After several months of leaks, rumours and teasers, the OnePlus, Beijing based new smartphone vendor has officially debuted its first smartphone dubbed as OnePlus One. Right from the Mobile World Congress 2014 held in February, the vendor has been releasing the handset in bits and parts and now, the complete handset has been launched as it was promised.
OnePlus One will be initially launched in 16 countries which include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States. It is also believed to be launched in more regions following the first wave of release.
The OnePlus One is available in a couple of color options like Silk White and Sandstone Black. The 16GB variant of OnePlus One is priced at $299 (approx. Rs 18,260) and the 64GB variant is priced at $350 (approx. 21,400).
On the specifications front, the OnePlus One includes a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AC) processor clocked at 2.5GHz and Adreno 330 GPU. Further, there is 3GB of RAM and it runs on CyanogenMod 11S based on Android 4.4 KitKat. The handset includes a 5.5-inch Full HD JDI made display that boasts a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels translating to 401 ppi pixel density.
OnePlus seems to have invested great efforts in the design of One as they tried to build the phone using premium materials such as aluminum and stainless steel, but its weight of 175 grams and 198 grams respectively was pretty much on the heavy scale. Consequently, OnePlus selected magnesium to build the phone thereby reducing its weight to 162 grams. This makes the phone the lightest ever 5.5-inch smartphone launched so far.
The handset also includes dual stereo speakers with the help of JBL in fine tuning for an enhanced audio experience. There is a 13MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and Sony IMX 214 sensor and 5MP front snapper. The rear camera can capture snaps with a fast shutter speed of 0.3 seconds and record videos at 4K resolution. The One comes with 16GB and 64GB of internal storage, no 32GB version available. Under the hood, is a 3,100 mAh battery that can deliver a decent backup.
The One has a removable back cover but non-removable battery and comes with special StyleSwap covers which comes in range of materials including Kevlar, Denim, Wood and Bamboo. The smartphone measures 152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9 mm, with a tapered edge of just 4.6mm. Connectivity series include 3G HSPA+ (1/2/4/5/8) / 4G LTE (1/3/4/7/17/38/40), Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4G/5G) 802.11 b/g/n/ac, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC and GPS/GLONASS.
The first 100 OnePlus Ones will be available through the OnePlus Phone Smash, starting April 25th. OnePlus fans can go to oneplus.net/smash to apply to smash their current phone in exchange for a OnePlus One. 100 lucky applicants will get the very first 100 OnePlus Ones for just $1 as well as the ability to invite their friends to buy the OnePlus One.