It's confirmed. Amazon India will start selling OnePlus One Android Smartphones in India from 2 December. On same day Xiaomi Redmi Note 3G too will be up for grabs on Flipkart.
Released earlier this year, One is the first smartphone made available from the OEM OnePlus. Rather than following the normal sale route, OnePlus One is going the online way. It will be available only on invitation basis, which means you only can buy the phone only after getting an invitation to buy it.
Several people think it is this unique selling strategy has created the hype. But here we will analyse if there's more to the smartphone than just hype behind its cult status in the industry. We were lucky to have a hands-on experience with the device. After several hours of usage, we found that its claim of becoming a "flagship killer" is not false at all. Here's why:
Display
OnePlus One boasts of a Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) LTPS display with Corning Gorrila Glass protection. It has LTPS or Low Temperature Polysillicon LCD, which is different from other IPS displays. The polysillicon substrates allows electrons to flow hundred times faster comparing to amorphous silicon substrates (aSi), resulting in higher resolution screen with better speed than TFT and IGZO-based screens. An LTPS screen in the mid-budget smartphone range is one of the most brilliant features one can ask for.
Specification
The OnePlus One Android Smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with up to 2.5GHz quad-core Krait 400 CPU. The processor integrates a Qualcomm Adreno 330 GPU, 4G LTE connectivity, quick charge 2.0 ability and LPDDR3 dual channel memory support to name a few. Snapdragon 801 has also been used in several flagship smartphone including HTC Desire Eye, Moto X second generation, Blackberry Passport, Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3 smartphones.
Bundled with 3GB of RAM memory and 16/32/64GB of internal memory, OnePlus One specification sounds quite significant for its price.
Though OnePlus One Smartphone skips the microSD card slot, it features 4G connectivity and is also powered by a 3100 mAh battery. Even if Amazon prices the phone below Rs. 25,000 for the 64GB version, it should be a spectacular deal.
Camera
OnePlus One features a 13MP rear camera IMX214 sensor with a 6-lens array and a f/2.0 aperture with a snappy shutter speed of 0.3 seconds. While testing the camera we found it amazing in close shots. The auto-focus is also pretty quick resulting in images with accurate DOF and crisp quality. The OnePlus One camera also features a burst mode with an ability to click 20 frames in a single click.
The One smartphone also pairs a 5MP front-facing camera for video calling and clicking selfies. We don't claim the configurations are out-of-the-world, but for a mid-budget phone, the features are spectacular. Aren't they?
Cyanogenmod
Rather than customising android, OnePlus features Cyanogenmod 11s Android OS in One android smartphone which gives more openness and tonnes of customisation features. Cyanogenmod ROMs are one of the best available till date with great utilities, features and securities.
Though the 11s is based on Android Kitkat 4.4 version, it will soon be updated to Android 5.0 L.
Security
One among the many reasons for installing Cyanogenmod ROM are its security features like security messaging and privacy guard. The secure messaging service sends messages only to a Cyanogenmod-based device, but Privacy Guard helps users who download apps from third-party app stores except Google.
Price
Available for 299 Euros in Europe which roughly translates to 23,035 INR, we assume the price should be somewhere near 25,000 INR in India.
If you check the price-to-performance ratio, a Snapdragon 801 based 5.5-inch device with 3GB RAM, 13MP+5Mp camera, Rs.25,000 sounds like a great deal.
How to get an invite?
For an invite you just need to subscribe to the OnePlus One newsletter and later participate in the contests and events. Once you receive the invite, register yourself to OnePlus One account which will give you an exclusive link. Clicking on the link on Amazon India website you will get the buy option.
