the success your predecessor does not
always guarantee success for you but it
is usually a pretty good place to start
you've probably heard the legend by now
halfway through 2014 unknown Chinese
startup came out of nowhere
promising to deliver a flagship
experience at an affordable price much
the surprise of pretty much everyone the
oneplus one was actually pretty great I
wound up being our top device of 2014
even more surprising is that the best
had some really stiff competition the
galaxy s5 note-for-note
edge Moto X Nexus 6 iPhone 6 etc that's
still a feeling of disbelief that a
small inexperienced company to disrupt
such an established hierarchy now we've
got the sequel the aptly named oneplus 2
is it everything you expect I'm drawn
right here from TechnoBuffalo this is a
review of the oneplus 2 as I do with all
my reviews let me begin with a
disclaimer I use this for four days in
my daily driver and day 3 1 plus issued
a huge software patch Brandon did the
written portion this review tested the
device for 6 days if you want to see
more additional information including
gallery and extra detail hit the link
down below tested it on AT&T s network
and we used the 4 gigabyte bearing
whenever I test a phone I like to know
the answer to the one simple question
what I buy this myself by the end you'll
know similar to the 1+1 the company's
new flagship combines high-end specs
with a to-die-for price and to 329 bucks
or 389 for 4 gig model we tested buyers
get a deliciously premium phone you'd
swear was hundreds more and this thing
is unlocked for all you folks looking to
avoid reaping a contract commitment
although it will not work with Sprint or
Verizon that in itself is enough to
convince customers at least consider the
oneplus 2 but device is so much more
than a lowering price tag you also get
beautiful hardware great battery life
decent camera fingerprint sensor dual
SIM support they also run some very
elegant software oxygen OS based on
Android 5-1-1
which a lot of ways is better than stock
Android we'll talk more about that later
other than that price the thing that
stands out for most people is the
phone's impressive spec sheet snapdragon
810 4 gigs of ram
13 megapixel camera with oh is 64 gigs
of internal storage a 3300 milliamp hour
battery USBC and a beautiful 5.5 inch
full HD display clearly its high-end
though there's one very controversial
omission and that's the lack of NFC
you'll likely fall into two camps on NFC
Brandon's who says he hardly uses NFC
and certainly won't miss it on the - or
mine during my four days of testing
found three separate instances where it
would have come in handy from setting up
a new phone using lollipops really handy
tap the transfer information - mobile
payments via Google Wallet I tend to
think that I'm the majority here I had a
chance to ask co-founder Carl pay about
this curious admission since it was on
the ones original spec sheet he said
oneplus studied the use of the original
how people just weren't using it so
their Abbot but the agree or disagree
that's the answer I don't want to fixate
too much on the lack of NFC but I did
want to be mentioned because customers
still get a lot of phone to work with
what surprised us most about last year
just how incredible the oneplus ones
Hardware felt this year's model is even
better the new models design is pretty
similar to the year before with some
subtle refinements the outer frame is
made of an alloy of aluminum magnesium
while the overall footprints been
minimized low very slight that textured
really awesome stance no materials also
been improved at least so oneplus tells
us making for a more durable handset the
back can also be removed allowing
customers to use one of five total
options sandstone bamboo rosewood black
apricot and Kevlar oneplus also included
an alert slider which allows you to
quickly switch between Android lollipops
three notification profiles all
notifications priority notifications and
just none at all
it sounds like a small addition but it's
a lot handy than you think it's one of
my favorite iPhone features so certainly
a welcome addition to Android aside from
the metal chassis the most obvious
difference is the addition of
fingerprint sensor which is the same
oval shapes Galaxy s6 is home button and
it works exactly as you'd expect but
your finger on the sensor and device
will unlock that's it the good news is
one plus promised it's pretty fast I
wouldn't say it's fast and touch ID with
a technology used by Samsung but it's
still really quick I also appreciate the
device can be turned on just by placing
your thumb on the sensor you'll need to
turn the screen on then unlock it the
central doesn't actually move it's not a
physical button more the ones I found
myself desperately trying to push it
above that fingerprint sensor is a 5.5
inch 1080p screen which one Plus says
uses the world's most advanced in-cell
IPS LCD and ultra bright LED
technologies in theory no does that mean
you get a beautiful display to look at
you also get unmatched performance in
direct sunlight it also has a 1500 to 1
contrast ratio making for deep blacks
and vivid colors brandon never subscribe
to the q HD craze but i'm starting to
see the value you can see so much more
on the screen
miss it too much but if you're used to
qHD it's easy to tell if this is not it
content looks crisp pictures pop and
games look fantastic
viewing angles are pretty great too
although you mostly be staring trick at
the thing heads on anyway and yeah it's
pretty easy to see outdoors but I just
can get up to 600 nits disappeared to
the iPhone 6 is 559 if you're keeping
track we had a few questions about audio
we did our unboxing so the bottom facing
speakers is loud and clear and I
wouldn't call it exceptional one plus is
include an audio tuner app if you really
want to get into nitty-gritty with your
sound they really uh knows the
difference if you plug in the headphones
anyway there are three stock sound
profiles music movie and game which can
all be tweaked to your exact preference
I mostly though just left thanks doc so
that leads us into software which is
pretty stellar for both its restraint
and floated ads earlier this year one
post announces building its own ROM top
Android due to the premature breakup
with cyanogen I got a brief taste of the
first version a few months back and
things have really come a long way since
then I didn't rent a single issue
performance was smooth and apps never
stalled I never felt like the software
got in the way
that's because what you get is mostly
stock Android however oneplus is team
has added some smart and subtle tweaks
which helped elevate overall experience
also other additions like custom icon
packs and dark mode made for elegant and
simple customizations there's also a new
home screen to the Left called shelf but
essentially a screen for widgets and
it's very similar to the layout of
Google now with different widgets that
bridges cards convenient way to access
frequently use apps contacts some more
but it keeps all that clutter out of the
way and like the rest of oxygen offers
too much customization options too if
you prefer you can always just juice not
use shelf altogether
I don't know more about oxygen keep the
link down below we did a full video
detailing the OS so with hardware and
software server you're probably
wondering how's that battery John and
I'm glad to say you'll get plenty of
life as a oneplus to 3300 milliamp hour
battery which is a little bit bigger
than what included in last year's model
in the beginning when I started testing
battery life was a huge concern I bought
some results on Twitter but after a
software update in the middle of testing
things seem to improve quite a bit
Brandon I both tried hammering the same
with Twitter and music games YouTube
email and everything else within reason
I never saw the mayor and non-essential
and battery testing and it held up like
a champ I got through hours and hours of
normal human usage it was way better
than galaxy s6 we'll just leave it at
that
what difference 1080p screens make the
bummer part of the oneplus 2 however is
you don't get the benefits of quick
charge or wireless charging which isn't
a deal-breaker but they're definitely
missed on the performance side at the
combo the Snapdragon 810 and 4 gigs of
ram made this thing a speed freak and
not once I encountered any heat issues
everything was fast without any lag
because I know you guys love benchmarks
this next part for you
sixteen thousand four sixty on quadrant
forty three thousand two hundred and
thirty seven on in two two five seven
one two thousand two hundred fifty one
and Geekbench 3 and broken down to 692
on single core 2251 on multi-core so
what about that camera while photos are
decently crisp and colors accurate I
found the cameras actual performance
pages appointment devices like the
Galaxy s6 HTC One and Matic capable
snapping pictures in the blink of an eye
the oneplus 2 however can be sluggish
take pictures there's noticeable pause
between pressing the shutter button and
actually taking the picture which could
pose a problem for parents with hyper
kids which I know a thing or two about
alleviating that problem is the
inclusion of oh is it still won't say a
fast with me objects from blurring I'm
hoping a software updates going to fix
that problem much more on the camera be
sure to check out the gallery and
Brandon's take he's a resident film
photographer links will be down below so
what's the verdict on the oneplus 2
first negatives the invite system is
still annoying but necessary evil and
one of the side effects is being a
start-up no NFC certainly a drawback for
me but you might differ the camera
shutter is slow and no wireless or quick
charge or glaring emissions no
expandable storage no removable battery
we missed by some and on that front
why have dual Sims not an SD card slot
on the plus side it's under 400 bucks
you can't have everything expect not to
pay for it build quality is top notch
and the Android experience is stellar
the phone is blazing fast battery life
is great and USBC is a really welcome
addition this phone gets an 8 on the
TechnoBuffalo score out of 10 and the
question I asked the beginning what I
buy this myself the answer absolutely
and you should too
so what do you guys think about the
oneplus 2 that the phone is going to
grace your pocket for the next 12 18 24
months or longer hope to hear your
thoughts on even the comments down below
till next time I'm John render from
TechnoBuffalo see you next video don't
forget it that subscribe button
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