OnePlus 2 smartphone: Camera impressions

Everyone's talking about the OnePlus 2 - the company calls it the '2016 flagship killer'. One of the main highlights of the device is the camera. It has a 13MP camera and the company claims that it can perform better than others, especially in low light. We wanted to put that to the test, as well give the optical image stabilisation and laser auto focus system a workout. Here are some results we've compiled over a couple of days of use.

This newly-made stone wall proved the perfect way to test the depth of field you can get with the f2.0 lens. A wider aperture lets in more light but also gives you a pleasing shallow depth of field.

This is a macro shot of a hand drawn illustration in charcoal - you can see the raised/embossed strokes clearly. Here too, the depth of field comes into play. Light from a single incandescent bulb.

This early morning photo of a newspaper shows the resolving power of the lens: it has 6 physical lenses and the results are impressive. Sunlight from a single window.

This photo of a toy motorcycle was taken in pitch darkness and the only sources of light are two small candles (tea lights). The large, 1.3µm light-collecting pixels are working here to deliver a photo that is impressively low on noise.

This outdoor photo (taken just after noon) will show you how the OnePlus 2 camera captures colours. We increased the saturation on this one (in-phone) to better highlight them.

The complicated textures and colours of this dilapidated fire hydrant cover are easily brought to the fore. Here again, the colour saturation has been increased and a vignette added to focus attention.

This image was in very low light - just street lamps! The detail on the pic indicates that it was captured at ISO 5017. Again, very impressive because the noise levels are kept very low. You can clearly see the white car's number plates.

This photo on a busy street at night tested the laser autofocus system and optical image stabilisation. The shutter speed on this one (automatically selected) was just 1/14 sec - which explains why the fast moving traffic is blurry. However, the subject was captured very clearly and all numbers/stickers on the motorcycle are clear. This was ISO 938.

Overall, we came away impressed with the results from the OnePlus 2 camera. The only issues so far are that the camera is fairly slow (shutter lag - time between pressing the button and capturing the image). We expected it to be a lot faster. Hopefully, this can be fixed with software updates. Another complaint was that the stock camera app has barely any additional settings or functions. People who like to tinker with settings and various modes will be very disappointed. We had better experience with the Google Camera app and Open Camera.