Gadgetory

Marketing slogans can muddy the waters for in-depth reviews there's a memory for phrases like flagship killer associated with this company and that emotional identity can be difficult to separate from real-world performance now you're about to hear quite a few criticisms in this review which might be shocking to some of you if this is your first real camera review on this channel we're going to dive deep into different shooting scenarios reviewing this phone camera how we might review a standalone shooter now we're all big boys and girls so that's enough hand-holding buckle up folks we have a lot of ground to cover and I'm going to move pretty quick the philosophy for the 1+5 is expanding on the flexibility of the phone camera oneplus includes a newer sony camera sensor but one which is the same size as last year's phone packin the same 16 megapixel resolution just with a slightly faster aperture the manufacturer focused more on improving JPEG processing and speeding up autofocus for the main camera sensor this year one Plus wanted more reach and the secondary sensor delivers the equivalent of a 2 X optical zoom 20 megapixel resolution while also providing fun software background bokeh blur starting off with exposure and saturation this phone meters really well most phones push exposure brighter than they need to trying to impress consumers with juicy vibrant images and while the one plus 5 is no exception it's one of the more reasonable performers we've tested this year occasional clips highlights but happily this phone is not trying to overtly boost brightness colors are kept in check while saturated with a little eye candy to please blues and greens are looking great though uniformed sections of sky can feel a bit busy moving over to warmer colors like yellows were hanging on to terrific petal texture reds are always tricky for digital sensors but they look great here considering less of the funky magenta we might see on some competitors and we're not clipping as many details I would like to see just a touch more of the difference between these two varieties of blossoms the right flowers are a bit more pink IRL but this is overall very good color processing white balance leans on the warm side which in los-angeles afternoon light is very pleasing oneplus plays well with the quality of light and this prevents shade shots from feeling too cold ditto low-light photos where there's a priority placed on the color of light over trying to find the true scientific white of your subject it looks a bit gross here on this terrible security light but it'll look great on a concert shot looking at dynamic range we get a good amount of info to work with in RAW files but overexposing by two stops as the phone meters we can't walk back this brightness on the wall users get a solid stop and a half safety zone for overexposing which isn't bad but is another reason I'm very happy with how this phone meters when shooting in auto mode it was exceedingly rare I felt the need to dial back more than half a stop lens quality punches above the price tag a very nice piece of glass with a minimum of flaring even at night lamps stay pretty crisp this lens is prone to fringing and ghosting though on high contrast borders but it's most noticeable when pixel peeping so just don't do that the wider aperture can make your subject a bit soft when working at the phone's closest focusing distance but otherwise we think folks are going to be happy when viewing their compositions as a whole now speaking of macro the phone can get a bit confused at its absolute minimum focusing distance but this aperture helps balance the slightly smaller sensor size with a pleasant bouquet you got to work close to naturally blur a background with a phone but with dual sensors we can also fire up the portrait mode pretty much copy pasted from the iPhone line up your subject and if the distance and light are right the effect pops into place it's software so sometimes edge detection will miss but it gets our tiny phone sensors a lot closer to the depth of field of a larger sensor camera by design that second sensor is included to give us more reach a single press pops us over to the 2x zoom and from there cropping will zoom farther image quality is good when you feed it good light whether this is your cup of tea depends on what you like to shoot some might find a wider angle shooter more flexible but at its maximum this setup will get us a little closer to a far-off subject especially when compared to a lower resolution camera the zoom sensor is the same size but with smaller pixels and it has a smaller aperture so it's not the strongest in darker situations at night often the phone seems to revert to the sensor at least in manual mode the raw capture seems to come from the main sensor only I'm not sure that the extra resolution on the zoom sensor is a benefit though it gives you a bit more room to crop but the smaller photo sites often result in more aggressive noise reduction even in good light and after a minor crop zoom shots can come out a bit splotchy or with details looking a bit like a watercolour painting speaking of low-light dull we're working with a slightly smaller sensor with a higher resolution than many flagships and without Hardware stabilization nighttime captures are handled well the user has to hold a bit steadier but it wasn't any great difficulty pulling off a rear camera selfie knowing there would be a longer shutter speed even for candid and Street shots the action of firing up and quickly taking a shot discreetly these results are much better than expected a bit grainy er than some might like but easily competitive and usually besting phones like the LG g 6 oneplus has spruced up focusing speed and accuracy it won't unseat a dual pixel camera but the actual focus acquisition has a really pleasing slide into locking onto your subject looking at this video it's almost smooth enough to be a rack focus between subjects free of the pulse or overshoot recover action found on many other phones and checking out high dynamic range oneplus also delivers one of the better solutions for merging multiple exposures highlights are nicely balanced against boosting shadow information the phone is already restraining brightness with standard shots so we're not having to recover from clipped highlights without Hardware stabilization the user does need to hold steady for the shot to be completed a subject in motion can also ruin an HDR shot trying to merge the differences in several captures unfortunately panorama performance is rather poor the 1+5 will let you capture a full 360 degrees but over the course of several tests we found very strange aberrations in photo stitching these are early days for the phone and we're confident what we see here are some software gremlins which need to be addressed I'm not the biggest fan of selfie shots but the oneplus is front camera is a respectable option like the rear camera exposures are well-balanced and the app includes the requisite skin blurring modes people seem to enjoy these days a video maxes out at 1080p in the front glass is a bit more prone to flaring but this is a better-than-average option for folks looking to do some vlogging on the go the oneplus rear cameras capture a high-quality UHD video with similar exposure and saturation to the still shots we enjoy but it becomes clear rather quickly that there is a lack of any image stabilization when shooting at the max resolution all handheld shots are going to be shaky which is a shame we've seen what older phones with less powerful chipsets can do to smooth out video switching to 1080p we're treated to deliciously smooth output more evidence for my hypothesis that mixing hardware and software stabilization is often more destructive than picking one or the other this is great but comes at the expense of clarity and resolution definitely the area we most hope to see addressed in a future update adding to the video disappointment audio performance is also poor the phone is working significantly harder than is necessary to reduce noise so most videos in real world situations suffer from a significant reduction of quality that's often manifest as an airy or hissy sound with little clarity or detail even in fairly quiet environments now looking at slow-mo the oneplus tops out at 720p but it's a respectably high quality bit rate while captured decent detail it's not going to be class-leading but it is fun to play with examining the apt layout and performance the hardware is obviously inspired by a competitor but the camera app has more of a oneplus feel simplicity rules the day with three primary modes available through gestures additional modes available through a hamburger menu which thankfully doesn't completely remove you from your composition window though additional settings through this gear icon will a video remains mostly full auto but folks who want more control over photos will enjoy this manual mode and I like this slider layout for making quick adjustments performance is excellent firing up the app saving photos capturing RAW images and shooting video we found precious few moments where this app fell unresponsive occasionally on this early software the shutter would lock up while the focus was hunting we'd get a burst of shots all at once after recovering while I really like this layout it does introduce one small gripe for video this shaded bar housing the shutter button takes up quite a bit of space almost a third of the display where you can't focus it causes a tendency to center punch your subject or frame left just to make sure you can focus and speaking of that focus while the system is much improved the actual focus indicator is rather large if you're trying to lock in on fine details it can sometimes obscure enough of your subject that you won't quite know if what you want is properly in focus and lastly there is an oddity with exposure in manual mode where adjusting the brightness doesn't stay put once you tap spot metering takes over so even if this is showing +2 it will reset and expose back to zero you have to tap focus first then adjust this slider and the setting won't stay the next time you focus so let's wrap this up where's that leave us with the cameras on the 1 + 5 well this is a fun little shooter it's not pushing boundaries it lacks the character we might find from more exotic photography partnerships it missing the consistency in the video stabilization we might find on a similar-looking phone but oneplus mostly delivers where it counts the core photo experience is good - very good in most conditions we faced evolution is critical while I'm a bit disappointed to be losing the hardware image stabilization we enjoyed on the 3t we see a number of improvements in other areas over last year's phone with the addition of a zoom camera sensor to expand on some of the fun there's certainly room for improvement a number of issues we hope are sorted out in future software updates but this camera shouldn't disappoint casual shooters especially considering the price tag as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe and hit that Bell icon for our full 1+5 coverage including our full review and comparisons and help us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for PocketNow i'm juan carlos bag now author of take better photos smartphone photography for noobs aka some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next review