Unless you’ve been paying close attention to the Android Smartphone marketplace, it’s likely you haven’t heard of the new kid on the block from mainland China; OnePlus. However, if you are in the market for a mid-range to high-end Android phone and would rather not spend a whole lot of money, you should sit up and pay attention because the company just launched their second ever phone; the OnePlus Two. With a sticker price that puts it right in the middle of the mid-range Android phone price bracket, the OnePlus has a feature list that puts many flagship phones to shame. If you’re finicky about the look and feel of your phone and you like shiny metal bodies and smooth Gorilla Glass backs, the OnePlus 2 is going to disappoint you with its cheap feeling plastic back and weirdly textured body but that is easily fixed to some extent with one of the many
available OnePlus 2 cases.
It’s what lies beneath the surface that has Android phone lovers on a budget, interested. The OnePlus 2 packs eight cores, four at 1.56 GHz and another four at a speedier 1,82 GHz. The addition of 3 Gb or 4 Gb of RAM in the 16 Gb and 64 Gb configurations of the phone is a specification that puts many top end phones, that cost twice as much or more, to shame. The latest iPhone, for instance, tops out at just 2 Gb of RAM.
OnePlus 2s also boast huge 5.5” 1080p displays and OnePlus 2 cases are pretty svelte for the display size that the phones pack. Add in a couple of pretty decent cameras, in the form of a 13 Mp shooter at the back and a 5 Mp unit in the front for selfies and you have a surprisingly feature packed phone, for any price. Android Lollipop gets some light customisation in the form of OnePlus’ Oxygen OS.
The OnePlus 2 has great performance, which is unsurprising, given its combination of high end hardware and very light customisation of Android Lollipop. This is the reason, then, that many thousands of people are willing to put up with the the process of getting their hands on a OnePlus phone and jumping through the hoops that the company has made mandatory to get a OnePlus 2.
You cannot just buy a OnePlus 2 phone though you can buy OnePlus 2 cases. You first have to register with OnePlus directly and then wait for an invite, which may take anything from a few days to a few weeks. Every time OnePlus has a flash sale, registered prospective customers get the chance to buy a OnePlus phone first and if there are any units left, they are offered for sale to the public.
Despite the process or perhaps even because of it, The OnePlus has the kind of cachet and the kind of nerd credibility that other Android phones can only dream of. The only other smartphone that manages to generate as much buzz with the tech crowd as well as the general public, as a new OnePlus phone is a new iPhone.
