OnePlus 2 Review: A very good value proposition

Get the OnePlus 2 if you’re familiar with the brand, patient enough to wait for software revisions and if you’re ok with trying out different ROMs.

By Hitesh Raj Bhagat, ET Bureau | Updated: Aug 12, 2015, 11.13 AM IST

OnePlus 2 Review: A very good value proposition

PRICE: Rs 24,990

SPECIFICATIONS: 5.5-inch LCD (1920 x 1080 pixels), Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB storage, 13MP rear cam with OIS and laser AF, 5MP front cam, WiFi ac, BT4.1, 3,300mAh battery, 175 grams
It was about a year and a half ago that OnePlus wowed everyone with their flagship smartphone. Even today, the OnePlus One can outperform most others in its price range when it comes to features, camera and overall quality.

By the time you read this, the OnePlus 2 will have gone on sale on Amazon using the invite system — you might be familiar with invites if you’ve followed or purchased the OnePlus One. Invites helped the company manage demand & inventory, This time though, invites will be easier to get. We’ve been using the device for the past two weeks to bring you this in-depth review.

THE CHANGES

It seems like OnePlus used their first device as a starting block for the 2 — and that’s a good thing. Both devices have the same screen size, roughly the same shape and footprint. To make it more worthy of the flagship tag, the company has added generous amounts of metal into the mix. It now has a metal frame and camera module plus it just feels better engineered and uses higher quality materials. The back panel in the 64GB is sandstone black and removable quite easily (unlike before — which needed a special tool and a lot of patience). The battery is locked in but there under the back cover is a sleek SIM card tray that holds two nano SIMs.

Looking around the device, you’ll notice the fingerprint sensor under the display (it can function as a home button too, but doesn’t press in), volume/power on the right, the new USB type C charging port and a completely unique 3-stop notification slider. Without even looking at the phone, you can use this slider switch to turn off all notifications, enable only priority notifications and enable all notifications. It takes getting used to but can be quite useful. Obviously, there are substantial improvements to hardware and particularly the camera specs.

THE INTERFACE

OnePlus 2 comes with Oxygen 2.0 — the company’s own OS based on Android 5.1. The interface is mostly stock Android with a few changes and customisation options. For instance, you can switch between light and dark themes, add gestures, enable an on-screen navigation bar or use the hardware keys, enable a widget ‘shelf ’ and individually set app permissions. Apart from SwiftKey keyboard, there are no additional installed apps (not even an image gallery — you have to use Google Photos or get your own). This is in contrast to Cyanogen, which the OnePlus One originally came with. This sort of bare bones ideology will gel well with those who like their devices lean. In our experience, most people preferred Cyanogen, even on the OnePlus One. Luckily, you are free to use whatever ROM for this new device (whenever they become available) without voiding warranty.

THE CAMERA

The new 13MP camera is the highlight of the OnePlus 2 — it’s easily our favourite feature. The optical image stabilisation and laser AF system help to make this one of the best smartphone cameras around. The wide aperture gives it a narrow depth of field and it offers fantastic low light abilities — photos at night clicked even at an ISO of 5,000 were reasonably sharp and offered good detail. The stock camera app leaves a lot to be desired though — there are hardly any settings or options available and there is noticeable lag. We had better results with other camera apps like Google Camera and Open Camera.

HARDWARE & PERFORMANCE

The Snapdragon 810 processor, combined with the 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM makes light work of anything. The screen, although a full HD unit, is visibly better than the previous version. It offers high brightness, excellent colours + contrast and extreme viewing angles. You won’t run into any other performance issues at all.

IS IT WORTH BUYING?

In a nutshell — yes. Like the first phone, it’s a very good value proposition (but you should know the caveats). Is it a ‘2016 flagship killer’? No, simply because there are too many missing features that a flagship should have. For starters, a 2k screen is a must on a 2015 flagship, let alone one for 2016. The company may argue that one doesn’t really need a resolution higher than 1080p — and they would be right — in 2014! One of the important applications of a smartphone that even OnePlus pays a lot of attention to is virtual reality (heck, even their launch was in VR). In a VR headset, the experience with a 2K screen is far better than with a 1080p screen because the VR headset lenses typically act like magnifying glasses, making the larger pixels of a 1080p very visible.

Next are the missing features like NFC (a flagship needs this — even if most people don’t use it yet), IR emitter (for universal remote) and quick charge (the ability to zap in 20% or more charge in a few minutes is invaluable if you’re always on the move).

Then, let’s talk a bit about the company’s decision to go with USB type C instead of micro USB. In theory, it’s a great idea. Eventually, everyone will shift to USB type C because it’s just better and more convenient. But right now, it actually reduces convenience because you’ll always have to carry your charger (or at least the cable) around. Even USB OTG and TV out functions will need new cables/adapters. Being amongst the first to switch to the new standard, OnePlus should have included a micro USB to USB type C converter in the box.

In its current form, the software interface seems to be very much a work in progress. During the course of our review, we used the device with three different software builds. There were improvements to battery life, performance, camera and general stability in each update. Even with the latest build, the fingerprint sensor and home button is not perfect — it works about 70 to 80% of the time while battery life was a mixed bag. It would drop 12% overnight without any running apps and sometimes failed to last through a full day of use.

Finally, the problem with heating of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip is very real. With a few minutes of camera use, UHD video recording or gaming, the phone can get hot (especially the metal frame, towards the top of the phone). On a few occasions, it was uncomfortably hot and felt like it was baking inside the pocket for several minutes after we stopped using it.

OTHER OPTIONS & VERDICT

Your options for a high-end 4G smartphone at this price are limited. Asus’ Zenfone 2 (32GB with 4GB RAM is available for a lesser price — but camera is not as good). Moto X 32GB (2nd gen) for about the same price is a great option as is the Nexus 6 (Rs 29,999 for 32GB). Finally, Samsung’s Note 3 is available around `28k — although it’s older, there’s still a lot of respect for the Galaxy Note brand.

Get the OnePlus 2 if you’re familiar with the brand, patient enough to wait for software revisions, if you’re ok with trying out different ROMs and if you must have the best specifications for the price.

Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.

OnePlus 2 review: Perfect 'value-for-money' phone?

1/16

Text: Anupam Saxena,TOI Tech

OnePlus' claim to fame the very premise of offering a premium smartphone experience at half the price of flagship devices.

It took everyone by surprise when the relatively unknown startup managed to sell more than 1.5 million units in a year's time.

Riding on the success of its first 'flagship killer,' the company has now launched the OnePlus Two, which boasts of a better build, a bigger battery, faster processor, and a fingerprint sensor among other improvements.

OnePlus calls its new smartphone the '2016 flagship killer' and says it competes with next year's smartphones.

We spent some weeks with the new OnePlus 2 to find out if its a worthy successor to the OnePlus One.