Introduction
I was quite devastated to see my Nexus 4 die in front of my own eyes. It was my first phone ever, which I purchased in Korea and had for just under two years. It kept true to Google's Android operating system without any bloatware and was a budget friendly phone compared to Apple, Samsung, and LG's flagships.
Since getting the phone, I slowly moved away from my desktop and laptop and onto the smartphone for daily (or hourly) tasks of checking up on email and the news. After two years, we became inseparable and from the moment my phone died I was on a mission to find a replacement to fill the void.
Table of Contents
| 0. | Introduction |
| 1. | OnePlus |
| 2. | Invite-only System |
| 3. | Shipping & Packaging |
| 4. | Hardware Specs |
| 5. | Size & Handling |
| 6. | Display |
| 7. | Audio |
| 8. | Camera |
| 9. | Cyanogenmod OS |
| 10. | Customer Service |
| 11. | Closing Thoughts |
OnePlus
Long before I decided to purchase the OnePlus One (OPO), I had heard about OnePlus through their Smash the Past campaign.
Source: OnePlus
100 lucky participants would film themselves destroying their current phone and in return, they could get one OPO for $1. This was a brilliant marketing tactic, taking the world by storm. Unfortunately (or fortunately) only top tier models from various companies were allowed, so my Nexus 4 was spared.
OnePlus' motto is Never Settle, where it strives to deliver a top tier phone with a reasonable price tag. People have been amazed by its high-end specs but at a half the price of an iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S5, Note 4, or an LG G3.
Invite-only System
Because OnePlus is a startup company, it does not have the capacity to meet ravenous demands. So it resorted to an invite-only system where one could only purchase a phone if s/he got an invite from someone else or OnePlus itself. Invites are distributed in events, Facebook giveaways, and OnePlus owners also get a couple of invites after a couple weeks of purchase.
Not being able to purchase the OPO right away did annoy some individuals but I think the net effect was an increased sensation of exclusivity and hype. If OnePlus' marketing budget was truly $300, then I think all the hyped up campaigns were a big success. The system also created a black market where scalpers would use bots to claim any invites publicly posted and sell them for $10-50 on eBay. The Chinese version of the OPO has ColorOS as the operating system, not Cyanogenmod. The ColorOS editions are being reflashed to Cyanogenmod and then sold for a higher price. There is a demand to these black market editions however, because OnePlus only ships the OPO to select regions.
It took about a week until I could get an invite through the OnePlus Forums. There are various threads for one to get an invite, and although I had to jump through various hoops, I was finally able to get one.
Currently, I don't think an invite is needed to get the OPO, but both the black and white models seem to have sold out.
Shipping & Packaging
Once ordered, the OnePlus arrived relatively quickly. I placed my order Sunday, Nov. 23, the OPO was shipped via USPS 2-day shipping with signature required Monday, and it arrived Wednesday. OnePlus has a domestic warehouse in California for domestic orders--I have heard horror stories of orders taking many days to process, but I'm glad I got it fairly quickly.
The packaging was a nice touch, on par with flagship phones or even beyond.
Lighting is terrible here, so I'll add in a few pics by David S. from the OnePlus One forum.
The flat packaging was probably due to being able to slide the boxes into padded envelopes as opposed to cube shaped iPhone or Samsung boxes. The charger (mains to USB adapter) comes in a separate box with your country's plug.
One thing to note is that the SIM card ejection pick is longer than other companies', so you probably will have a hard time trying to eject the OPO's SIM tray with a shorter one. The election pick has its own sheath and the flat USB cable is a really nice touch. The USB cable in conjunction with the included charger will charge the phone at 2A until the charging cycle hits its CV stage. Others have reported slower charging with third party cables with thinner wires and higher voltage drops.
Hardware Specs
The reason the OPO is so popular is due to the fact that it offers top tier specs at half the conventional price.
Display: 5.5", IPS Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), 401PPI, with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
CPU: Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 @ 2.5GHz
GPU: Adreno 330 @ 578MHz
Memory: 3GB of DDR3 RAM
Storage: 16/64GB, not expandable via MicroSD
Camera: 13MP sensor by Sony with f/2.0 lens (4K video capable) and 5MP front facing camera
Price: $299 for 16GB white, $349 for 64GB black+ shipping
Full specifications: https://oneplus.net/one#specifications
This is comparable to Samsung's flagship Galaxy S5 with the same CPU, GPU, and resolution, albeit only having 2GB of RAM. How does OnePlus do it in half the price and still make a profit? It doesn't spend money on marketing (it supposedly had a budget of $300) and instead focuses on the production. After all, the stupendous marketing campaigns didn't seems to cost too much. When was the last time you saw a OnePlus ad on the web or on TV?
From here on, I'll base the writing off my impressions of the OnePlus One.
Size & Handling
The OnePlus One is by no means a small phone. At 5.5" of display estate, the OPO is in the phablet category along with Samsung's Note series and the iPhone 6 Plus which also as a 5.5" screen. Here's a good comparison:
The OPO is pretty hard to use single-handed. I almost dropped it trying to text while holding groceries with the other hand, so it's definitely a phone to be used with both hands. I rarely used my Nexus 4 single-handedly even through it only had a 4.7" screen, so I got used to the OPO without too much hassle.
The phone also feels much bulkier with a case on. (See Accessories.) Naked, the 64GB "sandstone" black edition has a rough textured back that some describe as "hard velvet." It's like a 200-300 grit sandpaper without the abrasiveness and provides a lot of grip while holding the phone and helps it from slipping out of your hands. Of course, when you put a case on the textured back doesn't matter at all.
The power button is on the right and the volume rockers on the left. The power button is placed surprisingly low to make it more accessible to people with small hands but I think it's slightly too low for me. The button actuations are pretty standard, nothing out of the ordinary and quite similar to the Nexus 4.
Display
The 5.5" 1080P display is very nice. It offers great viewing angles and has a little more punch (saturation) than my Nexus 4. I did notice that the whites do lose some brightness when not viewing perpendicularly to the display though, but nothing to worry about.
There initially have been two issues that people have encountered with the display, 1. yellow overall tint and 2. yellow banding in the bottom. The first issue was fixed through a software update so the color temperature looks just right now, but the yellowing may come back when installing other ROMs that haven't pre-configured the color settings. The yellow banding problem is slightly more serious. People have been reporting a distinct yellow tinge at the bottom of their screens, possibly due to UV screen glue that hasn't completely solidified.
Source: OnePlus Forum
I was worried that mine would be plagued by this issue, but it wasn't as serious as reported on my phone. Only when I turned the brightness all the way up with a white screen and turned the phone horizontally could I distinguish some white point differences, but it's not noticeable while doing anything else. Some suggest curing the UV glue completely by giving it a tan. There are software filters to compensate for the yellow band too if it's severe. Tip: Don't bother contacting OnePlus about the issue, you will get ignored. More on that soon.
The display glass is also raised above the phone itself, so if you place the phone face down the only thing that will be touching the surface is the display glass. Although the glass is Corning's Gorilla Glass 3, it's not hard to crack the screen because of the protruding panel. In fact, I consider it to be poor design as the phone becomes very fragile. Combined with its Touch-on-Lens technology, once there is even the smallest crack on the glass (not the LCD display), the phone won't register any touches. Many phones work just fine with a shattered front panel but the OPO becomes a useless brick once cracked, which is very unfortunate. The panel replacement from OnePlus costs a hefty dollar ($150-200), so this is bad design. (Or was it intentional?)
Audio
The OnePlus One was a well rounded audio system. It has three microphones that work together to actively cancel out background noise during calls and dual speakers on the bottom that packs a lot of punch.
Source: HongKiat.com
OnePlus originally advertised the two speakers as stereo but users were quick to pickup that the two speakers were in mono, as they were wired in parallel to a single sound chip. Still, the two speakers produce a full sound at even the highest volume and doesn't sound empty like other low-end phones.
The 3.5mm audio jack outputs clean and loud sound. When hooked to an external headphone amp (high impedance), the frequency response is very flat. (White curve)
Source: GSMArena.com
But when the OPO is driving low impedance earphones or headphones,the frequency response isn't completely flat, but I didn't mind them too much. (Green curve) The output volume is great, much louder than my Nexus 4, so it's great for hooking up to external speakers such as car stereos. It certainly gets loud enough to damage your ears when hooked up to an earphone.
I've also seen instances where users could hook up their USB DACs and enjoy high quality music using USB audio output. I'll have to try this out when I get an OTG cable. For now, I've converted all my FLAC files to 256kbps OGG files (OGG sounds much better than MP3 at same bitrates) and have been playing them with PowerAmp. The 64GB version allows me to carry my songs around with me, whereas the 16GB I was pressed for space.
Camera
The "flagship killer" is equipped with a 13MP camera sensor made by Sony. It also has a 6 element lens with f/2.0 aperture, which is surprisingly wide for a smartphone. The front facing camera has a 5MP sensor with a relatively wide field of view of 80 degrees, which is nice for taking group selfies.
The quality of the images is drastically better than those of my Nexus 4. I've been constantly impressed by how well the OPO does in low light situations, thanks to its wide aperture. The photos are crisp and clear in daylight, and are acceptable even in low light, although opinions vary. The iPhone 6 Plus has an optical image stabilizer, which I wish the OPO had too though.
Here's a photographer's take on the OPO's camera:
Source: http://robinwong.blogspot.kr/2014/09/oneplus-one-camera-review.html
The stock Cyanogenmod camera app offers some nice features such as JPG size, quality, min. shutter speed, RAW support, and a variety of filters such as HDR and Clear Image, which applies noise removal but takes about 5 seconds per shot to process.
Some notable features of the One's video recording is 4K recording and high speed recording of 1080p/60fps or 720p/120fps. The video quality isn't that good at 120fps speeds but it's quite fun to play around. Note that you don't get to record sound when recording at higher than 30fps. Files produced during slo-mo recording are naturally played back at half or one-fourth speed without sound. I would love to have a 1080p/60fps with sound at normal speed playback, because 60fps makes videos notably smoother compared to 30fps.
Just came back from a trip and here are some of my own photos. I'm using HDR mode with the stock camera app as it compresses the dynamic range slightly. Full sizes are provided below.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7492/15993215178_f6a441fc80_o.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7578/15560862493_ef457f3fdb_o.jpg
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8629/16180654365_148aa5b56b_o.jpg
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8607/15558292234_7b91c0abba_o.jpg
Cyanogenmod OS
The OnePlus One is the second phone to ship with Cyanogenmod. Cygen slightly tweaked version of the Android OS, while maintaining many similarities. In fact, they're pretty much the same so stock Android users will be very familiar with the interface. I've been using Cyanogenmod on my Nexus 4, so shipping with Cygen was an added bonus. You can flash any ROM/OS of your choice the the One though, even stock Android versions like Android Lolipop. The Cyanogenmod edition of Android Lolipop is being developed and should be officially launched in a few months.
Users are even encouraged to tweak their One to their heart's content that OnePlus doesn't void owners' warranties even if they unlock or root their phones. Apple will stop talking to you when they discover that you've rooted an iPhone, and so will many other manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, or LG.
Once you've rooted your Android, you can install many additional features that otherwise wouldn't be possible. Xposed module installer is a prime example--it allows users to tweak their phone's behavior to quite an extent. Some of the modules I have are Greenify, Network Speed Indicator, XPrivacy, and Pandora Patcher. I'd miss these features so much that I wouldn't be able to use a phone without them, i.e. Android Lolipop or an iPhone.
That being said, the more tweaks you apply the more susceptible the system is to crashes and bugs. I think having a highly customized system and having a 100% stable system are mutually exclusive, and through Cyanogenmod, users and encouraged to find a nice midpoint they are happy with.
Customer Support
From what I've heard, getting a response from customer support is a nightmare because OnePlus is understaffed. I guess this is relatable to purchasing from Chinese vendors where we need to wait a couple weeks to get a reply. Since OnePlus doesn't have a store in the US, you'll need to send your device back to China if you need to get it repaired. Thankfully, I haven't had to contact CS yet, but it's one of the things I'm not looking forward to. The OnePlus Forums may be of more help (and moral support) when you run into an issue with the OPO.
Closing Thoughts
It's been just over a month since I've had the OnePlus One. So far, I've been pretty impressed with every aspect of it, the hardware as well as software. The hardware choices make a sweet combination that rivals any $700-900 phone at quite a surprisingly small price. The decision to partner up with Cyanogenmod was a bold but smart move, and has worked out very well. If you can get an invite, I'd say go for it!
Extra:
Here's one of the best video reviews of the OPO, if you can tolerate the annoying cut-scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56ABkqKE6fw
