Earlier today, OnePlus unveiled their flagship killer for 2015 and 2016 — the OnePlus 2. For its price, the OnePlus 2 is a very impressive handset that can easily stand on its own against the likes of the LG G4 and the Samsung Galaxy S6.
The handset might not be able to beat them in every department, but it manages to deliver an experience that is very close to what other flagship handsets are capable of delivering. So, what makes the OnePlus 2 special? What are the features that makes the phone unique or stand out in this highly competitive smartphone market? Check out our list of the 10 things below you should know about the OnePlus 2 to find out.
10. Better Display
On paper, the OnePlus 2 comes with the same 5.5-inch 1080p display as its predecessor. However, scratch beneath the surface and you realise that OnePlus has made improvements in many key areas of the display.
Not only is the display brighter (up to 600 nits), it is also less reflective that makes it easier to use in direct sunlight. Additionally, it now features in-cell touch, which means that the handset should be free from any touchscreen issues that plagued its predecessor for a very long time. Lastly, the contrast ratio and viewing angles have also been improved.
So, while the display of the OnePlus 2 might not be as pixel packed as the LG G4 or the Galaxy S6, it will be able to hold its own against them.
9. Fingerprint Scanner
At the front, the OnePlus 2 features a touch-based fingerprint scanner, which the company claims is faster than that of the iPhone. If the initial hands-on impressions of the phone are anything to go by, that does seem to be true.
Notably though, the fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus 2 also acts as a home button. Its not a physical home button though, but a capacitive one. It also works even when the device is sleeping thereby making it possible to wake up and unlock the device in one step.
8. Capacitive navigation keys
OnePlus might not have mentioned it in their announcement, but just like its predecessor, the OnePlus 2 comes with capacitive navigation keys. The buttons are backlit but don’t resemble their default function, which makes sense since they are completely customisable. The home button — which features an integrated fingerprint scanner — is also capacitive, though its design might fool many into thinking that it is a physical button at first.
7. LaserAF sensor
Despite coming with a price tag of less than $400, OnePlus has not skimped on key hardware features of the handset. Not only does the handset feature a 13MP rear camera with F/2.0 aperture and a 6 element lens, it also comes with a Laser auto focus sensor for an autofocus time of less than 0.3 seconds. The sensor along with the new camera app will greatly help in improving the camera experience of the handset compared to its predecessor.
In the end, the OnePlus 2 might not beat the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G4 in terms of camera performance and experience, but it is likely that it will be able to deliver an experience that is very close to them.
6. Bye bye Cyanogen OS
Last year, when the OnePlus One launched, it was primarily known for being the first handset to launch with Cyanogen OS right out of the box. That when combined with the high end specs of the handset helped it to capture the attention of power users out there. Since then relationship between OnePlus and Cyanogen have turned sour, which led OnePlus to work on their own OS.
The OnePlus 2 comes with OxygenOS out of the box and not with Cyanogen OS. The OS looks very similar to stock Android, but offers a number of features that further enhance the experience of using it. This include an App Permissions manager, built-in support for custom icon packs, status bar tweaks, and more.
However, despite these features, Oxygen OS still lacks a lot of customisation options that is offered by Cyanogen OS.
5. USB Type C port
The OnePlus 2 is the first Android smartphone to come with a USB Type C port. There is little doubt that USB Type-C port is the future in the world of technology. The connector offers many benefits over the microUSB port used on existing devices, including being completely reversible and slimmer.
That’s not all though. The smoking hot red USB cable of OnePlus 2 comes with a USB Type A connector on the other end, which has been patented by the company.
4. Dual SIM connectivity
The OnePlus 2 is among the very few high-end handset in the market to feature dual SIM connectivity. The Snapdragon 810 chipset inside the handset allows the OnePlus 2 to offer simultaneous LTE connectivity on both SIMs.
3. No Quick Charging
The OnePlus One was among the first handset to feature support for Qualcomm’s Quick Charging technology. However, this time around, the OnePlus 2 lacks support for the technology. This is likely due to the fact that the OnePlus 2 comes with a USB Type-C port, which does not support the required technology.
With a 3,300mAh battery, this translates into the handset taking well over 3 hours to charge from 0-100%.
2. No NFC
NFC is not a feature that most Android users frequently use on their device. Heck, it is likely that majority of them have never even used NFC at least once on their device. This was a good enough reason for OnePlus to remove NFC from its 2015 flagship killer and save a few precious bucks on component costs of the device. However, once you consider the fact that majority of Android devices now come with NFC and with Android Pay all set to launch later this year, the omission of this feature is going to be sorely felt by OnePlus 2 owners down the line.
1. Price
Despite coming with significantly faster internals, additional hardware components like a fingerprint scanner and a laser AF sensor, and better build quality, the OnePlus 2 only costs $40 more than its predecessor. The 64GB/4GB variant of the handset will set you back by $389, while the 16GB variant with 3GB of RAM will cost you only $329.
And that’s about it. These are the 10 things about the OnePlus 2 that we think you should know. This does not mean that these are the top 10 features of the OnePlus 2 though — far from it. The handset packs in a plethora of other features like an alert slider, MaxAudio, a
What do you think about the flagship killer of 2015 from OnePlus? Drop in a comment and let us know.
