Gwyn D'Mello
The OnePlus 2 has been titled a “flagship killer” by the company, despite the fact that it’s only August, and we have as yet to see thew X neiaomi Mi5 or the newest Apple release. But, while that may seem a little cocky, OnePlus has good reason to be. They’ve managed to achieve cult status in an extremely short time. Their first phone, the OnePlus One, sold over 1.5 million units, all without a major advertising budget. And those numbers might just rise this time around.
The OnePlus 2 is most definitely a good looking phone. At about 5.9 inches in length it’s certainly a bit large and awkward to hold on to with one hand. While that might not be a problem for people like me, who would trade off easy one-handed use for a larger screen in a heartbeat, others might not like this so much. Then there’s also the aluminum-magnesium alloy frame that wraps around the edges. It definitely looks sleek, but might aid in this baby just slipping out of your hands. To offset this, however, there’s that lovely Sandstone cover, with its mildly abrasive back panel doing a wonderful job of keeping your hold on the phone tight. If that’s not something you worry too much about, though, the back panel is also easily swapped out with Bamboo, Rosewood, Black Apricot, and even Kevlar backs to choose from.
You should know, however, that all you can do once you take off the back panel is access your dual nano SIM card slot. There’s no removable battery and no memory expansion slot, so I hope 64GB is enough for you (it really should be).
Then there’s the alert slider on the left spine. Previously a software toggle in Cyanogen OS for the OnePlus One, it’s now a hard button. Toggle it between All (alerting you for every notification), Priority (alerting you for a set few notifications) and None (for when you want to take an uninterrupted nap but not turn off your phone). This is a new concept for Android and, though it could’ve stayed a software toggle, it doesn’t really take up much phone real estate. Another good design choice is the speakers on the bottom edge of the device, like the Google Nexus 5. That means you won’t risk missing a call because you laid your phone speaker face down on a bed or chair and didn’t hear it ring, as I have with pretty much every other phone out there.
But of course, we have to talk about the all-new fingerprint scanner. While the iPhone has had this for a while now, OnePlus 2 has an advantage in that it unlocks your phone even in sleep mode, with your display off. It may not seem like much, but if you’re going to put in a scanner, you may as well go all the way. it also doubles as your home button, with a short tap taking you to your home screen and a long press opening Google search. The back and menu buttons on either side can be swapped from within your settings as well, to give you the freedom to customise as you want.
To complement the aesthetic beauty of the design, you have a crystal clear 5.5” 1920x1080p display with 401 ppi. Viewing angles are great, though some colours seem a little washed out, but it’s still looks good enough, even for gaming. The sound is the real winner here though, with the Audio Tuner in Oxygen OS. Fine tune your settings to just the way you like them, or use various combinations of the preset modes, it’ll still give you some great sound clarity.
The OnePlus 2 packs a 13MP f/2.0 rear camera with laser auto focus, so your subject is focused in under 0.2 seconds, and a dual LED flash. I could say that I’ve seen faster autofocusing on other phones, but it would just be nitpicking at this point. It focuses fast enough for you to keep up. Done deal. Macro photos are insanely clear, but distance shots, however, don’t have the clarity I would want from a flagship killer. Add to that the fact that Google Photos is the default app for image viewing, so it tends to freeze up for just a second when you swipe from the camera to see the photo you just clicked. A real letdown if I want to quickly check whether my last photo was on point, and maybe get back for another shot before my friends get bored of holding their smiles for the camera.
Now, the OnePlus 2 has a 1.8GHz 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, with the Adreno 430 GPU and 4GB of RAM. That little combination will keep your phone running smooth all around no matter what apps you throw at it, except of course where the UI is the problem, like with the Photos app access from the camera. Heating did seem to be an issue while gaming, however, albeit after an extended period of time and while charging the phone simultaneously. I suppose that I can forgive some heat after smooth gaming for two hours, but I’m a little bit disappointed that the OnePlus 2 couldn’t go that extra mile.
Speaking of charging, there are two things you need to know. Firstly, the 3300mAh battery will get you through the day and just that. Nothing more. And if you want to charge your phone, you’d better have the charger they sent with it because this is USB Type-C. Sure, it’s a little annoying that you can’t swap it out with someone else’s charger, but this is much better in the long run. Data transfer speeds and even charging is much faster, and of course, there’s the reversible connectors.
And lastly, Oxygen OS. This is OnePlus’ custom UI on top of Android 5.1. It retains everything we love about stock Android, while making like Cyanogen OS and giving us all the flexibility we could want. Even the menus look just like they do in Lollipop, so you should feel right at home. A great addition, though, is the Shelf; just swipe right from the home screen to see a list of your most frequently used apps and contacts. This gives you the option to have just one home screen, and still have quick access to your apps, or you can pretend it doesn’t exist. The point is, the OnePlus 2 will let you do what you want, and how you want to.
One sticking point though is the number of bugs in the UI. As soon as we started up the phone, minus SIM card, we accidentally started up the Google Search assistant. That showed us that the “Network Error” message (since we hadn’t connected to the WiFi) sometimes won’t go away until you completely restart the phone. We also noticed that the Google Search Bar had a penchant for just disappearing for no apparent reason. Prolonged use would probably reveal more bugs, but hopefully this is something OnePlus can hotfix soon.
Bottom line, There’s not a lot change from the OnePlus One, so I’d recommend you stick with it until their next big release. If you haven’t tried OnePlus’ offerings yet though, the hardware here is a definite must-have. But seeing as there are still quite a few UI bugs on launch day, and over three million people have already registered for an invite, I suggest cooling your heels and comparing the phone with other offerings later this year. Maybe the bugs will be fixed by then (please OnePlus, don’t shoot yourself in the foot).
