Even before OnePlus announced the launch of its debut phone OnePlus One's successor, its fans were sure that the upcoming smartphone will be another device with killer features in a surprising price. And honestly OnePlus didn't upset its consumers with OnePlus 2. Touted as "2016 Flagship Killer," the device packs enough for its price.
The device has been released in two storage variants: 64GB and 16GB, but OnePlus has launched the 64GB model as of now and deferred the 16GB version for the later half of the year. The 64GB edition has been unveiled at Rs 24,999 exclusively on Amazon.in. The users can tune into OnePlus India social media channels starting 1 August for a chance to get an invite.
We were lucky to spend an hour with the device at the launch event and here's our take on the device:
Design and Build
Like its predecessor, OnePlus 2 also features a compact, yet robust build quality, but it offers some improvement by comparison. Firstly, it features a metal rim on the sides for making it more rugged and secondly the device feels more compact in hand. The OnePlus 2 also added a few necessary improvements for standing out from the crowd.
Measuring 151.8 x 74.9 x 9.85mm the OnePlus 2 weighs 175g and feel quite ergonomic to hold. Though the device houses the volume rocker and power button on the right like OnePlus One, the OnePlus 2 adds a metallic knob switch for different notifications. The switch offers three modes: all notifications, custom notifications and no notifications. It also houses the speaker grille on the bottom along with the USB Type-C port.
On the front it packs a fingerprint sensor on the bottom of the display and the primary camera shares its space with dual-tone LED flash on the top rear.
Display
The OnePlus come with a 5.5-inch, 1,080x1,920 pixels, 401PPI display overlaid with the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for added protection. The display looks nice with crisp texts and colourful icons when used. It also comes with adaptive brightness feature which optimises the brightness level for available light. It also offers decent viewing angles too.
Specification
OnePlus 2 has raised the specification bar for the mid-budget handsets by packing an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, which combines a quad-core A53, quad-core 1.8GHz Cortex A57 processor and an Adreno 430 GPU. The device has been made available in two storage variants, while the 16GB edition combines 3GB RAM, the 64GB edition packs a 4GB RAM.
Summing up the specifications with the operating system version of the device (Android 5.1.1 Lollipop), you can easily make out OnePlus 2 will be a killer performing device with amazing benchmarking scores.
Due to limited time we haven't been able to play any games or run any benchmarks. So we request you to stay tuned for that till we get the device for review.
Operating System
The OnePlus 2 comes pre-installed with home-baked operating system OxygenOS 2.0. Based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, the operating system retains the cosmetic interface and notification and adds necessary gestures and controls like double tap to wake, draw an 'O' to open camera, draw 'V' to toggle flashlight and draw > or < to change music track.
The operating system has been designed so nicely that it actually gives a butter smooth experience while using the device.
Fingerprint Sensor
OnePlus 2 packs a fingerprint sensor on the bottom of the display between menu and back button. The fingerprint sensor also acts as a home button while in use. The device is able to store five finger-print profiles. For setting up the option you need to hold the sensor by keeping the fingerprint flat so that the sensor reads it easily.
Camera
OnePlus packs a 13mp rear camera sensor and a 5mp snapper for selfies. To make the experience better, OnePlus has featured a f/2.0 aperture with an advance OIS system.
The stock camera interface is quite intuitive and sticks to basic for making the clicking experience easy for point-and-shoot users. The focus button comes with an aperture control for clicking apt images in various lighting conditions.
Storage and Battery
OnePlus 2 comes with a non-removable 3,300mAh battery which is good enough for a 5.5-inch FHD based device, but the device lacks fast charging capability. We found out of 64GB built-in storage the device leaves around 59GB for user consumption.
Our Take
We found OnePlus 2 pretty exciting for its great build quality, classy look, amazing back covers and great in use. The device also offers a decent price-to-specification ratio and the latest Android operating system. The company has already received a millions of reservations in just 72 hours after the device release and we believe it have the ability to rattle most of its competitors.
