OnePlus 2 vs ZenFone 2: The winner may surprise you
OnePlus 2 vs ZenFone 2: The winner may surprise you
2015-09-02
it's hard not to see parallels between
the zenfone 2 and the oneplus 2 they
both come at a time when we're just
entering the age of the affordable value
smartphone one might even suggest that
oneplus was actually one of the heralds
of this era so let's see how each of
these forerunners stack up when they're
pitted against one another I'm our first
signer let's get ready to throw down
because this is the zenfone 2 vs. the
oneplus 2 I use the zenfone 2 for 8 days
during the review period and I've been
using the oneplus 2 as my daily driver
for 7 days at the time of this shoot in
terms of the build quality I think it
really just kind of comes down to
preference at these two I don't think
one device has a serious leg up over the
other in terms of the build quality but
I do prefer the feel the one the zenfone
2 in the hand over the kind of colder
feel of the oneplus 2 the oneplus choose
metal frame really kind of gives it that
heft and makes it feel premium but the
sharper corners really don't sit very
nicely in the hand and the rounded back
of the zenfone 2 really knocks that out
of the park so I think in terms of build
quality in terms of how the device is
fuel in the hand I got to give it to the
zenfone 2 as the silicon battle rages on
Intel is still struggling to make it
into the mobile market that's what we've
got inside this zenfone 2 in this
pairing it's going up against the latest
and greatest from Qualcomm this
Snapdragon 810 while the benchmarks are
a clear win for the 810 there are quite
a few other factors to consider for one
I experienced a ton more lag on the
oneplus 2 than I did on the zenfone 2
not close I actually just ran it by a
couple of my colleagues here at
TechnoBuffalo and they said the same
exact thing you can even turn on GPU
rendering and you can see where the lag
is all happening when it's happening
especially when you're typing it
stuttered on me a lot and lots of
animations did as well the a-10s heat
issue on the oneplus was negligible
though it got hot sure but no more than
most of their high-end phones and it
cooled down really really quickly
despite having had a better experience
with the zenfone of this department on
paper the winner is pretty clear
it's the snapdragon 810 in the oneplus 2
in terms of the overall hardware
features there are lots and lots of
trade-offs between these two devices as
an active Google Wallet user and avail
forgetful human I use NFC on my mobile
device more often than not it's a huge
deal for me that that's not present in
the oneplus 2 what the oneplus 2 has
that the zenfone 2 doesn't is a
fingerprint reader while it is a great
fingerprint reader I don't know that it
was the right move Android 5.0 plus
doesn't have the standardized biometrics
API is that marshmallow will have which
means that some apps aren't going to
work with the reader / set up your OEM
went with for example LastPass does not
work on the oneplus with the fingerprint
reader but on the galaxy s6 it works
perfectly fine and for me I'm sorry
that's a deal-breaker
if I'm going to buy a device that has a
fingerprint reader and forgo NFC in
order to do that it better work with
everything that I want to use it with
and not just be a convenient little
nicety to unlock the screen not to
mention the hardware home button on this
device is the same button as a
fingerprint reader and for some reason
if missus taps
all the time and that's frequently
enough for me to notice it and certainly
frequently enough for me to be
frustrated with it the same kind of
thinking goes for USBC as great as it is
to have a reversible plug I don't know
that it's worth the trade-off of not
having fast charging which is something
that the zenfone 2 does incredibly well
and the battery life on the oneplus 2
you could kind of use when you combine
all of that with the stronger vibration
motor dual SIM slots and SD expandable
storage on the zenfone gotta give it two
aces here these screens are really
difficult to pit against one or another
similar sizes and resolutions mean that
the pixel density is about the same it's
actually only off by two PPI in favor of
the zenfone the color and the contrast
are strong on both displays as are the
viewing angles though the oneplus 2 is
just a little bit brighter I think here
it comes down to the options and Asus
provides an app to tweak the hue
saturation and color temperature and I
think I've got to give this one to the
zenfone 2 the camera module on the
zenfone 2 is fine it's great for the
price but when you put it against the
camera on the oneplus 2 it's not even
close the results really do speak for
themselves
the laser focus on the oneplus 2 is fast
and the software is close to stock
without quite so many options but those
aren't really free
that I missed you too much despite the
nicer wide-angle front-facing camera on
the zenfone 2 this one's got to go to
the 1 plus battery life on both devices
was alright
neither was particularly impressive but
for different reasons the zenfone 2
struggles from being built on Android
5.0 which plagues it with bugs from that
era the Android OS chews through
anywhere from 30% to 40% of the device's
battery when it goes haywire that said
the one plusses battery wasn't
phenomenal either it was better than the
Zen phones when the juice is being
guzzled by that OS but it wasn't as good
as the Zen phones when its operating at
full capacity when the OS isn't going
haywire I think that the fact that Asus
is working on an update combined with
the fact that this thing supports fast
charging what this does not means that
the zenfone gets the win here all right
software if this one's pretty easy
Asus throws the entire kitchen sink at
you this this one is not remotely close
at all oneplus as oxygen OS is the right
kind of spin on Android that's what you
want to see add things improve things
keep it light update frequently though
some of the features like shelf or
whatever it doesn't suffer from the
amount of blood that the zenfone
exhibits and it's got to go to the
oneplus on this one in terms of price
the zenfone 2 is going to cost you $300
for the 4 gigs of ram model that's going
to get you 64 gigs of storage and that's
going to be the higher clocked processor
granted that used to be closer to $400
from the device first came out but we're
comparing those right now
now that the oneplus 2 is out and to see
if it's worth a your upgrade and B if
you're buying a new phone to see if the
zenfone 2 still stands up so today it's
selling for $300 for that same high-end
model while the oneplus 2 is selling for
389 dollars for a 4 gig model that isn't
expandable via SD storage to me it's a
pretty clear win here for the zenfone 2
just want to take a quick second here
and thank our friends over at Harry's
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you get a razor handle a bottle of shave
gel three blades and a travel cover you
know for travel now go ahead and lean in
just a little bit closer because I've
got a secret to tell you just gonna let
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over 10 bucks is always shipped for free
99 yeah set free 99 talk about your
value so what are you still doing here
treat yourself I think it's pretty clear
that neither of these two phones is
perfect but between the two my choice
has got to go to the zenfone 2 the
biggest compromise is that it makes are
really difficult to swallow software and
that's really largely mitigated by the
fact that you can take advantage of many
of the customization options that
Android has to offer it was pretty close
but the one plus just doesn't feel like
it offers this much bang for your buck
as the zenfone does but what do you guys
think have you used both of these
devices if so let us know which one you
prefer and also let us know in the
comments if you have any more questions
about comparing these two devices and I
will do my best to try and keep up with
them over the next few days thank you
guys so much for watching you can hit
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thank you guys for watching be kind to
one another and I will see you in the
next video Oh
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