so i got a little free time on my hands so i decided to write up a review of my ONE.
first i want to say that this phone is indeed worth the wait. you're gonna get a premium device with premium design for half the cost of the competitors. despite oneplus's bumbling in getting this product into the hands of customers, they have themselves a real game changer here. they just need to make the darn thing more available. i really do want this company to succeed as well as Xaimoi(sp?) and other similar companies offering flagships phones for mid range prices. if these companies win, we win.
so on to the review.
FYI: just to get it out of the way, my unit does not have a yellow tint or hue.
DESIGN:
one word: sexy. just a great looking device. feels solid in the hand and i love the sandstone back. everyone i've shown it to at work loves it. its a big phone but due to its ergonomic design it feels good in the hand. i like how the sides have flat edges to them as it feels more secure when i grip it from its sides with my fingers. my S3 always felt like it was gonna slip out of my hand when i would hold it in landscape mode for videos because of the curved edges. the flat edges allow me to hold the phone in landscape with one hand with a very secure feeling grip. the sandstone backing also gives you a non-slip grip.
BATTERY LIFE:
it's almost impossible to determine what a phone's battery life actually is because it grossly varies according to use case. my battery life experience will be based on my own use case. your results may vary.
with a little over 3 hours of screen on time, i was able to get 2 and half days of battery life out of my phone with about 30% left. my usage was mostly bluetooth music in my car(i never turn bluetooth off). also messing around with settings, making frequent short phone calls to customers, looking up addresses on google maps, reading apps, and watching some videos locally on the hard drive. screen brightness during that time was mostly below 50%. again, you might not get the same results with your use case but for myself and what i do with my phone i am well beyond thrilled. my S3 wouldn't get anywhere near this much battery life with the same usage. had to bring my charger with me and on occasions when i would forget it i would have to turn on airplane mode so it wouldn't die on me.
SOFTWARE:
loving the CM this phone comes with. smooth as butter. the only reason i rooted is because the ad blocker app i use needs root access. being able to control music playback without even turning the screen on is an awesome feature using the built in gestures. also being able turn the screen off by tapping the status bar is a cool feature. you can setup your nav ring to shut your phone off by swiping from the bottom of the screen as well. i have not experienced any crashes other then metro VVM not working. was fine when i switched to T-mobile VVM. installed a theme on my phone and everything works great and looks good(steele blue).
CALL QUALITY:
no issues with call quality on my unit. i can hear customers fine on my phone and they can hear me, even when i can hear them in noisy factories.
AUDIO QUALITY:
nice and loud. my ringtones are a whole lot louder than with my S3. maybe if i get a chance to compare it with the m8's speaker setup i'll see just how well they do but i'm satisfied with the audio quality. i also like the audioFX equalizer app as it really does improve the audio quality through your headphones and sound system. just make sure to have the right settings for your audio set up for it to work.
CAMERA:
this will have to be updated later as i really am not a camera person and hardly ever use my camera. i took a few pictures and they seemed pretty good but not really enough to make a definitive judgement.
UPDATE: after messing around with the camera way more than i ever would i have to say that the camera is just ok, nothing to write home about. the low light a night shots end up extremely grainy, at least at 100% crop. don't expect this camera to replace your DSLR, though oneplus stated they weren't aiming to do that in the first place. i have seen better night and low light shots taken by others with the ONE but mine just looked like utter crap. could be that i just suck at taking pictures or i need to mess around with settings. doesn't make me regret getting this phone in the slightest as i never take pictures anyway.
A few daytime pics:
SCREEN:
nice and clear. it does attract some dust so the screen is definitely not dust proof. not an issue for me but just an FYI. colors look great and again, no yellow tint for me. i will say that my S3 may have been a little bit brighter on 100% than the ONE.
UPDATE: having it a few times in direct sunlight the screen visibility is decent but not great. the screen could double as a mirror and because of this there is a lot glare when exposed to direct sunlight. not totally un-visible, but could be a lot better.
the CONS:
- i would like to see the locksceen quick launch with more option than 5. something i had when i used carbonROM on the S3. also more options for the nav ring and on screen button panel.
- it seems that apollo music player is not included software. probably because apollo is seperate from CM? had to download it from the playstore in an app called "CM apps". ended up uninstalling it as it just doesn't have the functionality of poweramp.
-doesn't have a designated video player. i play videos through the gallery app but there's no way to separate the videos from all the album art i have on my phone so i have to search for them. would like to see option to display videos only or pics only, etc.
the BUGS:
all phones have bugs. there is no such thing as a bug free phone. here's some i've noticed.
-when attempting to end a phone call by pressing the end phone call button it will sometimes pull down the status bar menu.
- gestures can be quirky. when attempting to turn music or the flashlight on you sometimes have to turn the screen on for it to work. this happens a lot with the flashlight.
- while using nova launcher and setting it to rotate to landscape mode on the home screen. switching from landscape to portrait would take you to nova settings menu. i would have to back out of the nova settings menu each time to get back to the homescreen.
- there is a bit of a delay when launching the camera from gesture. maybe a whole second.
NEW BUG: sometimes when scrolling through texts the screen won't respond to a swipe and will instead highlight texts for copying. this has happened in my mysword bible app a few times.
CONCLUSION:
overall, a spectacular device and well worth waiting for. oneplus would do good to get this flagship killer in people's hands so they can see for themselves. the guys at oneplus may be idiots at marketing and distribution, but they're geniuses at making phones.
questions are welcomed
first i want to say that this phone is indeed worth the wait. you're gonna get a premium device with premium design for half the cost of the competitors. despite oneplus's bumbling in getting this product into the hands of customers, they have themselves a real game changer here. they just need to make the darn thing more available. i really do want this company to succeed as well as Xaimoi(sp?) and other similar companies offering flagships phones for mid range prices. if these companies win, we win.
so on to the review.
FYI: just to get it out of the way, my unit does not have a yellow tint or hue.
DESIGN:
one word: sexy. just a great looking device. feels solid in the hand and i love the sandstone back. everyone i've shown it to at work loves it. its a big phone but due to its ergonomic design it feels good in the hand. i like how the sides have flat edges to them as it feels more secure when i grip it from its sides with my fingers. my S3 always felt like it was gonna slip out of my hand when i would hold it in landscape mode for videos because of the curved edges. the flat edges allow me to hold the phone in landscape with one hand with a very secure feeling grip. the sandstone backing also gives you a non-slip grip.
BATTERY LIFE:
it's almost impossible to determine what a phone's battery life actually is because it grossly varies according to use case. my battery life experience will be based on my own use case. your results may vary.
with a little over 3 hours of screen on time, i was able to get 2 and half days of battery life out of my phone with about 30% left. my usage was mostly bluetooth music in my car(i never turn bluetooth off). also messing around with settings, making frequent short phone calls to customers, looking up addresses on google maps, reading apps, and watching some videos locally on the hard drive. screen brightness during that time was mostly below 50%. again, you might not get the same results with your use case but for myself and what i do with my phone i am well beyond thrilled. my S3 wouldn't get anywhere near this much battery life with the same usage. had to bring my charger with me and on occasions when i would forget it i would have to turn on airplane mode so it wouldn't die on me.
SOFTWARE:
loving the CM this phone comes with. smooth as butter. the only reason i rooted is because the ad blocker app i use needs root access. being able to control music playback without even turning the screen on is an awesome feature using the built in gestures. also being able turn the screen off by tapping the status bar is a cool feature. you can setup your nav ring to shut your phone off by swiping from the bottom of the screen as well. i have not experienced any crashes other then metro VVM not working. was fine when i switched to T-mobile VVM. installed a theme on my phone and everything works great and looks good(steele blue).
CALL QUALITY:
no issues with call quality on my unit. i can hear customers fine on my phone and they can hear me, even when i can hear them in noisy factories.
AUDIO QUALITY:
nice and loud. my ringtones are a whole lot louder than with my S3. maybe if i get a chance to compare it with the m8's speaker setup i'll see just how well they do but i'm satisfied with the audio quality. i also like the audioFX equalizer app as it really does improve the audio quality through your headphones and sound system. just make sure to have the right settings for your audio set up for it to work.
CAMERA:
this will have to be updated later as i really am not a camera person and hardly ever use my camera. i took a few pictures and they seemed pretty good but not really enough to make a definitive judgement.
UPDATE: after messing around with the camera way more than i ever would i have to say that the camera is just ok, nothing to write home about. the low light a night shots end up extremely grainy, at least at 100% crop. don't expect this camera to replace your DSLR, though oneplus stated they weren't aiming to do that in the first place. i have seen better night and low light shots taken by others with the ONE but mine just looked like utter crap. could be that i just suck at taking pictures or i need to mess around with settings. doesn't make me regret getting this phone in the slightest as i never take pictures anyway.
A few daytime pics:
SCREEN:
nice and clear. it does attract some dust so the screen is definitely not dust proof. not an issue for me but just an FYI. colors look great and again, no yellow tint for me. i will say that my S3 may have been a little bit brighter on 100% than the ONE.
UPDATE: having it a few times in direct sunlight the screen visibility is decent but not great. the screen could double as a mirror and because of this there is a lot glare when exposed to direct sunlight. not totally un-visible, but could be a lot better.
the CONS:
- i would like to see the locksceen quick launch with more option than 5. something i had when i used carbonROM on the S3. also more options for the nav ring and on screen button panel.
- it seems that apollo music player is not included software. probably because apollo is seperate from CM? had to download it from the playstore in an app called "CM apps". ended up uninstalling it as it just doesn't have the functionality of poweramp.
-doesn't have a designated video player. i play videos through the gallery app but there's no way to separate the videos from all the album art i have on my phone so i have to search for them. would like to see option to display videos only or pics only, etc.
the BUGS:
all phones have bugs. there is no such thing as a bug free phone. here's some i've noticed.
-when attempting to end a phone call by pressing the end phone call button it will sometimes pull down the status bar menu.
- gestures can be quirky. when attempting to turn music or the flashlight on you sometimes have to turn the screen on for it to work. this happens a lot with the flashlight.
- while using nova launcher and setting it to rotate to landscape mode on the home screen. switching from landscape to portrait would take you to nova settings menu. i would have to back out of the nova settings menu each time to get back to the homescreen.
- there is a bit of a delay when launching the camera from gesture. maybe a whole second.
NEW BUG: sometimes when scrolling through texts the screen won't respond to a swipe and will instead highlight texts for copying. this has happened in my mysword bible app a few times.
CONCLUSION:
overall, a spectacular device and well worth waiting for. oneplus would do good to get this flagship killer in people's hands so they can see for themselves. the guys at oneplus may be idiots at marketing and distribution, but they're geniuses at making phones.
questions are welcomed
