on software like when you're taking portraits or when you take night mode shots. While it does tend to get less detail it will always nail the color reconstruction and actually even flicking to the ultrawide cameras while OnePlus and many other manufacturers have a kind of color shift the Pixel doesn't.
I'm not kidding, the software on this phone is borderline science fiction. If you take a photo of a face, it can create a 3D model of it and allow you to add in light that was never there. You can refocus photos you've already taken. You can eliminate color from backgrounds. It's so much fun. It's also got improved electronic image stabilization which you can feel when walking around with it and a new cinematic stabilization mode which basically just slows the video down and adds artificial stabilization on top but it works really well.
In fact never in my life have I seen software this capable on hardware this limiting. It's like Google figured out how to do magic but then decided to only perform it at kids birthday parties. So the cameras of these two phones trade blows but this is where the comparison takes a bit of a turn.
PRICING
See alongside this $699 Pixel 5, Google also announced the Pixel 4A 5G which is basically the Pixel 5 but loses 2 GB of RAM, the 90Hz refresh rate and official ip rating and wireless charging. Now that might seem like a lot of missing stuff but it's $200 cheaper oh and this phone has a headphone jack which neither of the two are comparing do.
So let's just talk about pricing for a second in the US the OnePlus 8T is $749 while the Pixel is $699. So the OnePlus is more expensive right. Well not really the reason is that in the US the only version OnePlus is selling is the top spec 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB storage option. But in other regions like the UK where you can buy the base model with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage like the Pixel 5 has OnePlus is actually cheaper which makes it a complete no-brainer.
I'm not too bothered by its fast charging but it's better battery life, it's 120Hz display, the chipset and the superfast storage are likely to mean a phone that will beef us and stay fast three years down the line. They have also integrated optimized charging as a software feature which can kind of help to protect the batteries.
I think that Google's weak hardware, strong software strategy makes more and more sense the more affordable phones becomes. Because in the budget and the mid-range segment none of the competition has high-end hardware. So Google isn't getting out-competed. So while the Pixel 5 is a decent value at $699 I'd say the Pixel 4A 5G is good value at $499 and that the normal Pixel 4A is exceptional value at $349.
But just remember that in some regions including the UK both the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4A 5G just don't make as much sense because of how affordable the OnePlus is.
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