One of my UK friend asked what is OnePlus one when I mentioned that in social media. I would have asked the same couple of months ago. Same goes to the word Cyanogen!
All of a sudden my Note 2, gave up on me and resisted any sort of battery charging. Service centre confirmed its dead permanently as the motherboard was gone.
Note 4 and Iphone 6 are couple of months away. In fact, iphone 6 rumors made me to drool about the 5.5 inches of retina screen. I was way too confused as I needed a temporary large screen phone to survive my data need. Finally, betted on Xiaomi Redmi Note which costed 199$. But their website managed to sell the weekly rollout of 10,000 phones in 45 seconds while I was right there trying to place the order.
After the bitterful incident and smartphone-free for almost week, I bumped into oneplus one phone. OPPO – the chinese manufacturer known for the OPPO smartphones that are competitively good for the high end smart phone sells them slightly cheaper than the top brands. Little less known fact is onePlus one is a product from the same manufacturer with the motto “Never Settle” and keep a slogan as “Flagship killer” and sells the onePlus one phone in just 2 varieties one with 16GB and the other with 64GB. Best part is the cost. at 199 USD and 250USD, the pack is the most powerful punch on the face to the top notch phones. Here is why I am impressed.
Package
There were times, when the package was given importance but all went south with the recycled small boxes – I don’t whine as am interested just with the phone – not how it comes in the box. But unpacking onePlus one is a pleasant experience and make you wonder why companies stopped doing this. Its creative by all means. Even the micro sim card slot opener comes with a rubber sleeve. Mine came with a neat flat charger cable and a separate charger in a separate box. Whoever did it, put a real nice thought to impress from the moment you get the box.
Design
May remind (just remind) the HTC one M8, the sleek, neat, beautiful in all side is a love-at-first-sight for sure. Battery is not user replaceable, so the cover is next to impossible to open (but it is possible to replace the back cover with their accessories). It just the way it should be. I don’t have any business with battery. Fits neat in the hands. I got the 16gb white version which has smooth, silky white back cover. 64 GB version comes with the sandstone polished black version am sure thats even better. It fits the pocket neat, doesn’t look or feel like am holding a tab on my ear when used. Unlike people complained in the other forums, I didn’t have any call quality issues. Catch is no memory card support!. I can live with it!!
Performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 that runs at 2.5GHz (the best as of now for mobiles, at the time of writing) runs at a teasing speed asking me to keep up constantly. Its way faster. I remember the device is meant to run cyanogen so the speed is beyond amazing.
Cameras are good but the front/selfie does a bit of smoothening. If you don’t like, 100s of camera apps there to fit your needs. Lens distortion happens in both front and back cameras if its taken at a very close distance. 5.5 inches of pure 1080p (1920×1080) with a whopping 401 pixel density gives crisp beautiful renderings of images. Videos play too good. 4K videos cant be shot at a slow motion! Am yet to try it.
Built-in speaker produces a sound definitely louder than many other phones for sure and its clear.
Cyanogen
Well – this is the best of everything – which is why I saved for the last. At the first look, there is no difference between a regular android UI and the cyanogen. Just a little further tap, and that opens options beyond our interests. Its truly a heavy, custom user interface. Just to give example, even the flow style of the screens can be controlled. There are many themes around, right in the google play store itself. If android opens the cage of the jail, cyanogen gives you wings! I tried to overload a bit and the phone acted like freshly booted – still that fast!. At least, there are one or two sub level menus for every customization where android stops and still works faster. No wonder Cyanogen is established itself a company from a group of interested open source android developers.
Catch
Finally, the real catch. The phone is available only via the invite system. There are people in the queues online to kill each other to get invited. For the price, its worth doing every search to get invited. I managed to buy it online from a lucky guy. Premium I pad was definitely worth!
onePlus one
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