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Oneplus One after 4 months: Review

Jackgamer91

So, I decided to give the Oneplus One a try after a trip to China this summer and seeing a ton of quad-core phones on sale at electronics places for under 250 USD which sparked my interest in cheap Chinese phones. After being stuck with a Blackberry Z10 for the past 10 months and being extremely limited in the number of apps that were available in Blackberry World and the only one browser choice that was available in BB10, I was ready to go back to Android (my previous Android phone, a Sony Xperia ZL got fried after 2 months after I accidentally dropped it in the rain and it wasn't waterproof).

 

TBH I ordered the phone new off of eBay for $480 CDN in August (which is about the same as what I would have paid anyways if I had an invite directly from Oneplus with USD to CDN conversion and duties). 

 

My first review so go easy on me :P

 

Thoughts on the physical phone/hardware

The phone came in a white cardboard box, along with another white box for the charger. When I first got the phone with Sandstone black, I was afraid that the back of the phone would get stained and dirty from grease since I usually eat and go on my cellphone at the same time and the "fabric like" texture of the back seemed like it would stain with oil. However, that turned out not to be the case as any stains or marks I found on the phone were removed easily with a cloth and screen-cleaning solution (I got a gel case for the phone afterwards). The edge of the phone is also made of a metal and there is a bump between the screen's outer edge and the metal-like edge, which could easily collect dust (it is difficult to clean) and might bother you if you want your electronics clean all the time like I do but might not. 

 

As for the screen and display, it is a 1080P display with a 5.5 inch screen. Coming from a 768P blackberry z10, I noticed the screen was a bit sharper but it's hard to tell. If you want the sharpest most recent high-end displays, go for the Samsung G3, Oppo Find 7, and Samsung Note 4 (all of which have 4 K resolution screens). As for the size, if you don't mind big phones like me (I have big hands) then you probably won't mind the size but I see people complain about 5 inch displays being too big so I am sure some folks will hate the phone for it. 

 

The phone comes with a standard 13-megapixel camera manufactured by Sony that is standard with most high-end smartphones from 2013. It does however feature multiple modes of shooting including night mode, steady shot, clear image, aqua, etc depending on where/the conditions you are taking the picture in. It also has an HDR mode which takes higher quality better looking picture but takes a longer time. The phone is also 4K capable, but the video is very shaky (not sure if it is just by hand or the camera is bad a registering movement). 

Sample picture from camera under moderate low-light: 

2iizi3n.jpg

 

If you love selfies, this is the budget phone to get, coming with a 5 MP front camera that takes pictures of equal quality to the Galaxy Nexus' back camera and for video capable of doing 1080P at 30 FPS. 

 

The radio and reception of the phone is passable but weaker than on my older phones like Sony Xperia ZL and Blackberry Z10. Although 90% of the time my phone will be on the fastest network (LTE) BUT whenever I am in a building with a thick roof or when taking a call, and occasionally (only for a few minutes) outdoors I did notice it drop to HSPA+. This never happened on my ZL and very sparingly on the Z10. However, when it is on LTE the phone kicks ass (60+ Mbps multiple times, the highest I've achieved on the Z10 was 20-30 and on ZL 30). 

 

The call-quality and phone sound quality (when talking) are excellent and I've been told it is on-par with most landline phones. 

 

The actual speakers of the phone are IMO the weakest point. At lower or mid volumes the sound and music is still bearable, but above a certain point the sound becomes muffled and pretty unclear and unattractive. I don't mind this however since I hardly blast music on my phone and I use headphones, which offer excellent sound quality. 

 

For storage, this phone has the one of the biggest built-in flash storage of any Android phone on the market at 64 gigs. It is not expandable and does not take micro-SD cards IMO is a non-issue for me since the 64 gigs is more than enough for my use. 

 

The battery of this phone is non-removable (which sucks if the battery is fried, as experienced with my ZL) but at 3100 mah it is long enough to last me one entire day of use (I surf the web and have the screen on at least 4-5 hours a day while taking 1 or 2 calls) before hitting the 50% level, which is when I charge it. BTW, use the USB and wall-charger that came with the Oneplus One and not any regular microUSB cable you can find. On the Oneplus One charger, it takes 1.5-2 hours to charge from 0-100% but on any regular cable it'll take at least half a day which is ridiculous. 

 

Thoughts on Cyanogen

After taking the phone out, and setting up my accounts for Google, Facebook, etc. I was amazed by how customizable it was. The phone originally came with the Cyanogen version of 4.4.2 Kitkat, which through an OTA update goes to 4.4.4 and will be getting an Android  The cyanogen OS that came with the phone lets you choose between themes from different phones including the default hexo for Cyanogen, holo (android default), S5, G3, Sony Xperia, etc.  although for many you have to pay $1.99 which is a downside. You can also mix different themes and icons from different themes (for example, your background theme could be cyanogen's hexo but the icons from Samsung's G5) I was also impressed by how quickly the phone boots up from "off", taking me to my lock screen within 20-25 seconds. 

 

The settings, home, and back keys can either be shown on screen at your discretion I chose to use the physical buttons at the bottom of the phone to add more screen space (the physical buttons light up). 

 

The phone also comes with on-screen touchscreen gestures like "V" for the torch, which can be pretty annoying if the phone is in your pockets and accidentally activates the feature so I decided to turn that off. 

 

Performance of the phone, with a quad-core snapdragon 801 clocked at 2.5 ghz and 3 gigs of RAM is superb. Never experienced any lag like I did with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus years ago and IMO you need at least a quad core and 2 gb of RAM to run Android smoothly (the ZL was my "first" Android phone without lag and performance issues). You can also go into settings and it will allow you to play with performance profiles (low performance if you want your phone to last longer, high if you want better performance, mid for a compromise). 

 

The phone also comes with an audio mixer feature that allows you to change the sound/pitch frequency of the phone but since the speakers are terrible and I don't like playing with sound anyways that served no use to me. 

 

Overall

I am pretty happy with my $500 investment. The phone is excellent as a daily driver on-the-go and the battery actually lasts. I have yet to have this phone die out on me during my 4 months of ownership. The experience is smooth as butter. The minor downsides are the somewhat muffled speakers which I rarely use and the occasional minute or so drops down to HSPA+. Otherwise, the phone is excellent and I would recommend this phone to anyone who is looking for a $300-$400 smartphone (price in the US, it is $500 in Canada because the CDN is weak now and because our government loves to collect the importing $$$) and doesn't want it right away (wait for an invite, I got two in October after signing up for an account on the Oneplus site in August) or wait for a date when they allow preorders. That being said, I am pretty pissed at Oneplus that the phone is still not available to the general public and they need to step up manufacturing if they want to go any further than the Oneplus Two. 

 

With the Nexus 6 at $700 and Note 4 closing in on $1000, the Oneplus One is an excellent budget option for people who want a clean Android experience. 

 

9/10

 

My UI: 

2ztkbr8.jpg

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As for the screen and display, it is a 1080P display with a 5.5 inch screen. Coming from a 768 inch blackberry z10, I noticed the screen was a bit sharper but it's hard to tell. If you want the sharpest most recent high-end displays, go for the Samsung G3, Oppo Find 7, and Samsung Note 4 (all of which have 4 K resolution screens). As for the size, if you don't mind big phones like me (I have big hands) then you probably won't mind the size but I see people complain about 5 inch displays being too big so I am sure some folks will hate the phone for it. 

 

 

 

Corrections:

LG G3

2.5K resolution screens (2560x1440 or 1440p is actually a better way to say it)

 

nice review! 

My girlfriend has one as well, and we are very happy with it!

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Just adding to what stefken89 was explaining to you, you probably got confused, qhd and 4k are completely different, 4k means there are four thousand pixels horizontaly. QHD means 4 times the amount of pixels of 720p. But other than that nice review.

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Just adding to what stefken89 was explaining to you, you probably got confused, qhd and 4k are completely different, 4k means there are four thousand pixels horizontaly. QHD means 4 times the amount of pixels of 720p. But other than that nice review.

Didn't know this. Thanks.

Nice review. Getting the OPo for christmas :)

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Great review! Could use pictures of the actual device though ;)

I'd also like to point out that there are no duties or importing fees on the device. You only get charged tax; just as you would on any item you purchased on Canadian soil.

People are too quick to claim the government is digging unreasonably into their pockets :P

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Good review, I agree with various points. 

 

The Oneplus One is actually my first Smartphone. I feel like I've been spoiled because of cyanogenmod. 

Like watching Anime? Consider joining the unofficial LTT Anime Club Heaven Society~ ^.^

 

 

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Nice review but u forgot something

Pic of the phone

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.1 Corinthians 13:4

 

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Good Review though it says "Samsung G3" which is wrong, it is LG, not samsung, not going to quote, because I am lazy to remove the other stuff

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