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Friday 13 November 2015

OnePlus 2 Is Now OFFICIAL But Is It A Flagship KILLER?


NEWS Richard Goodwin 11:28, 13 Nov 2015

The OnePlus Two is now available to buy. Prices start from £239 -- but you WILL need an invite

OnePlus shouldn't have worked. It really shouldn't, when you step back for a moment and look at how the firm entered the market and what it's done, it sounds kind of crazy, too crazy - destined for failure. But maybe, just maybe, it's the right kind of crazy - just crazy enough to work!
You see OnePlus didn't exist two years ago. Founded in December 2013 the firm just rocked up out of nowhere with promises of a "flagship killer" handset. The upstart also had a novel take on marketing - it interacted directly with interested potential customers via its own website, blog, and forums, as well as acing that all-important sphere of viral marketing: Twitter, Facebook, and social media.
On launch, OnePlus revealed a peculiar invitation-only distribution model. OnePlus was tapping into the Android consumer-base's taste for novelty and penchant for cost-effective devices.  The OnePlus One won over many hearts and minds with its offering of competetive hardware and tailored software at a reasonable price tag. Naturally the firm was keen to follow up on its successes with a successor model.
"Over fifteen months have passed since the OnePlus One came into existence. It was the launchpad that we used to ignite a whole new way of thinking. Many things have changed at our startup since then – we’ve grown in numbers and experience, for one – but something that hasn’t changed is our insatiable hunger to disrupt the industry. It continued to be our drive as we began working on the OnePlus 2. We had our breakthrough moment, but one question remained: how do we join the ranks of the big players in the industry? The simple answer is, we don’t. Our success and direction shouldn’t be dictated by the yardstick created by the companies trying to stifle the innovation they purportedly inspire," wrote OnePlus on its official blog.
"OnePlus doesn’t often talk about sales numbers, but the company’s cofounder Carl Pei was happy enough to share some in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The big takeaway is that the OnePlus One sold 1.5 million units within its first year, with 1 million of those coming within the first 6 months," notes Phandroid. "Of course, that doesn’t sound as gaudy and cool as some of the big guys who reach for 10 million units within a few months’ time, but OnePlus is still a very new company, and the small capital they had to work with — plus the lack of brand awareness and a meager marketing budget — certainly excuses them for not being able to reach those numbers."
A lot has been said about the OnePlus Two since its big reveal – most of it to do with its lack of NFC and QHD panel visuals. As we’ve said multiple times before, for this price some things are going to have to go by the wayside – you can’t just make a super high-end smartphone and charge nothing for it; that’s not how business works. 
The only thing I am slightly concerned with is OnePlus’ move away from CyanoGenMod OS to its own in-house setup. I haven’t tested the OnePlus One with its new software and I’ve yet to get my hands on a OnePlus Two, though I do know there were plenty of “issues” with the first iteration of OxygenOS.
Whether the OnePlus 2 will get updated to Android Marshmallow, however, remains to be seen. So far the company hasn’t mentioned anything in an official capacity about its plans for bringing the new software to its OnePlus One and OnePlus Two handsets.
OnePlus runs its own version of Android, of course, called OxygenOS and, for the most part, has been pretty good with updating its current batch of handsets when new versions of Android become available. A lot of this, however, was to do with the fact the OnePlus One initially ran CyanoGen OS -- and they ALWAYS nailed the latest Google updates.
At the launch of the OnePlus X the company also announced some changes to the way it runs its invite system. OnePlus detailed the changes on its official blog, which you can read below:

Invite-only for the first month

For the first month, the OnePlus X is available through invites only. In November, we’ll distribute invites much faster to our most loyal users, those who sign up for the reservation list, and shareables for your family and friends.

OnePlus Reveals On-Guard Insurance Policy

OnePlus has made an official announcement on its website revealing an insurance policy for its OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X devices, called On-Guard. The policy is provided by simplesurance and covers both accidental damage (ie: drops) and liquid damage with worldwide coverage. OnePlus promises a "worry-free" claim process, and the pricing seems pretty reasonable too with a 12-month policy costing €39.99 and a 24-month one priced at €64.99.
"We are proud to introduce a new warranty program in collaboration with multiple insurance leaders worldwide for the OnePlus 2: On-Guard by simplesurance for Europe and B2X OnePlus Service2 and Protect2 for India. We believe these ventures will help to create a more positive user experience for our fans. We’re not offering this to make money – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. This is an investment we are making to focus on improving our customer support until it is closer to perfect. These services will be available on November 2 , 2015, in the European Union and in other markets in the near future."

More opportunities to buy the OnePlus X

After the initial month, you’ll have many more opportunities to buy the OnePlus X. Every week we will have open sales. After making sure that our production can keep up with the demand, the OnePlus X will be available without invites forever!
A lot has been made about the handset not having NFC, and, as someone who uses NFC quite a bit, I get the grumble about this. Having said that, I DO NOT see it as quite the deal breaker some are making out –– how often do you actually use NFC, anyway? I get that Android Pay is coming and more people will want to use their phones to pay for things. Still, I’d be more annoyed about it having two SIM-slots and no microSD support or, while we’re having a moan, no Quick Charge. 
Why doesn’t have it have NFC? Simple: here’s what OnePlus had to say on the matter – “We heard from a lot of users of the One and saw most of our users weren't using NFC”. I’d argue you could say the same thing about Bluetooth… but it is still nice to have it laying around for the odd time you’ll actually want to use it. 
Beyond this I have zero complaints with what OnePlus unveiled this week; all the specs are there, it has a fingerprint scanner, hardly a deal-breaker, a decent sized display (I’m happy with 1080p), 4GB of RAM and the option to expand the storage, should you wish, to 64GB. For the cost of a high-end handset -- £450-£500 -- this wouldn’t be perfect, but for almost £200 less it makes for a seriously compelling proposition.
Low prices mean some concessions, though I’d argue the concessions here are well implemented and likely to cause minimum impact on the end user experience. Sure, QHD would have been nice, but it’s not essential. Ditto for NFC, though I can’t for the life of me see why it just wasn’t included – the sensors themselves cost next to nothing. 
Looking around the web it seems the OnePlus Two has been a resounding success. Plenty of reviews are now available, though OnePlus don’t seem to like us much, as we haven’t been sent one yet. Still, word seems to be solid. The handset is getting plenty of praise from a variety of reliable sources and all of them seem pretty much sold on the concept, though there is quite a bit of talk about performance issues, which is odd given the handset is running a Snapdragon 810 CPU.
“This is a very good phone that’ll run you $100 less than its closest competitor,” notes Gizmodo, “which in this case will likely be the forthcoming Moto X style, which starts at $400 for the model with 16 GB. You have time to decide whether you want to buy this phone or the pricier Moto X Style, because as with the One before it, the OnePlus 2 isn’t immediately available—you’ve got to sign up for an invite.”
Ditto, says Stuff: “OnePlus has done it again. The OnePlus 2 massively undercuts the big-name competition while offering a phone experience pretty similar to them. Good software, good performance and battery life that far exceeds some of the £500-odd competition make this one of the easiest top-tier phones to live with. Some of the others have better cameras, but even this isn’t really a weak area. Not at £289.”
OnePlus has now confirmed that it has received over one MILLION registrations for invites inside the first week. Not bad. Even more so when you consider the last handset made by the company only sold around 2 million units in a year. Things are definitely ramping up for the Chinese upstart, and it’ll be interesting to see how the handset handles in real life once we get it in for testing. 
The OnePlus 2 appears to be selling like bloody hotcakes. Demand is off the charts for the handset, according to the company, surpassing its wildest expectations for the device. Check out what the company had to say on its official blog below:
“We hit over 4 million reservations for the OnePlus 2 (and there’s a little Easter egg hidden in our Vine)! It’s been only three weeks since we launched, so we really are blown away by the response we’ve received for our second flagship. For those of you who want to know more about our algorithm for sending out invites to our early supporters and those waiting on the reservation list, head over to this forum post. But, once again, we just want to say thanks a MILLION.”

OnePlus 2 Price, Availability & Release Date

As of September 11, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has issued a public apology on the firm's official forum, in response to delays during the OnePlus 2 launch. 
In the forum post titled "sorry for the delay guys" Pei states that the firm "messed up the launch of the OnePlus 2"
"Well, we messed up the launch of the OnePlus One as well," he added, "Although inventory levels ramped up eventually, months after the announcement, it was still extremely difficult to buy the device. We comforted ourselves to the fact that we were young, and that we’d learn and show the world we could do better next time around.
"With the OnePlus 2, we made rosy plans. We were more confident, and prepared a lot more inventory. We told our users it would be 30-50x easier to get invites, and they needn’t worry. Yet, we only began shipping in meaningful quantities this week, nearly a month after our initial targeted shipping date. You can talk all you want, but in the end, flawless execution speaks much louder than unfulfilled promises."
Pei not only apologised to the fans for the delay, but also to the firm's partners and its internal teams.
But the main message was to the fans wanting to buy the phone.
"We were equally excited when we saw your excitement around the OnePlus 2. We know how it feels waiting and waiting for something you really want, while being given ETAs that go unfulfilled. We appreciate the trust and support that you have given to a relatively small and unknown company like OnePlus. We know that you are rooting for us, and want nothing more than to see us succeed. Therefore, it feels extra terrible to let you down this time around, again."
He closed statement by saying that OnePlus welcomed feedback and told fanst not to be afraid of being harsh.
"Help us improve," he said.
The 16GB storage base model is priced at £239 while the higher-end 64GB option costs £289. OnePlus is again operating an invite-only purchasing system, although it's supposedly going to be less competitive this time as the firm promises a larger stock of devices. 
Here's the official line from OnePlus:
"You can get an invite from friends who have purchased a OnePlus 2 already, or by participating in our contests and promotions. For notifications about our contests and invites, subscribe to our newsletter, join our community on the forums, or follow us on social media."
As of August 11, sales are now live in Europe and North America for those who've acquired an invitation to purchase.
If you're after an invitation you need to sign up on OnePlus' website using the reservation list, although  you may have a bit of a wait as there are currently over 3.5 million waiting in the virtual queue!
At time of writing the black 64GB model is the only one available. OnePlus promises 16GB variants will be coming soon, along with more back panel options.

OnePlus 2 Design & Display

The OnePlus 2 looks fairly similar to the OnePlus One, on the whole, however, it has a sharper and more refined appearance, and uses a magnesium and aluminium alloy housing with steel control keys and other accents for a more premium feel and style.
As with the first-gen model, buyers will have options when it comes to the interchangeable StyleSwap back panels. Bamboo and kevlar make a return, while other wood finishes include 'black apricot' and rosewood. The basic finish is the same as before; black sandstone.
Dimensions, for those who want them, are 151.8 x 74.9 x 9.85mm, with a weight of 175g.
The display takes up much of the front-fascia, adding to the improved appearance of this updated model. It also uses an improved IPS LCD screen with better colour and brightness. However, the display spec has not changed, it is still the same size and resolution as a 5.5in 1080p panel at 401ppi.

OnePlus 2 Processor, RAM & Battery

As per OnePlus' pre-launch information given to its community, the OnePlus 2 packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 64-bit octa-core processor, it carries 4GB of RAM on the 64GB storage variant, while the 16GB model has 3GB of RAM. The battery pack is rated at 3,300mAh.
The OnePlus 2 is here and it has been causing a raucous ever since it first landed, what with its lack of NFC and a QHD display. But one thing it does have going for it is a rather HUGE battery cell. KYM has not yet tested the handset out, but word on the street suggests the battery life of the OnePlus 2 isn’t quite as good as we’d been hoping.
“The results are fairly good, although anyone hoping for two-three days from a charge needs to re-think their expectations. It lasts for 11.5 hours of 720p video playback, and with moderate-intensive use it’ll last for a full day,” notes Trusted Reviews. “With light use you’ll get a day and a half between charges. We found it to be somewhat-similar to the Samsung Galaxy S6 with general use. The Galaxy S6 appears to be better at holding charge when the phone is used intermittently, though. Monitoring the battery level closely, the draining-down doesn’t plateau quickly as it does with the more efficient Galaxy S6. Of course, that observation relies on the idea that the OnePlus 2’s reporting of its battery level is somewhat-accurate.”

OnePlus 2 Ports, Connectivity & Other Hardware

The OnePlus 2 carries the new Type-C USB standard, allowing users to take advantage of the new Type-C cable which can be inserted either way round. However, if you own older microUSB accessories (as most people do) then fear not as OnePlus will bundle in an adapter. The handset has dual-nanoSIM support and full 4G LTE capabilities.
There's also a fingerprint scanner built into the physical home key, with support for up to five fingerprints, and it's said to work in 0.5 seconds.

OnePlus 2 Camera

The rear-facing primary camera is rated at 13MP with a large f/2.0 aperture. It uses optical image stabilisation (OIS), large ultrapixel tech, dual-LED flah and laser focus, together with 4K video capture and 720p slow-mo at 120fps. It also has a six-element lens and is claimed to feature excellent low-light performance.
The front-facing selfie camera is rated at 5MP.

OnePlus 2 Software

Instead of CyanogenMod, this time you get OxygenOS, which is a fairly lightweight offering built on top of Google Android. As much as possible, OnePlus has tried to keep things close to stock, but there are a few tweaks and widgets here and there. Things are looking very clean and Material Design faithful.
As of August 20, OnePlus is rolling out the first over-the-air (OTA) software update for the OnePlus 2, bringing the Oxygen OS 2.0 build up to version 2.0.1. It's a 1.1GB download.
In terms of changes you're mainly looking at a bugfix/security update with a few performance optimisations. Here's the official change log:
  • Added a patch for the Stagefright security exploit
  • Improves battery performance
  • Improves user interface logic and coherence
  • Fixed an issue with pinch-to-zoom in Google Photos
  • Fixed an issue where Dark Mode would cause instability in certain apps
  • Fixed an issue related to import/export of contacts stored on SIM card
  • Additional support for global carrier APNs
  • Other improvements and bug fixes
As of September 1, OnePlus has rapidly followed up with another OTA update rolling out OxygenOS version 2.0.2 to OnePlus 2 handsets. As before, it is being rolled out in phases.
This time the update is intended to hit four key areas of the phone - fingerprint recognition, camera software stability, better photo previews and a specific bugfix for unwanted volume muting. 
"In OxygenOS 2.0.2, you'll find the following:
  • Improvements to fingerprint recognition accuracy
  • Resolves a bug that could cause volume to be muted unexpectedly
  • Stability improvements to the front facing camera
  • Camera preview UX improvements
OnePlus also revealed that a version 2.1 update is coming in the middle of September with "signficant improvements".
As of September 22 OnePlus has announced it has begun rolling out the promised OxygenOS version 2.1 update to OnePlus 2 handsets. As usual though, the rollout will take time to pick up pace, with OnePlus advising that only a small fraction of OnePlus 2 users will receieve a notification today, it's expected that in the next few days the rollout will spread much wider, however.
What's new in version 2.1? Well here's a look at the changelog:
  • "We've added manual mode for all you photography enthusiasts. Hope this will give you more control for capturing that perfect moment.
  • Raw support is now enabled for 3rd party camera apps that support this format
  • There's a new color balance slider in Display for adjusting the color tone of your screen. You can now go warmer or cooler as you please.
  • Added Exchange support.
  • We fixed some issues that were causing problems with popular 3rd party apps.
  • Telephony service improvements so you no longer get the lag when you turn on/off airplane mode."
Head over to Page 2 for all the pre-launch rumours and leaks.
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