Hello Everyone,
We finally bring you the much awaited review of the super hyped and ‘The Flagship Killer’ titled mobile phone device. The OnePlus One.
While the specs are astonishing compared to its contemporary phones, with 3 GB RAM, Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.5 GHz Quad Core CPU chip, 13 MP Rear and 5MP front camera, 5.5″ 1080p display and with two variants of 16 and 64 GB internal storage, the most notable and standout ‘feature’ of the phone is that all this you get for a mere $299 & $349 range respectively, which in Indian context translates to Rs. 18,999/- and Rs. 21,999/-. A battery of 3100mAh capacity is an added plus to a phone of this calibre. But does it really work as well as it sounds on paper? We try and explain the same below.
The first hand feel of the phone is truly amazing. With its sleek form factor and sandstone back cover the phone feels amazing in your hand. On the other hand if you are not the type of user who changes phone very frequently, say every year or so, it could fill you with doubts about the durability of the back cover’s experience. Better purchase a separate phone cover pal.
The One from OnePlus
The overall functioning of the phone is rather smooth with occasional hiccups you might face when switching between applications such as camera to gallery to chrome or mailing app. Yes this is true even with all that processing power and physical memory aka RAM. (In fact for once while using the HDR mode, our device got hanged and later refused to connect to the camera. May be this is because of some Cyanogenmod 11S rather than a hardware problem.) After two months a couple of instances have happened that the phone screen goes blank with no signs of life while the phone is still not switched off (as verified by making a call during such instance). These are a couple of issues faced by us during the first two months of usage and we still not sure what their root causes or solutions are.
Lighting conditions play a vital role in how good you could take pics from the One. While the pics are great in broad daylight, the quality is far different at nighttime or low lighting conditions. The constraint that you can’t click a pic by anywhere clicking on screen coupled with its big size adds to your difficulties.
Battery backup is really great for a phone of such capabilities. On regular usage (no hardcore gaming) the phone would easily last more than 24 Hrs. Although the backup reduces sharply for long gaming hours, mostly to keep the screen awake.
Another big issue is the placement of processor which seems to be right below or very close to the camera lens position. Either you are playing a great game on your phone or simply checking for Untutu benchmark score, the phone heats up quite a lot and that too right under the earpiece and the camera position. Believe us, you really don’t want anyone to call you that time since it would be a real pain to put your ‘One’ on your ear.
Amidst all the shortcomings that are listed above, the overall experience is still far great for this price tag. Among all raw customization options, the feature of gesture controlled flashlight as torch, thanks to Cyanogenmod, is real plus over normal android phones. How the after sale service is provided by the company is still to be seen, as it hasn’t been even a year yet since it was launched. Oh, and yeah, good luck for getting an invitation for buying the same (Although people are getting luckier as more open sales are being provided by the company nowadays).
Do let us know if you need any specific information about the phone (barring, of course, requests for invitations).
🙂