OnePlus 5 Slate Gray vs Midnight Black: which one to choose

The OnePlus 5 is here in two undeniably badass, yet confusingly similar color variants: Slate Gray and Midnight Black. Isn't it curious why OnePlus would offer two versions of its phone that are this similar? It turns out there's a lot that separates Slate Gray from Midnight Black aside from the slight difference in shade. Here's what you should keep in mind when choosing which color to go for...

1. Color difference between Slate Gray and Midnight Black

First things first, let's look at the color difference itself and think about what it means. Make no mistake: both OnePlus 5 color options are very dark; there is no 'light' color model right now, let alone one with a white front. The fronts of both variants are all black. Aside from the glass fronts, the body of the OnePlus 5 (no matter the color) is made of anodized aluminum, with a matte finish. This means it will not attract fingerprints, but it will feel quite slippery when held. There is no trendy high-gloss version similar to the iPhone 7's Jet Black.

Now, you can consider the OnePlus 5 in Midnight Black to be the black-black variant, because, well... it's just that. Pretty much identical to the iPhone 7 Plus' regular black version. You can never go wrong with this choice, but of course, you'll risk potentially getting bored quicker with it, due to its one-dimensional character. The Slate Gray body, on the other hand, is slightly brighter, and has a barely-there tinge of blue. If you remember the black/slate variant of the iPhone 5, that's basically what the OnePlus 5 Slate Gray looks like. In some cases, you might as well mistake it for just an ordinary black phone, but upon closer inspection, it'll reveal a slightly more sophisticated nature. Obviously though, Slate Gray looks just as subdued as the all-black version, so even if you decide to go with it, you'll be in no way making any bold fashion statements.

That was all as far as the difference in colors is concerned, but there are some big behind-the-scenes implications depending on your choice, so let's continue!

2. Storage space: Slate Gray is 64 GB | Midnight Black is 128 GB

No matter which color option you decide to side with, you'll end up with a phone with a ton of built-in storage. The Slate Gray version is to be considered the 'base' one – it comes with 64 GB of memory, which, honestly, is a superb proposition. This is a very spacious storage capacity that should do well in welcoming all your apps, media and documents. However, just to give you that extra-premium feel, the more-expensive Midnight Black OnePlus 5 doubles the storage capacity to 128 GB, which is absolutely humongous and should accommodate even the edge cases out there, such as "I like to keep whole Game of Thrones seasons downloaded on my phone."

With the proliferation of cloud services, though, including ones that offer to keep whatever files, as well as your whole photo and video collections stored in the cloud, the 64 GB Slate Gray version should offer more than enough storage in most all cases.

3. RAM: Slate Gray has 6 GB | Midnight Black comes with 8 GB

So, Midnight Black, being the somewhat more premium version of the OnePlus 5, comes with 2 GB RAM more than Slate Gray. What does that mean for you and what difference would it make? Come, we'll show you.

The RAM system memory in your Android phone is used to keep applications open and running in the background. As you jump from app to app, the RAM memory gets filled and the phone eventually starts closing the applications you first had opened. But let's put it this way, in the current state of things, 6 GB of RAM is a lot! It's above the industry standard and will let you multitask between apps like a boss. Does this mean those 8 GB in the Midnight Black OnePlus 5 are overkill? Probably, but hey, we wouldn't complain if they're willing to give us more RAM. You'll probably replace the OnePlus 5 with a newer phone long before Android applications get big and demanding enough to make complete use of these 8 GB of RAM, but still, the more the merrier, especially when this isn't tied to power efficiency compromises (such as an overly high display resolution, for example).

4. Price: Slate Gray costs $479 | Midnight Black sets you back $539

OnePlus has done it again! As in, it's raised its pricing tiers again! Which isn't cool, we know, but we can't get ourselves to stop using those exclamation marks from all the excitement... (!)

OnePlus' pricing tiers are going up (again)!

The OnePlus 3T 64 GB used to cost $439, with the 128 GB version bumping the price up to $479, that that was higher than what we had been used to at the time. Sadly, though, prices are going up again, and now the slightly more down-to-earth Slate Gray OnePlus 5 is sold for $479 (EUR 499), while the 128 GB Midnight Black surpasses the $500 mark for the first time in OnePlus history, to reach the almost regular flagship-level $539 (EUR 559). Now, if there's one thing we've learned when dealing with technology, it's that you just can't have both high quality and cheap price. In the case of the OnePlus 5, this translates to a product which is a bit pricier, but at the same time OnePlus is releasing this thing now, no annoying invitation schemes and other nonsense. Would you rather prefer a slightly cheaper handset that you actually won't be able to get for at least a month or so from now? It's always about the trade-off between price and product/service quality. Honestly, this was bound to happen. With each new generation, OnePlus is starting to look more and more like a real contender, and this time, it seems OnePlus is ready to have a go at the big boys' game. It'll be interesting to see how it'll fare!

Drop a comment below to let us know which OnePlus 5 variant you like better: Slate Gray or Midnight Black?