Before the release of the OnePlus 5, the firm emphasized that it had focused on making its new handset better, especially when it came to the camera. While moving to a dual camera setup seemed like an excellent solution, it appears that not everything is quite rosy when it comes to real world use.
According to 4K sample videos that have appeared online from various sources, the handset doesn"t seem to perform well when it comes to image stabilization when shooting videos. In a test conducted side by side with an iPhone 7 Plus, you can clearly see a difference. SuperSaf TV also does an in-depth comparison of the iPhone and OnePlus, which seems to corroborate the quality of the image stabilization when shooting in 4K. To be fair, the test isn"t completely even, considering that the iPhone does have optical image stabilization (OIS), while the OnePlus relies on electronic image stabilization (EIS).
We can see from another example from Recombu, and also Kai of former DigitalRev fame, that the 4K just isn"t what you would expect from a firm that was touting the camera"s prowess prior to the handset"s launch.
While there is mounting evidence that the OnePlus 5 has poor image stabilization while shooting 4K, there certainly are variables that need to be taken into account. For one, since the OnePlus 5 has not made a public release of the handset, these videos that we are seeing could be taken from pre-production units. There is also the possibility, while most of these units seem to be in competent hands, that maybe the image stabilization feature was turned off or disabled. Although there is a good batch of examples here, we will have to wait until the retail version makes it way to consumers to be able to judge its quality on a wider scale.
Fortunately, if this is a software issue, OnePlus will hopefully be able to improve it as time goes on. Although EIS is typically thought of as being inferior to OIS, we have seen excellent examples of its use in the past like with Google"s Pixel XL, which offers buttery smooth videos.
Source: phoneArena, Recombu, SuperSaf TV, | Image via OnePlus