This “invite-only” Smartphone beats the Galaxy S5 & iPhone 5S!
“OnePlus One is not yet sold by carriers or other third parties. To purchase you must first secure an invite.”
As a followup to the article I wrote last December entitled “81% of all Smartphones are powered by Linux“, I wanted to briefly write about yet another Android based smartphone …yes another, but don’t stop reading just yet! :) This one is shaking up the smartphone market. Not only because of it’s specs and quality, but also due to the industry-changing approach being used to sell/market this amazing device… the OnePlus One by OnePlus.
Based on CyanogenMod (an open source operating system based on the Android mobile platform) the OnePlus begins its journey away from the norm by aiming not only to compete but in fact be better and more powerful than smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, iPhone 5s and HTC One m8. More importantly, doing so without reliance on mobile carriers (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) which use the latest smartphones to bait buyers into joining their subscriber base. If you aren’t sold yet, then maybe its because you think only “specs” should do the talking. In which case, please see below.
Here are the OnePlus One Specs
(** = noteworthy)
DEVICE DIMENSIONS – 152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9 mm
DEVICE WEIGHT – 5.71 ounces (162g)
DISPLAY SIZE – 5.5 inch JDI
RAM – 3 GB LP-DDR3 @1866MHz **
STORAGE – 16/64 GB eMMC 5.0
CPU – Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 801 Quad-core processor at 2.5GHz **
DISPLAY RESOLUTION – 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), 401 PPI **
CAMERA SENSOR – 13 Megapixel – Sony Exmor IMX 214 **
FRONT CAMERA – 5 Megapixel – Distortion free
VIDEO – 4K resolution video with stereo recording Slow Motion: 720p video at 120fps **
FREQUENCIES – GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz
WCDMA – Bands: 1/2/4/5/8
LTE – Bands: 1/3/4/7/17/38/40
I’m sold! So how do I buy the OnePlus One?
Pretty strong specs huh? You may now be asking… “How do I buy it?! How to I get the OnePlus One??!!” Well you can’t. Ok, you CAN, but you can’t until you receive an official invite. Don’t take my word for it, you can read the details here. In contrast to all the other high-end smartphones out there, the OnePlus One isn’t sold by carriers or in stores. Be aware that if you purchase from a third party, it won’t be covered by the OnePlus warranty.
To my recollection, (please correct me if I’m wrong) the closest somewhat successful approach we’ve seen to the OnePlus One was the Moto X by Motorola (a bit dated now). However, you can purchase the Moto X via carriers (with all their bloat) and sadly the specs only made it on par with the competition at the time. As a result the Moto X didn’t quite warrant the launch price of around $600 for the 16GB model (now $299). Keep in mind that Motorola will launch the Moto X+1 (yup “plus one”) later this year with very similar specs. But will they be able to compete on price point?!
On the other hand, the new OnePlus One exceeds even the best high-end smartphones in many ways, and with a base price of $299 for the 16GB version and just $349 the 64GB version. Around 1/2 the cost of any smartphone with similar specs!
With an invite-only launch, its a given that this would be a somewhat slow start. But the OnePlus One is gaining good momentum fast! Need more info? Also see this page. If you’d like to stick around, check out my blog archives. Already own the Moto X? Then you’ll probably find these design covers for the OnePlus One familiar…
First image at the top is of the black 64GB OnePlus One by: Stephen Jody
OneplusOne Invite 03/19/2015! (Update: someone claimed it!)