The price of Google’s Nexus phone was a major factor behind the success of OnePlus One. Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 devices were considered to be of ‘value for money’ category, but this was not the case with Nexus 6. The price of this device was around Rs 50,000. In such a situation, OnePlus One was successful in getting the tag of ‘value for money’ product. Apart from this, the marketing strategy of the company also proved to be beneficial for it. The most important was the invite system. There is no doubt that in a short time the company was successful in creating a huge army of fans.
OnePlus 2 aims to capitalize on its past success. Even though the latest smartphone is priced higher than the previous device, it has enough to keep specification enthusiasts happy. OnePlus 2 has been developed keeping technophiles in mind, but features like microSD card slot, NFC and fast charging have been removed. The inclusion of a second SIM card slot in the device is a great decision for a market like India, where there is no dearth of OnePlus fans.
The other big change in the OnePlus 2 is the inclusion of its own Oxygen OS instead of CyanogenMod. Oxygen OS is basically a stock version of Android with a few additional features. While we have been fans of the customization options in Cyanogen, it wasn’t as stable on the One as it was on other devices. So, this is a welcome change. At least in theory, the OnePlus 2 should have fewer software bugs. Is it true? Let’s find out.
Design and display
In terms of design, OnePlus 2 is similar to its previous version, although some minor changes make the device look new. The most unique feature of this smartphone is the standstone black finish. If you were impressed by One in terms of design, then you should also like OnePlus 2. If you do not like this, then you can buy back covers in Bamboo, Black Apricot, Kevlar and Rosewood variants which are available on Amazon India website.
OnePlus 2 uses a metal frame and also has a removable back cover. The speaker grille at the bottom has been given a more modern look as we have seen in the new flagship devices of Apple and Samsung. There is also a new USB Type-C port at the bottom. There is no other branding on the back of the phone except the OnePlus logo. There is an Alert Slider on the left side. We will discuss this later.
OnePlus 2 smartphone has a 5.5 inch full-HD display with great viewing angles. According to us, this is the brightest display till date. The colors are quite natural, but look a bit dry. Although this type of display is preferred over an oversaturated panel, some people may find it a bit dull.
Software and performance
The OnePlus 2 smartphone comes with the company’s customized ROM Oxygen OS 2.0 which is basically the same as Android 5.1.1 Lollipop but with a few new features. The launcher on the device is similar to the one on the recently launched Moto G (Gen. 3). Being fans of the stock version of Android, we were quite pleased. During setup, you have the option to activate a feature called Shelf which becomes your left-most home screen.
OnePlus says that the Shelf feature is an experiment. At this point, it doesn’t seem to be very useful. We like Google Now. If you want, you can download and install the Google Now launcher. Now it will be interesting to see what kind of changes we see in Shelf in the coming days.
OnePlus 2 comes with multiple user and guest mode. The smartphone also comes with an App Permission Manager feature that lets you manage the resource permissions of each app. We have seen this kind of feature in Xiaomi smartphones. This is a great feature as it gives you complete control of your smartphone. One thing to keep in mind is that using this feature will also affect the core functionality of many apps.
There are two hardware features of the OnePlus 2 that are closely linked to the software. These are the fingerprint scanner and the alert slider.
The fingerprint scanner is easy to use to unlock the device. However, you want your fingerprint reader to work smoothly so you should clean it at regular intervals. If you can see visible prints on the button, chances are you will have to try two or three times to log in to the phone. We have rarely faced this problem with the iPhone. On many occasions, the fingerprint scanner did not work at all. We had to enter the PIN to unlock the phone.
Now let’s talk about the alert slider. This is a clever name given to a button through which you can switch between different profiles. If the bottom position is considered the general profile in which you receive audio alerts for all notifications. If you move the slider to the middle, you will get audio alerts only for important notifications. Now you have to decide which notifications are important. After sliding it to the top, you will not get any audio alerts. However, notifications will continue to appear on your screen.
The OnePlus 2 is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and packs 4GB of RAM. As expected, the device did not stutter when it came to performing standard tasks. Multitasking and swapping between apps was a breeze. Our review unit never lagged. Games like Asphalt 8 ran smoothly. However, we did notice that the device did get quite hot when we played the game for 20 minutes straight.
There are a few minor issues with the device. Some apps wouldn’t work at all, while others would crash occasionally. On a few occasions, we couldn’t see the answer or reject controls above the lock screen notifications when we received a call. We had to unlock the phone, then select ‘back to call’ to answer the call. There was also an issue with the accelerometer. Videos wouldn’t switch to landscape mode until we restarted the device. At one point, cellular data stopped working. After trying everything for a few days, we had to factory reset the phone to get it to work.
One drawback was the software update. When we booted up the phone for the first time, we got an update notification but since we were on a slow internet connection, we decided not to install it. We later realized that this was a big mistake as we never got the update message again. We even factory reset the device but did not get the notification. While users can update the device manually, most users do not want to mess with this functionality.
OnePlus 2 has a notification LED that can light up in different colours when different types of notifications arrive. The phone comes with SwiftKey as the default mode. Google’s keyboard is also present in it. If you want, you can also install third-party keyboards from Google Play.
As far as call quality is concerned, OnePlus 2 did a good job in areas where the network was strong. Its performance was very poor in areas with weak connectivity.
Battery Life and Camera
In terms of battery life, OnePlus 2 gave a mixed performance. The battery performance was average in our video loop test, while it was great in daily use, that too on 4G network. If our user pattern is to be believed, then the battery should not have any problem in lasting a day. We have come across many such batteries recently which give good results in benchmark tests, but not during usage.
OnePlus 2 has a 13-megapixel rear camera that takes pictures with great detail in good light. If you use the tap-to-focus feature, the camera takes a little time to focus on the object. Performance in low light was also quite good. When it comes to pictures taken in the dark, the performance of OnePlus 2 is even weaker than Apple’s flagship device.
The front camera is pretty good. The camera app is pretty basic in terms of options. You do get support for slow motion videos on this device, but the videos captured look quite dull even in good lighting. The autofocus doesn’t work as fast as you would move the frame in a regular video. The phone heats up even when shooting videos in 1080p for a long time. The device can also shoot videos in 4K resolution, but you can’t create clips longer than 10 minutes at a time.
Overall, the OnePlus 2’s camera is nowhere near the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, or even the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Granted, these devices cost a lot more, but when you have touted yourself as the ‘2016 flagship killer’, comparisons are bound to happen.
Our verdict
OnePlus 2 is better than its predecessor in many ways, but it also has some flaws that remind us of the old device. There is a lot of improvement in terms of battery life and software, but there is scope for further improvement in the software. We hope that the company has also improved its quality process. We know of many users who either complained about the screen of OnePlus One or the handset they received stopped working within a few months.
The company has tried to fix most of these shortcomings. We know many OnePlus fans who love their phones, but there is also no dearth of complainers. This is not good for the company. Unfortunately, we cannot know about such shortcomings through the review unit. We use a device for a maximum of two weeks. Therefore, it is a challenging task for us reviewers to recommend a handset to the user.
Should you buy OnePlus 2 or not? If you are looking for a dual-sim Android smartphone with good battery life, almost stock version of Android and priced under Rs 25,000, we would suggest you go for this device, but be prepared to compromise with some flaws. If you liked One whose edges were rougher than the new device, you will like the new device as well. If you are one of those users who value reliability more than value for money and want a smartphone that is as stable as the products of big companies, then OnePlus 2 is not in that league yet. Finally, let us make one thing clear, we can give review of OnePlus 2 but not invite.
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