 Every once in a while, a phone comes along that sparks a conversation, or that changes the way that we use our mobile devices. And for the people who don't actually want to carry around adapters and relearn all of their gestures, well for them, there's the OnePlus 5T, a purely incremental improvement over the OnePlus 5. And now, in sandstone white. Today's video is brought to you by Be Quiet. The Dark Base 700 is an extremely versatile case featuring RGB LED lighting and a tempered glass side panel window. Check it out at the link below. I first checked out the 5T when OnePlus sponsored my trip to their New York launch event, and since then, I've spent about a month using it. And I've got a few impressions to share. OnePlus's slogan is, never settle. But, if we're being honest, they come in at a lower price with a few key feature trade-offs against the top tier flagships, so... Isn't that exactly what they're asking us to do? Well, when it comes to construction quality, the original black 5T feels good, with a great curved shape, nice clicky buttons, and a satisfyingly smooth body to glass transition. And then the sandstone white adds a little bit more grip, and subjectively, a better look. Though with that said, if you're the type to apply a dbrand skin, this might not be a huge issue for you. The one area where you are settling is water resistance, and this is something that I would really hope to see OnePlus address in the 6. Moving on to specs. Here's a rundown of the freshly launched sandstone white edition. It's exactly the same as the regular 5T, which is pretty much the same as any other flagship smartphone, at least until Qualcomm Snapdragon 845s start showing up in the wild sometime later this year. The decent-sized 3,300 mAh battery, combined with the lower 2160x1080 resolution on the 18x9 OLED display, amounts to a settling or a compromise of sorts, but it's not one that I think anyone is likely to notice in day-to-day use. I got great battery life out of the 5T, regularly making it through very demanding days, and the screen was sharp, with no off-axis viewing anomalies or burn-in on either of my units. And watching movies in the wider aspect ratio was a treat, aside from the bottom-mounted single speaker, which I would like to see addressed on the 6 as well. On to software. We are settling a little bit again. To be clear, I actually really like Oxygen OS. It's damn close to stock Android, but with a few thoughtful add-ons, like better screenshot management, shortcut keys, OnePlus's signature notification toggle, and this really cool feature that I've mostly only seen on Asian-focused phones, is the ability to run multiple installs of apps, so you don't have to switch your login profile all the time, which is a huge boon for anyone with separate work and personal social media accounts, like me. However, instead of shipping with Oreo, like the Pixel 2, we're stuck with Nougat until OnePlus rolls an update sometime in 2018. And you can't count on the support period either. The 3 and the 3T both got Android Nougat, with Oreo to come, but the 2, which was released in mid-2015, is still stuck on Marshmallow, so your mileage may vary. Now let's talk about the quality of life things. OnePlus's facial unlock isn't as good as Face ID on the iPhone X, or even Samsung's iris scanner, from my anecdotal experience. But now that winter has rolled around, it is a heck of a lot better than nothing, so I definitely prefer that to taking my hands out of my gloves or my pockets. Though it should be noted that when I wasn't wearing gloves, I was really pleased with the performance of the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, even if I do continue to prefer front placement. As for the camera, well, ditto, I guess. It's missing some top-tier features, like 480fps slow-mo, and it's not across the board quite as good as the best flagships out there, but there are a couple of things that it does really well. One, it just works. It's got Pro Mode options, like the ability to see an on-screen histogram and shoot in RAW, but the default app in its default mode is super simple to use and gets it right enough most of the time. And even their portrait mode is actually pretty good among the ones we've tested. And two, with the second camera actually dedicated to low-light, I got some really impressive shots in very challenging situations, like in a dimly lit aircraft. I mean, it's not like you're going to be able to do a poster-sized print with acceptable quality, but if you gauge a cell phone camera on its ability to capture the moment, the 5T with its quick launch with the double tap, its fast shutter, and acceptable image quality performs admirably. So I guess by this point in the video, you've probably picked up on my point by now. The never-settle slogan is a bit, I don't know, let's call it optimistic. But I'm still going to recommend the 5T, because at $500 for the base model, it's cheaper than anything else that I would consider competitive with the overall user experience. Also, a sort of related comment, literally as I sat down to write this script, my Type-C to 3.5mm adapter died, forcing me to toss aside my daily driver Pixel 2 XL for the 5T, so I could plug in and Jan out to some tunes. Like, bloody hell, cell phone industry, why are you doing this to me? And as for OnePlus, thank you for at least putting it off for one more cycle. Speaking of putting it off, why are you guys putting off getting a dbrand skin for your mobile device or other device? dbrand makes awesome skins for laptops, phones, tablets, consoles, controllers, and more. They use high quality, authentic, true textured 3M vinyl on every product. Their cuts are unbeatably precise. They measure many times to ensure they have a factory fit for your product. And not only do they look great, dbrand skins protect against incidental damage and scratches, and many of them are grippier than the stock finishes of your favorite devices. So check them out, they're affordable, they ship worldwide, and they're available at the link below. So thanks for watching guys, if this video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also linked down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which you should totally join. Why do I do this? I feel like it's kind of dirty. Hey, let's see, what's my god under here? Yeah.