After months of teasing and creating hype around its product, OnePlus today finally unveiled their flagship smartphone — the OnePlus One. The company had already revealed most of the specs of the handset before its launch so there were no surprises in that department during its launch event.
The OnePlus One sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display from JDI, a Snapdragon 801 chipset clocked at 2.5GHz, an Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM, eMMC 5.0 interface with 16GB or 64GB of storage space, a 5MP snapper in the front. Other key features include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and support for 4G LTE networks. The 13MP snapper in the back features Sony’s latest IMX214 sensor with an F/2.0 aperture and 6-lenses and is also accompanied by a dual-LED flash. The company suggests that the camera has a shutter speed of only 0.3 seconds.
All this top-of-the-line hardware is packed in a body that is only 8.9mm thin, 152.9mm tall and 75.9mm wide. The edges of the handset are extremely thin at 4.6mm only. The One is also the lightest 5.5-inch handset in the world with a weight of only 162 grams.
The highlight of the phone, however, is its design that the company is specifically proud of. The handset has streamlined edges with a matte and glossy finish. It also features recessed bezels that don’t get in the way of the user interacting with the display. OnePlus also says that the One is the world’s first handset to have bottom facing stereo speakers, which have been fine tuned by JBL. The front of the phone is also completely flat so that dirt does not get inside the speaker grilles.
On the software side, the OnePlus One is running a specially optimised version of CyanogenMod based on Android 4.4 KitKat, dubbed CyanogenMod 11S. The OS has a new design with a minimal and flat UI. There is also a theme manager that allows users to customise nearly every aspect of the OS. Other software features include always-on voice recognition, the ability to toggle between capacitive and on-screen keys, screen-off gesture controls, privacy guard, audio equaliser and more.
The Chinese version of the handset, however, will run a customised version of Color OS from Oppo.
The OnePlus One will be available in two colours — Silk White and Sandstone Black. The company will also offer StyleSwap covers that will come in different finishes: kevlar, wood, bamboo and denim.
The handset will be available in Belgium, Austria, Canada, Belgium, France, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, U.K and the USA. The 16GB version of the OnePlus One will retail for $299 with the 64GB variant costing only $349 in the United States.
