[OnePlus 5T  Questions & Answers] Symphony0fLife:
I've had and regularly use a lot of phones due to my work. One of them being the Note 8.

The Note 8 comes out of the box set at 1080p, but does have the edge in the display department (no pun intended) if you set it to QHD. However unless I'm purposefully staring at it looking for pixels I can't really tell a difference in practical day to day use. The 5T has a gorgeous display and on mine at least, the colors are more accurate. The display is made by Samsung for OnePlus so it's honestly top notch in terms of quality and the "jelly scrolling" issue that was present on the OnePlus 5 for some is gone now with the 5T. So, is the Note 8 better in terms of display? Yes. As it should be, the starting price is about twice that of the 5T. Is it worth twice the asking price? Absolutely not.

The OS kills Samsung's flavor. Touchwiz is a hot mess, and it's even worse when you've had it for a few weeks and Touchwiz starts to really lag. It's much better on the Note 8 than the S8+ due to the RAM upgrade, but it's still there and really irritating. It's been an issue with Samsung phones for years. Oxygen OS is smoother than Touchwiz and frankly, smoother than stock Android on a Pixel in my experience. But that's likely due to the specs of the 5T (I have the 8GB RAM/128GB model). OnePlus changes very little about stock android, they only add a few things that make it a little more convenient and slightly more customizable. It's not a skin as you'd find on a Samsung, LG or Huawei among others. The OnePlus destroys Samsung in terms of smoothness of the OS and multitasking/general use.

One downside people talk about is the camera. Camera is a mixed bag. Honestly that side of marketing with smartphones is ridiculous. The Samsung has the edge, but that's all it is. There's not a smartphone out that can replace a DSLR and there's not a single one out that doesn't have noise or other issues in low light or when pixel peeping. Auto mode for auto mode in the same circumstances there's not enough of a difference to warrant the price hike either. Is it better on the Samsung devices? Yep. But only marginally in the real world. I can't count how many times I've shown people shots taken in identical conditions of identical subjects on all the phones I have and no one can get it right as to which took what shot. There's no clear winner and there's very little difference between them. People tend to just pick a bandwagon and hop on it. The differences come when you really play with pro mode and work to shoot with each phone's strength, but that's not real world use and that's entirely invalid for comparisons or determining which phone to buy. In real life people don't schedule shoots or wait for ideal lighting and conditions for their phone to pull it out and take a photo. That's what professionals do, and professionals don't use smartphones which are the equivalent of drug store disposable point and shoots. People in real life buy a phone they like and they pull it out in a split second on auto mode and snap a shot of the kids, the dogs or what have you.

Down sides depend what you are interested in though. For example yes, the 5T doesn't have an edge display. It also doesn't have the nasty glare or slippery feel that comes with the newer Samsungs. Also if a person relies heavily on the Samsung gimmicks incorporated into Touchwiz, you'll find the 5T very bland and lacking. Personally I never use the "advanced features" on Samsung phones and the only thing I use on my Note 8 is the S pen. And I do love that thing. If you don't like those things and want a more stock experience or a faster phone with at least twice the battery life (my 5T gets 9-10 hours SOT every time I test it, the Note 8 does great to get 3, sometimes almost 4 if I really gimp it for battery life) then the Samsung is the one with the downsides.

Different phones designed for different folks. With the OnePlus 5T you get what you pay for. However they absolutely cannot raise the price again without adding certain things such as a higher resolution display, an IP rating and what have you. With the current $1,000 flagships, you don't get anywhere near what you pay for. They're priced way too god damned high and don't offer enough over phones like the 5T to warrant twice the price. But if you can get them for $600 or less, they're the better buy unless you really care about battery life and specs.