OnePlus 2 review

OnePlus' claim to fame the very premise of offering a premium smartphone experience at half the price of flagship devices. It took everyone by surprise when the relatively unknown startup managed to sell more than 1.5 million units in a year's time.

Riding on the success of its first 'flagship killer,' the company has now launched the OnePlus Two, which boasts of a better build, a bigger battery, faster processor, and a fingerprint sensor among other improvements.

OnePlus calls its new smartphone the '2016 flagship killer' and says it competes with next year's smartphones. We spent some weeks with the new OnePlus 2 to find out if its a worthy successor to the OnePlus One.

More metal

The OnePlus 2 for sure looks more refined compared to its predecessor and exudes a premium feel thanks to its aluminium-magnesium alloy frame and stainless steel chamfered edges. The all-black front panel is dominated by a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920p) IPS LCD In-Cell display.

The phone's fingerprint scanner is placed slightly below the display and the shape is similar to the Home button we've seen on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9+ but it's slightly indented; it's actually not a push button though it can sense touch and even wake the phone from sleep when it comes across a fingerprint it recognises. You can also choose to activate two capacitive touch buttons that are placed on the two sides of the fingerprint sensor and deactivate the on-screen buttons. In that case, the fingerprint sensor also doubles up as the Home button.



The back of the phone is slightly rounded and just like its predecessor, the 64GB variant comes with a back panel that sports a sandstone finish. However, the big change is that the back cover is easily removable. You'll see some OnePlus branding and a metal strip that houses the dual-LED flash, 13MP camera lens and a laser-focus system (in that order). Yes, unlike most phones, the flash is placed above the camera lens. The metal strip is not flush with the phone's back and slightly protrudes out.

The back cover can be removed through a small opening at the right edge but it's secured well with a number of clasps and requires some effort. The battery is sealed but you'll notice a small tray at the top. If you pull it out, you'll expose the two nano-sim card slots. We feel it's a good move and if like us, you swap sim cards frequently, you'll not need the sim-eject tool! The other good part is that OnePlus now offers fancy back covers in four different finishes - Bamboo, Black Apricot, Rosewood and Kevlar. If you get bored of the sandstone cover you swap it easily, changing the look of your phone.

The metal alloy frame looks really solid and includes four small strips that act as an antenna. The right edge features the volume rocker and power keys. Made of metal, the keys offer good tactile feedback. The left edge houses a unique three-position, slider key to control notifications. It's interesting how OnePlus feels the function is critical enough to have a dedicated button. We've seen the mute toggle on the iPhone but are not sure if notifications control is as important. The 3.5mm headset jack sits at the top while the USB Type C connector is at the bottom edge sandwiched between two rows of drilled holes that act as the speaker outlet.

We have to say the OnePlus 2 is one of the most gorgeous looking mid-range phones we've seen. Despite its big 5.5-inch display and 175gram weight, the phone offers a good one-hand use experience thanks to the optimum screen to dimensions (151.8 x 74.9 x 9.85mm) ratio.



The brighter One

The phone's 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920p) IPS LCD In-Cell display is sourced from JDI and comes with Gorilla Glass protection to guard against minor scratches. OnePlus claims the display is one of the brightest at 600nits. We found the display to be brighter than the OnePlus One. The display looks crisp and bright with wide viewing angles and good sunlight legibility. Touch response was excellent.

It may seem that OnePlus has made some compromises by not including a QHD or 2K resolution display but we feel that it's a prudent decision as it won't drain the battery and a lot of people won't really find a major difference in sharpness.



Oxygen OS 
The OnePlus 2 runs Oxygen OS based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. It looks very similar to stock Android but includes some additional customisation features including a dark mode, app permissions, gesture support and a new homescreen feature called Shelf that features list of frequently used apps and accessed contacts.

You can draw certain letters on the screen to launch apps or perform specific actions and also enable double tap to unlock. There are a number of customization options including the ability to program the navigation buttons and fingerprint sensor with different actions for double tap and long press, custom colours for LED notifications and advanced permission settings for individual apps.

The only pre-loaded special system apps that come with the phone are Files (a file manager), Audio Tuner (for customised sound profiles powered by MaxxAudio) and Camera.

We feel OnePlus could have included a Galley app as well. It uses the Google Photos app for picture management.

Overall, we like how OnePlus has chosen not to skin the OS aggressively and still leave some room for customization.


Camera with laser focus

The OnePlus 2 sports a 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilisation and a dual LED flash, and a 5MP front camera.

According to OnePlus, the rear camera sensor features large, 1.3μm light-collecting pixels to capture better low light shots. It is also one of the few phones to come with laser focus system to lock in focus in under 0.3 seconds. The phone supports 4K, time lapse and slow motion video modes and RAW image support is also coming with a future software update.



The phone comes with a minimalist Camera app and you need to swipe from the left edge to the right to reveal the menu for changing the shooting modes. There is a visual cue when you launch the app so it's not very unintuitive. However, there is no option to control granular settings. You can change the exposure composition after locking the focus similar to the iPhone. There are also HDR, Clear Image and Beauty modes in addition to Panorama.

In our use, we found the laser auto-focus to be really snappy making the experience of shooting subjects selectively, a breeze. We have to say the OnePlus 2's rear camera is one of the best compared to other mid-range devices. It captures great detail, reproduces colours accurately and minimises noise in artificial and low-light conditions.




The Optical Image Stabilisation helps in capturing detail in low light conditions even if you have shaky hands. The HDR mode enhances exposure and boosts contrast and has slightly saturated images that look really good.

The front camera also does a decent job of taking selfies. The beauty mode enhances facial features to give you a flawless look.

The phone is capable of recording video in 4K and the quality of the output was excellent with good level of detail and enhanced, stereo sound.


Overall, the OnePlus 2 has a very capable camera; a good update from that of its predecessor.



High-end hardware

In terms of hardware, the OnePlus 2 is pretty well endowed with 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 1.8GHz Octa-core CPUs, Adreno 430 GPU and 4GB DDR4 RAM. The phone comes with 64GB storage out of which 54GB is available to the end user. There's no microSD card slot.

The hardware specifications are class leading with the only other phones featuring a Snapdragon 810 processor being Sony Xperia Z3+ and LG G Flex 2, which are priced above Rs 50,000. Though Snapdragon 810 is notorious for overheating issues, OnePlus executives claim that thermal gel and graphite have been used to ensure that the heat generated from the processors is evenly dissipated.

We also found that OnePlus is putting some processor cores to sleep to avoid over-heating as most processes don't require all the cores to run simultaneously. This did not impact the phone's performance.



Thanks to all the power under the hood, we did not notice any stutter or lag while launching and switching between apps, editing photos, browsing the web, clicking pictures, watching high definition videos or playing graphics-heavy games.

We did not experience any lag whatsoever and were able to play casual games like Leo's Fortune and Temple Run 2 or even Asphalt 8 with visual effects set to 100%. The phone did not heat up much though we could feel the top edges of the frame getting a little warm after gaming.

We were able to play videos of popular file formats without any hiccups. Additional file formats can be played through third party video player apps.

The sound output through the phone's speaker grill was also loud and clear. It's worth pointing out that only the holes at the right side of the USB port act as the speaker grille and it's not a stereo speaker.

A major addition to the OnePlus 2 is dual-sim functionality. You can use two nano-sim cards and the phone supports 4G connectivity on both. We were not able to get calls to auto-forward from a Vodafone sim to Airtel and vice-versa though.

Call quality was very good and the phone works well even in weak signal areas. We observed that the phone catches signal even weak Wi-Fi signals. It also supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which means it will work new routers capable of offering higher transfer speeds. OnePlus 2 supports Indian LTE bands and we were able to use Airtel's 4G networks in Delhi (2300MHz+1800MHz) in areas with good signal. It comes with GPS and A-GPS for navigation and maps and was easily able to lock a signal.

The phone does not come with an FM radio tuner or NFC connectivity. While the fingerprint sensor supports different authentication options, the lack of NFC may prevent the phone from being used for mobile payments at physical terminals.

Coming to the fingerprint sensor, we have to say that at times it's extremely responsive but at others especially while trying to unlock notifications, it becomes unresponsive. We think these are software glitches that can be ironed out. We'd also like to see OnePlus deploying app privacy controls with the sensor similar to Oppo's N3.

The phone comes with a 3,300mAh battery which offers a decent backup. With moderate to high usage, including about one to two hours of making calls, playing games, checking Twitter and Facebook feeds, clicking some pictures, listening to music and browsing the web, the phone lasts about 16-17 hours (with 3 hours+ screen-on time) if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and keep 4G turned on.

The phone has a USB Type C connector so you'll need to carry the cable along as this connector is not common as of yet. The OnePlus 2 takes almost two and a half hours to get a full charge. We would have loved quick charging.



Verdict
Is the OnePlus 2 the perfect 'value-for-money' smartphone you've been waiting for? Well, the phone ticks most of the right checkboxes; it's got a good built, bright display, clutter-free software, great camera, smooth performance, a fingerprint sensor and decent battery backup.

It's certainly not a flagship killer as the phone lacks some high-end features including a QHD panel, NFC and even quick charging.

However, at Rs 24,999, it's certainly the most power-packed and feature-rich phone that money can buy at the moment. But you also need some patience (or luck) as the OnePlus 2 is only available if you have an invite.

The closest rival to the phone is the Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe which is priced at Rs 22,999 and features an Intel processor with 4GB RAM. It lacks a fingerprint scanner but has quick charging.