OnePlus 5 will become the second OnePlus phone to feature the facial recognition technology
Christmas cheer is here for OnePlus 5 users as the smartphone is all set to get support for Face Unlock, the facial recognition technology. Launched initially with the recent OnePlus 5T, Face Unlock lets users unlock their phone with the help of the front camera. The OnePlus 5T was the first OnePlus smartphone to feature facial recognition technology, introduced in the wake of the Apple introducing Face ID on the iPhone X.
As we mentioned, the OnePlus 5 will soon become the company's second smartphone to get the Face Unlock feature. OnePlus Co-Founder Carl Pei made the announcement in a tweet on Sunday. He mentioned that this decision was a result of feedback that the company got from its users. Twitter users also replied to his tweet asking for Face Unlock support on other older phones like the OnePlus 3T and the OnePlus 3.
Support for Face Unlock is easier to extend to older smartphones as the feature is based majorly on software, unlike Apple's Face ID that uses various sensors to achieve techniques like depth mapping and laser projection. This means that Oneplus' take on facial recognition is not as secure as Apple's, but it's more flexible and faster.
The OnePlus 5 also got the OxygenOS 5.0 update recently. This update brings along Android 8.0 Oreo stable build support after beta 1 and beta 2 builds were rolled out for the phone. The OxygenOS 5.0 update has features like an upgraded, customisable launcher, a facelift for the default Camera app, and a new 'Places' tab for the Gallery tab.
Apart from the proprietary features, it also brings Android Oreo's core features like new Picture-in-Picture mode, Smart text selection, and Auto-fill feature among others.
To recap, the OnePlus 5 sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) Optic AMOLED display. The smartphone is powered by the 1.9GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, coupled with a maximum of 8GB RAM and 128GB inbuilt storage.
For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2025 hub.