OnePlus on Wednesday announced its One flagship smartphone will be available in India from Tuesday December 2, exclusively on Amazon.in. The company has yet to announce a price, but had
earlier confirmed the 64GB version would cost less than Rs. 25,000. Pricing details will be announced at the launch event the same day.
In-line with the company's global invite system, the
OnePlus One smartphone will be available for purchase only for users with invites. Users in India will receive India-specific invites through
OnePlus and Amazon.
The company says the OnePlus and Amazon platforms have been integrated so that invites claimed by a OnePlus account can be used to purchase the '2014 Flagship Killer' on the Amazon OnePlus One
page. Starting Wednesday, users can log onto
oneplus.net/in to register their interest for a OnePlus One invite. (Read:
How to Get a OnePlus One India-Specific Invite).
OnePlus in a statement said the launch of the One smartphone in India next week is the "next chapter" for the company, with an "entirely new team and model." The firm says the move will herald several firsts for the company, with the local chapter the first outside the company's headquarters to have a physical presence.
The firm added India will be the first region since the OnePlus One's
launch in April in 17 countries where a localised service infrastructure will be in place, offering both walk-in and phone support to users. OnePlus reiterated the team in the country will be led by Vikas Agarwal, General Manager of OnePlus India.
The company said the exclusive online retail partnership with Amazon also extends to the accessories of the OnePlus One, which thus far include the Flip Cover, Bamboo StyleSwap Cover, and Silver Bullet Earphones. Other accessories announced as 'coming soon' include the Screen Protector, Protective Case, Clear Case, and
JBL E1+ Earphones.
Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India, added, "We are very excited to bring this much awaited phone for our customers in India. And we are having real fun with the unique marketing initiatives for the launch. It fits right into our philosophy of bringing wide and unique selections and experiences for our customers."
Pete Lau, CEO of OnePlus, said of the launch, "Our company focuses first on our users and our product. We want to provide the best possible experience for our Indian users who have been so supportive of our vision. To do that, we are investing heavily in our Indian operations and partnering with the fastest growing and most admirable e-commerce company in the market, Amazon.in."
The OnePlus One runs Cyanogen 11S or CM 11S, with the 'S' signifying the customisation for the One smartphone. Notably, CM 11S is based on Android 4.4 KitKat, while the company has issued several OTA updates bringing bug fixes and new features in the interim, with the
latest in November taking it to CM 11S 44S.
The One smartphone sports a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with a 1080x1920 pixel resolution and offers a pixel density of 401ppi. The display boasts Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
It comes with 3GB of RAM and is powered by the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 clocked at 2.5GHz with Adreno 330 GPU. Unfortunately, the OnePlus One does not support expandable storage.
The One sports a 13-megapixel rear IMX214 sensor with six lenses and f/2.0 aperture that boasts quick shutter speed of only 0.3-seconds, according to OnePlus. It also comes with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
Connectivity options on the OnePlus One include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC functionality. It features a 3100mAh non-removable battery.
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