The OnePlus One has been a global sensation thanks to its unbelievably low price and top-end feature set, earning it the nickname "flagship killer". OnePlus is the latest Chinese manufacturer to adopt a global brand identity and slick packaging in order to hit the big companies where it hurts - the price tag. In India, OnePlus will go up against the likes of Xiaomi and Huawei, which have made big splashes already.
The OnePlus One will only be available in very limited quantities and that too, via a single online retailer. Whether this is a marketing ploy or a genuine way to keep costs down, there is bound to be a lot of excitement and a lot of disappointment. There's also a new twist to the story: the device runs CyanogenMod, which is one its headlining features, but Indian users won't be able to receive automatic updates.
Look and feel:
The OnePlus One is handsome when seen head-on, with a sheer black front framed within a slightly curved metal bed. The three capacitive navigation buttons below the screen are barely visible when not lit up, and the earpiece on top is similarly subtle. The multi-coloured LED notification is invisible till it lights up. There's no branding, but we did notice that the Gorilla glass protecting the screen picked up a lot of grime.
The OnePlus One is handsome when seen head-on, with a sheer black front framed within a slightly curved metal bed. The three capacitive navigation buttons below the screen are barely visible when not lit up, and the earpiece on top is similarly subtle. The multi-coloured LED notification is invisible till it lights up. There's no branding, but we did notice that the Gorilla glass protecting the screen picked up a lot of grime.
The rear and sides of this phone are a different story - on the Sandstone Black model, which we received for review, all surfaces other than the front are coated in what feels like a very rough felt material. It's really unusual and frankly, not very pleasant. It feels rough in the hand, which is great for grip, but not for comfort. It causes a lot of friction in pockets and on cloth surfaces, and also picks up a lot of lint from pockets and bags. We can't be sure, but it also feels as though it will begin peeling off before too long. You'll really want to try this for yourself before you actually buy this phone. The rear isn't swappable, but you should be able to pick up a plastic or silicone cover if you later find you don't like it.
Specifications and software
Most of the OnePlus One's appeal lies in its hardware, and it isn't hard to see why. You'll have a very hard time finding anything else that delivers the same amount of power at this price level. It all begins with a top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC, which has four CPU cores running at 2.5GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU. That's matched with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space (a 16GB model is available in other markets but not in India at launch time).
Most of the OnePlus One's appeal lies in its hardware, and it isn't hard to see why. You'll have a very hard time finding anything else that delivers the same amount of power at this price level. It all begins with a top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC, which has four CPU cores running at 2.5GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU. That's matched with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space (a 16GB model is available in other markets but not in India at launch time).
Usage and performance
We liked what we saw of CyanogenMod 11S running on our review unit. While not the most polished in terms of graphics, it definitely does give users a lot of control over the device's operating environment. We weren't huge fans of the blocky custom icons which weren't easy to tell apart, or some of the other custom visual elements.
We liked what we saw of CyanogenMod 11S running on our review unit. While not the most polished in terms of graphics, it definitely does give users a lot of control over the device's operating environment. We weren't huge fans of the blocky custom icons which weren't easy to tell apart, or some of the other custom visual elements.
However those are just minor niggles compared to the amount of joy we felt when we discovered each new thing that could be changed, enhanced and customised. It starts right at the splash screen animation, which you can customise. The list of things you can change is never-ending: the widgets and shortcuts on the lockscreen, the screen colour temperature, the appearance of status bar icons, the shortcuts in the notifications shade and the behaviour of each button, just to name a few.
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