Gadgetory

if the buzz leading up to and directly after the announcement of this phone is any indication we're dealing with the most anticipated release of the year does this phone truly never settle for anything less than the best well let's find out because it's Josh Vergara from Android authority and this is the one plus one coming in at five point five inches in its screen perhaps the first thing you'll notice about this phone is its size and then you start to see all the elements that put it all together up front is of course that screen but also with a respectable bezel all around that houses not only the front facing camera up top but also a row of capacitive keys that aren't really illuminated much at all but they are definitely there as we will talk about later the capacitive keys can be rendered inactive in lieu of software keys which is a unique feature of this phone software and luckily the bottom bezel isn't so big that this move would make no sense around the sides you'll see the button layout that consists of easily accessible buttons on the left and right the power button is just low enough so that it's easy for you to reach it with your thumb and thus be able to activate it easily and pressing the buttons brings a pretty meaty click which is nice considering they are pretty thin to begin with and the top of the phone houses the headphone jack while the bottom of the phone has the dual speaker setup and the microUSB charging port it's when you come to the back that you really begin to see some quality and you can also feel it as well the 13 megapixel optics the oneplus logo and the cyanogen logo are all atop a smooth plastic created by a company called cashew the material of which was called baby skin in the presentation it is indeed incredibly soft and has a really nice feel the material might not stick too easily to your hand but it also isn't so slippery that you would be afraid of dropping it all the time now like some of the people over at one-plus we're saying when I was there for the launch events the real test of it is when you rub it on your face and I will admit it does feel pretty nice the back cover is removable but there was one issue with it I have to remove the SIM tray in order to begin that process but the hole that you press into in order to pop it out is deep the tools that I would normally use on any other phone just didn't get the job done and I had to use either a paperclip or a long needle to get it out after that you are able to take away the first snap from under the symmetry and move all around as needed after that it's nice that it's not just the back panel but the entire shell that comes off because when you get your wood and even denim offerings it completely changes the look of the phone without leaving literally any remnants of the original aesthetic and finally when it comes to handling you are dealing with a phone that is pretty similar in dimensions to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Oppo find 7 but I would actually argue that this is not only the best looking of the bunch but it's also the best handling not only does the oneplus one have a simplistic ly elegant look it's tapered back and slightly thinner profile make it easier to maneuver around and even though you might not be able to use one hand all the time on this device it is certainly possible in some respects a 5.5 inch 1080p IPS display brings some great quality to this very affordable phone we already talked about its size but a bigger screen has its advantages as well earlier this week I was able to watch half of a wrestling pay-per-view easily and that was my aha moment with the oneplus ones larger display even if I had the issues trying to easily handle the device media consumption was undoubtedly fun on this display doing anything from watching movies to playing games was enjoyable on this device with good colors all around and the signature IPS brightness further allows for better viewing even in broad daylight 401 pixels per inch allow for the kind of sharpness and text that you would expect from a screen that's good and on a screen that is large enough to warrant the kind of reading and webpage browsing you may be doing so you may be saying to yourself good job so far on the design and the display but what about the power underneath well the never settle campaign continues with the current most powerful package underneath the hood the Snapdragon 801 clocked in at 2.5 gigahertz backed by the adrenal 330 and 3 gigabytes of ram the ram of which is still a bit of a rarity even in certain flagship devices today we've been conditioned to believe that affordable phones just won't be the fastest ones out there but oneplus is hoping to buck that trend and they certainly do so not just with the processing package but with the backing of CyanogenMod optimizations getting around cm 11s is a breeze and multitasking is easy jumping in and out of the recent apps screen web browsing was also very good with no real rendering issues when scrolling deep through pages and of course the gaming experience tended be very good as I have gotten through half of Riptide gp2 already without any issues at all as I've just mentioned signage and mod is at the helm of the software experience but they are able to take advantage of processor features as well for example this quick boot ability in the developer options allows you to turn off the phone in a lighter state for much faster launch times it's not a full shutdown but you can turn off the phone - let's say save battery life and then get back into your operating system in seconds when you need it the bottom line here being that while you are in good hands already with the Snapdragon 801 you're also in good hands because the developer of the software knows that processor inside and out on the hardware side you might find somewhat less as offered here but that probably shouldn't come as any surprise because of that low price point you aren't getting any expandable storage on the oneplus one but you can always opt for 64 gigabytes of built-in storage on the black version of the oneplus one and it looks like a lot of you are because oneplus has already announced that they are bringing out the 64 gigabyte black version first in the release cycle over the white one at 16 gigabytes all of the connectivity you would want is included as well including 4G LTE as evidence to buy my using this phone easily on the t-mobile network call quality was an interesting prospect on this particular model I'm using while I sounded loud and clear to the people on the other side of the line and there were no dropped calls experienced the volume of the call was quite low on my end now I've been in touch with the guys over at cyanogen and they have assured me that this is a software issue that they've been working on and that more volume optimizations will be made in future builds of CM 11s also don't worry with all these little quirks that you might be seeing in this review I will give you an update video once I get my hands on the version of the phone that I am buying myself speaking of the speaker the dual speaker setup on the bottom of the phone provides some adequately loud audio it's not particularly rich and certainly it just gets the job done allowing you to enjoy media even in typically loud environments but plug in the headphones and you'll enjoy the audio effects capability cyanogen worked hard to build it's a great app that gives you presets and also equaliser freedom to cater the sound to your liking and for you bass lovers out there the bass boost knob has been given center stage in the app finally you get a 30 100 million battery in the 1+1 that is more or less the standard for phones of this size and with that said the battery life is also pretty standard nightly charging will probably be normal for you however as the day and a half run time is only really possible with some very frugal usage so here's what it looked like when I was doing that camera shootout out in Venice Beach now mind you with the camera and video recording that I was doing the phone was constantly trying to look for network in the black hole that is Venice Beach but beyond that I was actually able to watch part of that WWE pay-per-view I was able to make a bunch of calls it sent out a lot of text and even do some searches via maps in Chrome and by the end of the day I still had a double digits left in my battery life and as we move on to the camera Sony's Exmor AMX 214 sensor is what backs I know Jin's own camera application will start with the app which comes with a lot of features built into its version of the Google camera interface one bummer at least for me was that the full 13 megapixel resolution only yields you four by three aspect ratio photos it might not bother a lot of users out there but it's really just a preference of mine the menus in the app you'll do a bunch of scene modes and live filters all of which can be selected for a swiping interface that easily allows you to switch among them the live filters are a nice touch as they show up in the entire viewfinder now dive deeper and you'll find the settings available for ISO and exposure compensation as well as the option to even change the codec used for video capture picture quality was already shown in the camera shootout and I was quite impressed with what came out colors were not dull nor were they too saturated the level of detail and plenty of the shots was really nice and in low light the camera performed about as well as it could even add a concert that I went to now easily taking advantage of the filters and modes will allow you quick capture of your scene just the way you want it as the focusing speed is not lightning-fast but decent enough to get your shot off in time video captured in 4k brought some good quality videos as well but hopefully you are on the 64 gigabyte version of the phone if you're going to be making a lot of videos this way I personally ran out of space in no time at all with about three minute clips taking up about one and a half gigabytes of storage slow motion is also available at 720p resolution allowing for 60 or 120 frames per second capture that yield half or quarter speed videos and finally the audio capture during videos as you may have seen in the camera shootout only recorded the left channel but this was a software issue and like I said already the guys over at Santa Jean are already on the case so this is just a temporary issue and of course if you need to step up your selfie game all the live filters are available for usage in the five megapixel front-facing shooter so ultimately you have a very capable photo and video package in the oneplus one that may not necessarily blow everyone away but can be arguably placed among some of the best Android phones out today and finally in software we have the newest version of CyanogenMod 11 s powering the oneplus one what results is an experience much akin to a stock Android feel but then packs a lot of customization underneath turn on the phone and the first thing you're greeted with is the custom lockscreen that is pretty much just a simple pull down but once you pull down the lock screen you have the home screens that are a canvas for you to put widgets icons folders pretty much anything that you need on there which is a pretty classical nexus experience but once you dig a little bit deeper there's a lot more that it offers the themes available in the showcase application are still rather limited but will grow over time all of the themes are linked to listings in the Play Store and not all of them are free but the ability to change anything from fonts to even your boot screen means that with some time invested you'll be able to really make cm look the way you want it to now dive deeper within and you'll find even more features that make life easier like gestures with the screen off you can draw a number of different gestures for various tasks like double tapping to turn on the screen and drawing a circle to easily get to the camera they're useful especially if you don't accidentally trigger them which can happen very often even then some features included show cyanogen zone vision of android whisper push is good for anyone looking to encrypt sensitive information center text and then the privacy guard allows you to see what your apps are doing when they are accessing pieces of information like your current location screencast is a built-in feature allowing for screen capture which is one really cool addition that is built into the operating system and then the gallery app elegantly groups together your pictures into moments in an attractive grid format and as a final look at the customization we have the ability to move back and forth between the capacitive keys and the soft keys so if you want to use one over the other you finally can have your pick even the buttons themselves are customizable change what the double-tapping or holding of the capacitive keys do or even change the layout and behavior of the soft keys to your liking in the end CyanogenMod has really found a new home with the oneplus one a device that packs all of the power and hardware for it to play with but also it affords the opportunity force an organ to really show what its operating system is made of you're probably sick of hearing the price by now or not because it really is that good $2.99 for the base model and $349 for the 64 gigabyte Black Edition which will likely be coming first in the release cycle so you ask what can beat that price well the main competitors at the $2.99 price point are ones that just don't stack up the Moto G with its great value also packs significantly less power all around the Moto X can be found on sale for $2.99 more often these days and while it's optimized take on Android is one of the most accessible experiences out there it also isn't all that powerful in comparison still at the 349 price points the closest competition is obviously the Nexus 5 which provides stock Android Kit Kats with a somewhat slower processor and fairly comparable hardware except at that price you only get the 16 gigabyte version compared to the massive 64 gigabytes of the oneplus one at the same price and so there you have it the - I mean the oneplus one it's obvious oneplus did all it could to keep from settling for second best with the performance aspect - the above-average camera quality and cyanogen in its corner the price you pay for such a powerful package seems way too good to be true but throughout my usage of this device in the past week I've struggled to find the cut corner that might take all that magic away so far I haven't found it handling aside this is one great looker of a device and with the power underneath it hasn't been hard to have fun with a large screen and performance sano gen mod 11s will please anyone looking for a set it and forget it interface while those who love to tinker will get their kicks as well only somewhat above average battery life and the lack of expandable storage might be the only sore spots but they're pretty easy to forgive when you're paying so little for so much it's not very often that I get to review a phone and then I look at it and realize I could actually buy this phone and you know what I do think that that is what makes the 1+1 as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the 1+1 yes at 299 that really is the icing on the cake for the base model of this phone and at 349 you get even more storage but even if it didn't come in at that price point this phone still definitely packs a wallop so keep it tuned to Android a thority like I said I'm going to be giving you an update video because those quirks and kinks that are currently in the device I'm using right now will likely be fixed in the general release whether it's the software or otherwise so once I get my hands on the version that I'm going to be buying I will give you an update on what was fixed or what was enhanced so keep it tuned to Android thority for that to drop us some likes because we'd love to see those thumbs up subscribe to our channel if you haven't already check out the content from all of my colleagues in Android Authority everyone from Joe Jays Kevin the tech ninja and also LAN when and after that make sure you head on over to Android authority comm because we are your source for all things Android