OnePlus 5T vs Google Pixel 2 XL – Comparison between the top 2 Flagships

These two flagships have really got their own fan base now. But who wins the head-to-head fight? Read on to know the winner’s name.

The new Google Pixel 2 XL and OnePlus 5T are both being powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor with 4GB of RAM on the Pixel 2 XL and either 6GB or 8GB on OnePlus 5T depending on storage. Both devices are incredibly very fast and you will never notice a slowdown on either one. The extra RAM on 5T is an advantage especially for multitasking purposes, but it doesn’t give it an edge in real world use. Everything from launching applications, browsing the web, watching videos and playing graphically intense game, all felt very smooth on both phone and these are probably most fluid Android phones in the market right now.

That smooth performance is thankful to the clean and lightweight software experiences. The Pixel 2 XL is running the latest Android version 8.0 Oreo which is just an absolute pleasure to use. It’s the most refined version of the Android yet and its all the small and subtle touches like new animations, notification dots, picture-in-picture support, etc., that makes this version of Android so great to use. There are few features in Pixel 2 XL to love, like ‘now playing’ feature that shows song titles on the lock-screen and the ‘squeeze’ functionality to access Google Assistant.

The biggest advantage of the Pixel or any previous Google device is that it’s 100% stock, completely bloatware free and it will always the first device to get software updates. With the OnePlus 5T you have Oxygen OS which is currently based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat, the update to Oreo is very near but the Oxygen OS is basically stock Android but with a lot of really great features and customization options that let you personalize the OS as you want. There’s a built-in dark theme that looks awesome on the AMOLED screen and you can even pick from variety of different accent colors.

There’s bunch of other things that you can do like the status bar can be customized with different battery icons and you can pick and choose which icon you want to appear on the status bar so that it doesn’t get cluttered. There’s this Face Unlock feature on OnePlus 5T which is the fastest in the market but not as secure as the fingerprint sensor. Another feature called ‘parallel apps’ on 5T lets you run two clones of the same app which is great for apps that don’t support multiple accounts.

On the outside the Pixel 2 XL and OnePlus 5T are both constructed out of metal but their approaches in design makes them look and feel completely different. The Pixel 2 XL has a more industrial design with rounded corners and some subtle tapers but the flat sides and back makes it feel pretty blocky in comparison to 5T’s curvy pebble-like design. Pixel 2 XL is also taller, thicker and wider than the 5T so it’s not quite as easy to use one-hand. It has sort of a two tone look with glass window on the back and the metal is coated with a textured finish. Despite with the smooth metal on the back the OnePlus 5T it’s more comfortable, because of its heavy use of curves.

Pixel 2 XL has a 6-inch AMOLED screen with qHD resolution and the OnePlus 5T also has a 6-inch AMOLED screen but has a resolution of 1080p instead. The Pixel 2 XL is obviously the sharper looking display but the 5T’s 1080p display is a very good looking panel, its very vibrant with great contrast. The 5T’s display has a much thinner bezels than the Pixel 2 XL, the thicker bezel of Pixel serve a purpose, there’s a front-facing stereo speakers which are very loud and crisp which is way better than the 5T’s single speaker at the bottom. But there’s a 3.5mm audio jack on the 5T which you don’t get with the Pixel 2 Xl.

On the plus side the Pixel 2 XL is ip67 certified against water and dust whereas the OnePlus 5T is not certified. Both the devices have back mounted fingerprint scanner and they’re both fast and accurate at unlocking but the 5T does feel slightly quicker due to its lack of a wake-up animation. One area where both the phones perform extremely well is the battery life. The Pixel 2 XL has a 3520mAH battery and OnePlus 5T has a 3300mAh battery and both these phones get through full day extremely easily with a consistent 6-hours of screen-on time. No wireless charging on either phone unfortunately but you do get the QuickCharge 3.0 on the Pixel and Dash-Charging on the OnePlus 5T which is incredibly fast at charging and also is a lot more efficient than QuickCharge when it comes to delivering power and regulating heat.

Now the cameras. The Pixel 2 XL has a single 12-mp rear shooter that’s equipped with OIS, EIS and an aperture of f/1.8. The 5T has dual camera setup but no longer do you get that 1.6x optical zoom that you get on OnePlus 5, it still has the same megapixel count though. We have 16-mp main sensor and 20-mp secondary sensor but this time the secondary sensor is designed to help improve low-light shooting. You can still do a 2x jump zoom but a digital one that results in a cropped image. Both of these phones offer a portrait mode but the way they go about achieving this is very different and each of them has respective pros and cons.

Since the Pixel 2 XL has only one sensor it actually uses its machine learning to separate the subject from the background, this also means that the portrait mode is possible on the front-facing camera what you don’t get on the 5T. Portrait mode on the Pixel always gives you a version with a blur and one without the blur which makes it easy to gauge how much of a difference the ‘Bokeh’ makes. There is a cropped factor with portrait mode on the Pixel so your photos are going to have a much more zoomed in look whereas with the 5T you will get the entire frame of the image.

The ‘Bokeh’ isn’t perfect on either camera and depending on how the complex the subject is you will get photos with the blur bleeds onto the subject. Overall the Pixel 2 XL’s portrait mode is slightly better because the ‘Bokeh’ looks a lot creamier and more convincing than the OnePlus 5T. In good lighting situations you can get some really nice shots out of both devices but the Pixel 2 XL does fair a lot better when it comes to contrast, sharpness and overall dynamic range. Color production on the Pixel is also much more natural while the 5T tends to produce more saturated looking photos. In certain situations the extra saturation works well and makes the images pop but sometimes it can feel a little too aggressive.

Low-light is where the Pixel 2 XL really comes out ahead of the 5T. The Pixel 2 XL photos are brighter with more details in the shadows and highlights look a lot cleaner and better exposed.

So obviously when it comes to these two phones, price is going to play a big factor and if you’re looking for the best bang for your money flagship smartphone there’s really no better deal than the OnePlus 5T. The 5T is priced at 32,999/- Indian rupees which is half the of Pixel 2 XL’s price and with an all metal build, a bezel-less screen, dual cameras, a blazing fast fingerprint and face-unlock and Oxygen OS it provides incredible value.

It’s a very similar experience to the Pixel 2 minus the high price tag. If you take out the price out of the conditions the Pixel 2 XL is the best choice out of these two when it comes down to a few reasons. The camera performs better especially low-light, its ip67 certified, you get stereo front-facing speaker and you’ll always be up-to-date with the latest software which is a huge perk and that makes the Pixel 2 XL worth the high price tag.

Here we wrap-up the comparison between the Pixel 2 XL and the OnePlus 5T, hope you all liked this write-up and let us know about your choice too and what you want us to write about.