Almost 3 million people have reserved the OnePlus 2, and are waiting for invites to buy this phone.
The reason for such an overwhelming response to this company’s smartphone is simple: They make a phone that has it all.
In the past with the OnePlus One, they showcased what they’re capable of, and OnePlus aims to continue that trend with their second flagship killer.
Let’s see whether all this hype is for real or if the OnePlus 2 is a phone that you can do without.
Watch: Review of OnePlus 2
What’s Good?
The OnePlus 2 has a lot hidden in its goody bag.
The OnePlus 2 measures 151.8 x 74.9 x 9.85 mm and weighs 175 grams. It’s built like a tank and comes out of the box with a sandstone back finish. OnePlus has launched only the 64GB storage variant in India and has priced it at Rs 24,999.
The OnePlus 2 features a 5.5 inch IPS LCD 1080p In-Cell display with a 178° viewing angle and a brightness of 600 nits. The display, when switched off, blends in with the phone so well that it looks like a piece of art.
The display is just the right size and the touch response is as good as it gets on an Android-based smartphone. The phone is comparable to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6. We would have liked the display to be a little brighter on the OnePlus 2 but this also does the trick.
Talking about the specs, the OnePlus 2 features the top-of-the-line, 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 v2.1 processor paired with the AdrenoTM 430 GPU. The phone also has 4GB RAM.
The processor used is the second version of the Snapdragon 810, which has faced heating issues in the past with phones like Samsung Galaxy S6.
The 4GB RAM leaves ample space for you to multitask with even 10-15 apps. Gaming performance on the phone is superb.
And if you want a benchmark score (we think they’re a sham, but what the hell), on AnTuTu, the OnePlus 2 scored a whopping 57,713. That beats many phones like the Meizu MX4, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Samsung Galaxy S6, HTC One M9+ and LG G4 on our tests.
The OnePlus 2 runs on the Android Lollipop Operating System with the company’s own OxygenOS.
The bloatware on this phone is way lighter than what you get on phones from HTC and Samsung. The Oxygen OS Shelf (Beta) on the OnePlus 2 is also pretty handy for accessing apps that are used frequently.
It’s easily customisable and has nifty features like gestures on the display that open apps and a simple-to-use UI which is light and powerful.
There is also a fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 2 to unlock the phone or make payments, and guess what? Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the HTC One M9+, on which the fingerprint scanner sucks, it actually works on the OnePlus 2.
This is by far the best biometric scanner that we have come across on an Android smartphone. The fingerprint scanner is as close as it gets to Apple’s Touch ID on the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
OnePlus has added an alert slider on the phone that helps you customise and manage your notifications without switching on your phone’s display. That’s one feature that we really loved on the OnePlus 2.
The camera on the OnePlus 2 is also enhanced and the phone now features a 13 megapixel sensor with laser autofocus and a 5 megapixel front camera for selfies. The phone is also capable of 4K video recording. Read about the camera performance on the OnePlus 2 here.
The battery on the OnePlus 2 is also decent, the 3300mAh Li-Polymer battery will last us a day easily, which has become pretty acceptable for modern day performance-based smartphones.
What’s Bad?
The OnePlus 2 is a smartphone that comes with USB Type-C data and the charging cable is reversible on both ends. This sounds amazing but if you lose the cable, it’s not that easy to buy one right now in India.
The OnePlus 2 is loaded with version 2.1 of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, and yes it was supposed to solve the heating issues faced by the processor earlier, but sadly the phone heated up while playing heavy graphic games.
So, while there are heating issues on the OnePlus 2, for normal functions, including the camera, we didn’t face heating issues.
Yes, this is a phone that everyone wants to buy, but not everyone will get. With over 3 million reservations already, to get hold of a OnePlus 2 invite is too much effort to buy the phone.
If you really want a OnePlus phone experience, buying a OnePlus One is easier now as there are no invites for that phone anymore.
Why Buy it?
The OnePlus 2 has everything going for it: It’s a flagship killer for sure. The phone comes with 64GB internal storage which is plenty, top of the line specifications and all that at half the price of a Samsung Galaxy S6 or the HTC One M9+.
Sure, the predecessor, OnePlus One is still a good phone to have, but we think it’s better to buy the latest phone that’s available from a company, especially if the price difference is just Rs 3,000.
This is a smartphone that everyone should have simply because it does not hurt your pocket and gives you almost everything that you would want from an android smartphone.
You really can’t ask for much more from a smartphone that’s priced at Rs 24,999.
If it wasn’t for the invite-only buying, this phone has the potential of sold like hot cakes. Try your luck with the OnePlus 2 invite here.
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