OnePlus, as a brand has evolved a lot in the past one year of its existence and the company had recently launched its Flagship called the OnePlus 2. We recently got the device to play around and is this the phone who would invest in this year? Read on to know more.
UPDATE: We have received the Oxygen OS 2.1 which brings in loads of improvements over the 2.0.1 OS and thus, we will post some updates after using the new OS for the next few days. Come back for more.
In the Box:
- OnePlus 2 smartphone with non-removable battery
- User Guide and Safety Manual
- Type C USB 2.0 Cable
- Travel Adaptor
Hardware and Design:
The OnePlus 2 is made on the lines of its predecessor, the OnePlus One which sold like hotcakes for the specifications, OS and the affordable price tag it came with.
The OnePlus 2 comes with a 5.5 inch FHD display with the proximity and ambient light sensors on the top of it along with the 5MP front facing camera.
At the bottom of the display with the capacitive touch button and a fingerprint sensor.
On the left of the OnePlus 2, you will find the notification slider while on the right side, the Power button with the volume rockers have been positioned.
On the back there is a 13 MP autofocus camera with dual-LED Flash and a new IR Laser Autofocus which helps you to click photos in less than 0.3 seconds.
On the top, we have the 3.5mm audio jack.
On the bottom of the device you have the new Type C USB 2.0 connector along with speakers on either sides of the phone.
Overall, the OnePlus 2 feels like a sturdy black slab of a phone with a sandpaper-like back cover and a curved body which gives you a nice grip and you like the feel when you hold the device. The back cover is removable and swappable. Under it you can find the nano dual-SIM slots where you can use insert your SIM card. On the whole, the hardware is great!
The fingerprint scanner works well and helps you in unlocking the phone. It did detect my fingerprint most of the time and I have got used to it that unlocking my OPO with the pass code feels like a painful task. The setup is easy. Set a passcode –> Add Fingerprint –> Keep pressing until the % reaches 100 and you are done. 
Display:
There is a 5.5 inch full-HD IPS display on the OnePlus 2 which hasn’t changed from the OPO. This is a disappointment for many fans but the overall performance of the display is good.
The sunlight visibility, viewing angles and other day-to-day usage works perfectly on the OnePlus 2’s display and we might see the Quad-HD display on a OnePlus smartphone only next year. With 600 nits of brightness, the display does not leave you disappointed.
Performance:
The OnePlus 2 is lightning quick with the on-board 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC. With up to 64GB of internal storage coupled with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, the handset was able to handle all the challenge thrown at it.
While we might agree that there is almost no lag while using the phone, the heat up issue might still be prevalent but not to the level experienced on devices such as Sony Xperia Z3 and others.
The device scored 56632 on the AnTuTu benchmark which is sweet and day to day usability will be lag free.
The device did heat up while playing processing hungry games such as Modern Combat 5 and others and that will sometimes force you to keep the device aside for a minute or two before playing again. We have heard about many users complaining about the force close of apps, but in all my days with the device I didn’t face any issues.
OS and UI:
The OnePlus 2 comes with the company’s very own Oxygen OS 2.0.1 which essentially offers the same experience as stock Android. But little customizations like Dark Mode, ability to switch between capacitive and on-screen buttons apart from other gesture based functions have been made available to users.
I have the OnePlus One smartphone and have fallen in love with the Cyanogen OS and feel that the 2 would function better with it. But overall the Oxygen OS is light and will surely improve in the days to come.
Camera:
The OnePlus 2 comes with a new 13MP rear facing camera which has been engineered with six physical lenses, f/2.0 aperture and a dual LED flash with the sensor being large at 1.3 micrometre collecting as many pixels as possible to click some nice low-light shots.
The laser focus does nice job while clicking the pictures but is a bit jerky during recordings. The camera performance is good for the money but surely not the best. With capability to shoot 4K, Slow-Mo and Time-Lapse videos, the camera on the OnePlus 2 will not leave you wanting for more but more improvements on color reproduction can be rectified in future updates.
Check out the sample images below. Click them for full size image.
Normal mode
HDR Mode
Love the crispy outcome of this image
Macro
Storage and Connectivity:
The OnePlus 2 comes 2 variants, a 16 GB internal with 3 GB RAM and 64 GB internal and 4 GB RAM. We got the latter and of the 64 GB internal storage, user available is at 54 GB. For me, this is quite enough in a smartphone. There is no option for a microSD Card slot on the device but I don’t think you would need any.
There are most of the connectivity options on the OnePlus 2 including 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth but NFC is missing from the lot. I have been using NFC since the time I owned the Sony Xperia Z2 and have it on my OPO and thus not having it on the 2 was a little bit of disappointment. Though not many people actually use it here in India, shouldn’t be a problem to most users.
We faced no issues while on calls and on Wi-Fi and all connectivity options performed well.
Battery:
It is one of the first Android phones arrive with a reversible USB Type-C charging port which is uncommon now but will be widely found in smartphones come 2016. Even the supplied USB cable is reversible at the Type-A end. Under the hood, everything is powered by a 3,300mAh battery but unfortunately without Qualcomm’s Quick Charge or wireless charging. It might take you up to 3 or more hours to charge the device with a not-so-easy-to-be-found cable.So, remember to always carry it. I felt like I was bound to the cable and felt exactly how iPhone users feel every day.
But the overall backup of the device is good and you would need to search for the cable only at the end of the day with normal usage of mails, calls and nice social media usage along with video viewing.
Conclusion:
The OnePlus 2 for Rs.25,000 is a nice buy for people who are looking to upgrade from other devices but if you have the One, you might just want to stick to it and wait for the 2016 OnePlus flagship.
Coming to the point if the OnePlus 2 is a 2016 flagship killer, well, the company has surely improved and worked hard on its this year’s flagship.
Pros:
- Nice build quality
- Display
- Performance
- Price
- Future proof with Type C
Cons:
- Heating issue
- High Waiting Invite system to grab one
