If asked to name 2014’s must-have flagship smartphones, you could be forgiven for not including the OnePlus One. But now that we know all about it, you’d be foolish to rule it out.
We’ve been tantalised for a long while now with the promise of some outrageous specs packed in to a device set to cost less than £250 – incredibly, OnePlus seem to have delivered. The One has a massive 5.5 inch 1080p display (that means a pixel density of 401 ppi – pretty impressive for a phablet screen), a 2.5 GHz processor, 3 GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel rear camera (with 4K video support). When a 13-megapixel camera can be considered a handset’s ‘weak spot’, you know it’s done something right. For the price, these specs are completely mad.
£229 is for the 16 GB model, whilst a 64 GB model is also available for £269. For just a £40 increase you may well want to take that model, too, as there is no option for expandable memory. The One is 4G LTE enabled and will run on Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It keeps its weight down to 160g courtesy of a plastic body, so build quality might be a bit lacking, but we won’t know for sure until we get our hands on one. If it can at least keep up with Samsung’s build quality we should be able to overlook it, though.
The One certainly bears a passing resemblance to the Google Nexus on the outside, and it seems like the insides will too. The OnePlus One operates on CyanogenMod, which tends to keep the OS largely as-is, with a few minor tweaks here and there to get the most out of the device.
There’s no word on release date yet, although US residents interested in nabbing a handset may be able to soon do so via OnePlus’ ‘Smash’ campaign. 100 randomly selected entrants will be able to pick up a One for just $1 – if they smash their old handset in exchange. Fair enough.
