When comparing Samsung Galaxy S8 vs OnePlus 5T, the Slant community recommends OnePlus 5T for most people. In the question“What are the best smartphones around $400 with a great camera?” OnePlus 5T is ranked 1st while Samsung Galaxy S8 is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose OnePlus 5T is:
Despite being cheaper than other flagship phones, its raw performance power is on par or even better than its competitors. It can run multiple background tasks and even the most demanding games and apps without any stutter, due to its Snapdragon 835 chipset and Adreno 540 GPU — the most powerful GPU currently available for Android devices. It also has one of the highest RAM for mobile devices: the 64GB version has 6GB of RAM while the 128GB versions sports 8GB of RAM. It is highly unlikely that you will run into problems like application instability, stuttering, or crashing, due to insufficient specs.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Most colorful and bright display on the smartphone market
Its high resolution AMOLED screen has incredible colors, sharp details and great brightness levels. The screen is HDR certified and covers 255% of the sRGB gamut which outperforms the Google Pixel’s 191% coverage. In other words, the screen is the brightest, sharpest, and the most colourful screen a smartphone has to offer.
Pro The camera is able to produce some of the best pictures for a smartphone
The 12MP camera can produce some of the best smartphone-taken pictures. Not only does it give very consistent results, it has auto features that work fantastically as well. The included optical image stabilization helps substantially in low light conditions. The pro mode also lets you take manual control of the settings and save photos in RAW format so you can tweak them later on. Finally, the camera can shoot 4K video or slow-mo video up to 240fps at 720p.
Pro Screen is visible under direct sunlight
The screen can get extremely bright and be visible under bright, direct sunlight. In most cases, 25% of the maximum brightness will be enough.
Pro Can safely be used in extreme environments
The phone has an IP68 rating, meaning that it can be safely used in dusty environments and it can function underwater (up to 5 feet deep).
Pro Excellent design
This phone looks very futuristic and luxurious. It phone features a bezel-free curved screen that covers nearly the entire front screen. It also has a wider aspect ratio than any other mobile device. The front physical buttons have been replaced with virtual buttons with haptic feedback. The back of the phone is covered in a glass panel.
Pro Comfortable to use with one hand, in spite of the huge screen
Even though the S8 has a 5.8 inch screen, the lack of bezels makes it possible to have a very low body/screen size ratio. This makes it very comfortable to hold and use with just one hand.
Pro Performance on par with other flagships in the market
This phone uses the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset in combination with 4GB of RAM and an Adreno 540 GPU for the US version. Its processing power puts it in the same league with the rest of the premium phones.
Pro Flagship-level performance with a little over half the price of a flagship
Despite being cheaper than other flagship phones, its raw performance power is on par or even better than its competitors. It can run multiple background tasks and even the most demanding games and apps without any stutter, due to its Snapdragon 835 chipset and Adreno 540 GPU — the most powerful GPU currently available for Android devices. It also has one of the highest RAM for mobile devices: the 64GB version has 6GB of RAM while the 128GB versions sports 8GB of RAM. It is highly unlikely that you will run into problems like application instability, stuttering, or crashing, due to insufficient specs.
Pro The screen offers lifelike and colorful images
The biggest change from the OnePlus 5 (and even earlier OnePlus models) is the screen. The 5T boasts a large 6.01-inch FullHD AMOLED display with a 18:9 aspect ratio that follows the trend of newer smartphones with elongated screens.
Even though it has a 1080x2160 resolution and 401ppi pixel density, it does not mean that the screen on the OnePlus 5T is poor, quite the contrary. The AMOLED panel offers bright and lifelike colors even though images are not as sharp as some other competitors.
Pro The battery can last up to two days with a single charge
The built-in 3,300 mAh battery can keep the phone alive throughout the day, with moderate usage. If you are a light user, the phone can even last for two days.
Pro One of the best phone cameras on the market
The phone has a dual-lens camera setup in the back. This setup allows you to zoom into objects up to 2x closer without losing image quality, like when using digital zoom. The portrait mode makes one of the cameras focus on the primary object/person, while the other camera unfocuses the background. This creates a bokeh effect that most phone cameras usually can’t achieve.
Photographers will appreciate the Pro mode that enables full manual control, as well as an on screen histogram and guidelines. It does, however, lack optical image stabilization, so you have to keep the phone really steady for long exposure shots. It also can’t capture high frame rate video.
Pro Very durable
The phone's casing is built from anodized aluminum, making it very durable and solid. The screen itself is also very resistant: having Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5, it is very hard to scratch and less vulnerable to impacts.
Pro The fingerprint scanner is very easy to reach
Even though the increased screen means that the fingerprint scanner had to be removed from the front and moved to the back, luckily it's placed in a central position which makes it easy to reach.
Cons
Con The battery lasts only half a day under intensive use
The phone’s 3000mAh battery capacity is smaller than other flagship phones. For casual use, it should able to last a day but anything that can use up a lot of power like games, videos and turning up the screen brightness will drain it quickly and might not even last a half a day.
Con It's easy to accidentally block the audio with your finger
The downward placed speaker can easily be blocked with your hand when using it in landscape mode.
Con Using a case is advised
The glass back panel scratches easily, so it’s better to use a case in order to avoid this. The lack of bezels also makes the screen prone to breaking in case it falls to the ground if there's no case to protect it.
Con The built-in Samsung smart assistant (Bixby) is rather useless
Samsung has implemented its own Google Now and Siri competitor, which they have called Bixby and have tried to make an important part of the new Galaxy S8. So much that they have added a dedicated Bixby button to the side of the phone. Unfortunately, Bixby fails to impress, the voice recognition is average at best and it can't support many third-party apps.
This shouldn't be a big deal for most people, but it's strange how Samsung had to place the fingerprint scanner in an awkward place because of space constraints and still found the space for a physical button that 90% of the people won't use.
Con Facial recognition fails more often than not
The facial recognition system (which is the default security system) fails on the first try most of the time. You have to position your face perfectly and the lighting conditions must be optimal for it to work.
Con Loaded with Samsung bloatware
While Samsung is slowly improving its TouchWiz user interface, they still load up the phone with unnecessary pre-installed apps that can’t be removed.
Con The fingerprint sensor is weirdly placed
The fingerprint sensor is placed right next to the camera lens, which it makes it hard to reach location and means you'll get the camera dirty with fingerprints often.
Con No way to increase storage size
Doesn't have a microSD slot and, therefore, no way to increase storage size.
Con The screen resolution is a little low compared to other premium smartphones
It only has a Full HD display, which is below what other premium phones already offer.
Con Phablet
156.1x75x7.3mm is to large for the most pockets.