OnePlus 2 First Impressions

The much anticipated OnePlus 2 is finally here and thus begin the inevitable comparisons with last year's much-hyped OnePlus One. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer came out of nowhere to gain a lot of attention with the OnePlus One, a device that took over the mantel of geeks' choice of a value smartphone, what with the Nexus 6 (Review | Pictures) disappointing consumers with its crazy price tag. All that buzz didn't translate into a lot of sales, with the OnePlus CEO recently revealing that the company sold a modest 1.5 million units of the OnePlus One.

(Also see:  OnePlus 2 full specifications)

The OnePlus 2 would definitely aim to better that, and ahead of the launch, expectations were sky high. And the company seems to have lived up to those expectations, if initial reactions to the OnePlus 2 package and price are any indications. In case you've been living under a rock and don't know already, here's a recap of the OnePlus 2's specifications.

The OnePlus 2 comes with a 5.5-inch in-cell display with a full-HD (1080x1920 pixel) resolution and a 1500:1 contrast ratio. It is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 v2.1 SoC clocked at 1.8GHz and coupled with an Adreno 430 GPU alongside 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB internal storage. It sports dual 4G Nano-SIM cards and the new USB Type-C connector.

The OnePlus 2 features a 13-megapixel rear camera with a 1.3-micron sensor, laser autofocus, dual-LED flash, f/2.0 aperture, 4K video recording, RAW image support, and OIS, apart from a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It runs on a 3300mAh battery, and has a fingerprint sensor on the home button. It weighs 175 grams. All this will be available to users at Rs. 24,999 from August 11 via Amazon India. The phone will be sold via the invite system and a 16GB OnePlus 2 with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM will be made available later this year at Rs. 22,999.

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What the OnePlus 2 lacks however are features like NFC connectivity and Qualcomm Quick Charge, despite the upcoming Android Pay rollout and use of a Snapdragon 810 SoC. It will be interesting to see just how much of a deal-breaker this is for consumers.

The OnePlus 2 features the Sandstone Black finish made famous by its predecessor, but there's no mistaking one phone for the other. For starters, the OnePlus 2 has no Cyanogen branding at the back, because the smartphone now ships with company's own OxygenOS 2.0, which is essentially Android 5.1.1 with some amount of customisations. The rear camera assembly with the sensor and the flash has also been shifted vertically downwards.

(Also see: OnePlus 2 vs OnePlus One)

The OnePlus 2 is noticeably heavier than the OnePlus One and that may prove to be a problem for some. The edges now have a metallic finish to them, which gives the phone a better in-hand feel, especially for those who don't like the Sandstone finish, which extends to the edges in the OnePlus One.

The other big change with the OnePlus 2 of course is the fact that it now runs OxygenOS out-of-the-box. There were some stability issues with Cyanogen OS that its predecessor ran, but considering OxygenOS itself is a relatively new entrant, we are curious to see how it performs on an everyday basis.

Viewing angles and outdoor legibility on the OnePlus 2 display are good, and we didn't encounter any performance issues in the extremely limited tasks we performed. Of course the real test will come when we use all the features of the phone including its camera to use in the real world as part of our detailed review process and share our findings with you. Stay tuned to NDTV Gadgets for a full review of the OnePlus 2.

OnePlus 2: First Look