This isn’t the latest avatar of the HTC’s one line up and no
it’s not a mathematical equation where you can say ‘Oh! The answer is 2’
This is the ‘Flagship Killer’ phone from the startup One
Plus. Yes ONE PLUS is a company!
The entire tech world was eagerly waiting for this new
device, after months of teasing by the company with the tagline
A lot of hype has surrounded this phone since its release
too (It still isn't available for users to buy but has been unveiled at an
event in China). The hype although might seem too much for a startup at first
glance but dive deeper and you will know why!
Let us look at various aspects that make the phone never
settle.
1 DESIGN
On first glance, this is a huge phone
comparable to the likes of the Galaxy Note 3 and the Oppo Find 7. On the front
and you have beautiful 5.5’ 1080p LCD IPS display that is just gorgeous. Colors
are vibrant and do not over saturate as is the case with Super AMOLED displays.
Color reproduction is pretty real. You have 3 capacitive buttons for home,
recent apps and back but they don’t glow up bright to be seen (for a good
reason though which we shall see later). On top you see the speaker grill along
with a 5MP front facing camera. Other than that the entire front panel has
significant bezel not that it will intrude with everyday use but as it has
become of lately the thinner the bezel the better the handling.
Flip to the back and you see 2 very
interesting logos. Just below the camera sensor sits a small neat One plus
logo.The interesting of the two is the logo at
the bottom of the back panel. Yes you all android geeks out there its
CyanogenMod. For those who don’t know Cyanogen is a 3rd party
Android software developer that gives a highly customizable Android experience.
(More on this later)
The entire back panel is made using a ‘baby
touch’ plastic back which is specially designed for the One. This material as
the company claims ‘can only be felt when
rubbed against your cheek’. I don’t know how true that is but certainly the
phone looks great. On the top of the back panel you can see a 13MP shooter with
a dual LED flash. The back cover is removable and you have a huge number of
designs to choose from for your back including a denim cover!
The buttons are located ergonomically on
the sides with tacky response to them which makes the handling of the phone a
breeze despite its monstrous size.
 |
| The One Plus One |
 |
| Choice of back covers for the One |
2. UNDER THE HOOD
So what there to not settle with the
design? Even the Moto X came with customizable options. What makes the phone
really not settle is its power under the hood. It is powered by the best in
class processing package.
Processor
|
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SOC clocked at
2.5GHz
|
GPU
|
Ardreno 330
|
RAM
|
3 GB
|
Battery
|
3100 mAh (non-removable)
|
Storage
|
16GB and 32GB (non-expandable)
|
Now that’s on paper even more powerful than
the HTC one M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 which were recently unveiled. With 3Gb
RAM the experience on this phone is buttery smooth with the customized
CyanogenMod 11S software highly customized for the One. This phone really takes
the battle of the flagships to an all new level providing the best in class
processing package.
3. SOFTWARE
This is where the most interesting part
lies. After partnering with Oppo to provide a custom install of CyanogenMod
replacing the inbuilt Color OS, Cyanogen went ahead and partnered with One Plus
to actually make the entire software for the phone. The One is running Android
4.4.2 Kitkat CyanogenMod version. Now for folks who have no idea of what CyanogenMod
is here’s what it is. Just like the way Samsung, HTC or any other big company
change the way the Android OS works on a NEXUS phone by building custom builds
of the software and naming them ‘TouchWiz, Sense, etc etc’ Cyanogen changes the
original Android system and makes it highly customizable and optimizable.
No what Cyanogen has done by partnering
with One Plus is provide a complete feel of the stock Android experience with a
lot more feature in built and right out of the box.
To name a few would be
a.
The
Camera: Stock Android Camera on a Nexus just sucks. Google has done a
blunder with the camera algorithm and the Nexus just shoots horrible pics.
Cyanogen has customized the camera app and made significant changes to it. It
has added many filters which are just a swipe away, a plethora of options for
shooting mode, 4K videos and for the ones who like to tweak every photo
according to their like a multitude of setting wherein you can adjust the
expose, white balance and other stuff
b. Security: Yes Cyanogen increases the
security of the phone by adding features under the security tab under settings.
Here you can determine what data an app uses and customize every single move
that app makes (Its hardly useful but to have a setting is always welcome)
c. Themes: You can choose the way your
entire experience on the One looks and feels by changing your theme from the proprietary
theme market. Although not all of the themes are free but you get plenty of
options none the less.
d. Mods: The tweaks that Cyanogen puts in
its software are commendable. Listing the full mods available will take up a
lot of time but the most significant one is the option to change from hardware
keys to on screen keys and changing the functionality and layout of all of
them. (the reason probably why the hardware keys are not illuminated bright
enough)
4. THE WOW
FACTOR
So what makes the One Plus One such an
attention seeker? It’s the price at which this phone is lauched!
16GB - $299
32GB - $349
Yes you are not seeing a mistake, that’s true
the price of this phone is its trump card. No other phone other than the Nexus 5
comes even close to this phone’s price! Although with a very weird marketing
strategy in place, we really don’t know when this phone will be available in
stores.
5. FINAL THOUGHTS
The One certainly catches the eye with the
awesome pricing and all the goodies it comes loaded with. It is definitely a
phone to look forward to although I won’t say in the near future. It might be
long before it finally hits the market getting over the horrendous marketing
strategy the company has put in place.
With the kind of on sheet specs and verdict
coming from people who have got to use this phone, it’s definitely going to
challenge the biggies like Galaxy S5. HTC one M8 and the Sony Xperia Z2.
The only rival I see threatening this phone
is the rumored Nexus 6!!!
Shoot in your comments below and tell me if the One Plus One is really a flagship killer?
Keep tuned into TechKarate because we are your source of all things Tech!
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