Hands-on with the Soft Gold OnePlus 5 and 4K EIS update [Video]

We’ve already reviewed the OnePlus 5 and written plenty of editorials about it, touching on how some of the team feels about the phone and why despite some pretty rough issues, it’s still my daily driver. If you’re as fond of the phone as I am, but haven’t had the chance to pick one up yet, your options just expanded a bit with the addition of a new Soft Gold finish, and we’ve got our hands on a unit to take a close look.

Available at the same $479 as the entry Slate Gray option (which just became a color option for the higher end model as well), the Soft Gold OnePlus 5 sports a Snapdragon 835 chipset, 6 GB RAM, and 64 GB of internal storage. It’s a shame that it’s not available on the 128 GB model with 8 GB RAM, but unless you need the extra storage, you probably won’t notice the difference anyway.

There’s a nice subtlety to the paint job; it isn’t as bold and polarizing as the gold Galaxy S7, for example. As with the other color options, the Soft Gold OnePlus 5 has a matte finish for a smooth in-hand feel, and helps keep fingerprints from showing too strongly. Soft Gold is also the first color option for the OnePlus 5 to feature a white face — it loses the immersive effect of AMOLED on a black front, but some will appreciate the styling.

Along with the new finish, OnePlus has also recently pushed out a software update to bring EIS (electronic image stabilization) to the 5 when shooting 4K video. A contention with the phone’s camera before was that it wasn’t stabilized in any way when shooting in 4K, leading to terribly shaky video, but with the addition of EIS the OnePlus 5 now takes smooth and steady shots rivaling the Google Pixel. Like with any other phone, it still won’t match a dedicated gimbal, particularly when filming while walking, but for those who need the smoothest video possible, OnePlus has also begun bundling the popular DJI Osmo Mobile gimbal (as well as other DJI products) with its phones and accessories.