The OnePlus 2 Review
by Brandon Chester on December 14, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- OnePlus
- OnePlus 2
Final Words
After using the OnePlus 2 for quite some time and going over the results of my testing, I can't say I'm thrilled with how things turned out for OnePlus's second smartphone. There are a lot of really odd regressions from the original, and when that's accompanied by an increase in price it makes me wonder why someone wouldn't seek out a OnePlus One, or a smartphone from a different vendor entirely. There were definitely some improvements over the OnePlus One as well, some of which are due to the changes in software that have been made since that time. Before making any conclusions, I'd like to go over the major aspects of the OnePlus 2 and see how they hold up to both the OnePlus One, and the rest of the competition in the increasingly competitive smartphone space.
Unfortunately, the OnePlus 2's display was one of the first things I realized represented a regression from the OnePlus One. Right when I started using the phone it was clear that the color rendition was not in line with what I have seen on recent smartphones. Measurements of the display confirmed that it's far too blue, and not accurate beyond matching the primary colors of the sRGB gamut. The substantial changes to the display characteristics that often come with OTA updates never actually improve the display in any meaningful way, and the fact that the accuracy is such an enormous regression from the OnePlus One is just completely unacceptable.
Performance is another area where the OnePlus 2 is extremely disappointing. Snapdragon 810's issues are well documented at this point, but the OnePlus 2 ends up being the worst implementation that I've seen, with the Cortex A57 cores never being used at all in circumstances like web browsing or when navigating the UI. It makes the phone feel like a Moto E, which is something I remarked on before even realizing exactly what was wrong with the CPU's behavior. When considering the performance of the OnePlus 2, it's more accurate to think of it as buying a quad core Cortex A53 device than a 4x4 Cortex A57 + Cortex A53 device.
Thankfully, it's not all bad news. While the performance is certainly not what you'd expect from the advertised specs, the phone gets pretty great battery life as a result. The construction of the phone is also quite good, with very few visible seams due to the type of back cover attachment method OnePlus has used. I'm still not a fan of the back cover material, but I recognize that as a very subjective feeling and so I wouldn't consider that as an aspect that is necessarily positive or negative. As for the camera, OnePlus has put some significant effort into improving their image processing, and there's no longer any issue with chroma noise across the frame even in broad daylight. I think OnePlus still has room to improve in this regard, particularly where noise reduction is concerned, but in its current state the OnePlus 2 produces fairly good photos considering its price tag.
Unfortunately, even with a decent camera, good battery life, and a nice chassis, the OnePlus 2 simply has too many flaws that can't be overlooked. Like the original, the OnePlus 2's tagline is "Never Settle". Unfortunately, the OnePlus 2 does make you settle in many ways. You have to settle for not having Quick Charge 2.0 support, and you have to settle for not having NFC which locks you out of Android Pay. You have to settle for a very poorly calibrated display which pales in comparison to the original. Most disappointing of all is that you have to settle for poor performance, when moving through the UI, browsing the web, and doing anything remotely CPU intensive. You have to settle for a great number of concessions, many of which didn't exist on the OnePlus One, and none of which should exist at this price point.
At $389, you can find much better smartphones, such as the Nexus 5X, or you can search for sales on phones like the Galaxy S6 or LG G4 if you're in a region where the Nexus phones end up being much more expensive than Google's price in North America. Even the OnePlus One would offer a better overall experience. Regardless of what your needs are when buying a smartphone, I think there will be better options available to you than the OnePlus 2.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
132 Comments
View All Comments
lucam - Monday, December 14, 2015 - link
Hahaha...lol!!!cuex - Monday, December 14, 2015 - link
Is it possible for you to give review using a custom kernel that allow the usage of A57 Cores in normal usage? Would like to know whether it's really the "hesistant of using A57 Cores" is the cause of slow-down...danielfranklin - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Yes you can, i have and its very fast.In fact ive calibrated my display as well and im quite impressed with it now, the high contrast really comes alive.
Unfortunately with further hacking OnePlus havent properly released their source code and Devs are leaving it in droves.
Im quite happy with it (got it on special) but i cant help but think they have alienated the power users with the lack of code and alienated the normal users with the CPU performance and lack of calibration on the screen.
Personally i think they have kind of lost the plot.
adityarjun - Monday, December 14, 2015 - link
Umm, sorry to hijack this thread but I am in the market for a 5inch-ish android phone. My requirements are a good battery and camera and a decent enough display and lag free UI interaction. I don't game. My current phone is Moto G 2014. I am looking at the 5x, OnePlus X and Moto X 2014. I favor the last. Is it still a good buy?mcbhagav - Monday, December 14, 2015 - link
IMO, if you are dead set on 5" screen. You should get Nexus 5X ( i suggest 32 GB) out of above 3 contenders. Why not one Plus X? HW, SW, Radio are slower than 5X. Why not Moto X-14? smells already end of life.grayson_carr - Monday, December 14, 2015 - link
Wow, I was kind of shocked by the display analysis. I actually owned a OnePlus 2 for a short time way back in August and thought the display looked quite accurate. Granted, I was just using my eyes to compare it to my wife's iPhone 6 and my MacBook Pro and not a measurement tool, but it certainly seemed more accurate than the Nexus 6 and LG G4 which I also had at the time. But maybe I was just looking for oversaturation inaccuracies and not general innacuracies. Also, their website has this quote: "We focused on producing professional grade, true-to-life colors, avoiding over-saturation." (https://oneplus.net/2/technology) But Brandon also mentions that they keep changing the calibration profile with updates, so maybe the calibration has actually gotten worse since I owned it haha. I remember that happening with my OnePlus One... with one of the updates to that phone the color temperature went from like 6300K to 8000K.Bottom line, these little issues are why I ended up selling both my OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 after a very short time. I am a phone nerd and love to try different phones, but I think I'm done giving OnePlus chances to impress me only to be disappointed with the software and abundant other minor annoying issues that add up. I'm not sure how it is now, but when I owned the OnePlus 2 back in August the software was super buggy.
I currently own a Nexus 5X and I would highly recommend it over the OnePlus 2. Don't let the theoretically better specs of the OnePlus 2 fool you. I am having a vastly better end user experience with the 5X even though it doesn't match up spec wise.
zeeBomb - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Oh definitely. Very cautious move you have done there Grayson. To me, Oneplus has been slipping in terms of...what's the word...I guess presentation for what they have to offer.zeeBomb - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Take the One Plus X, another device that they had made this year. On paper the specs seem really good for the price you are getting it for... Then you realise it uses a modified 801AA chip plagued with bugs and sluggish graphical performance. I hope in the future Oneplus can fix these things so the user experience isn't such a hassle. At least the updates are quick enough.Another thing that seems to not be mentioned is the USB C cables. They were so cheap to buy, but little that we knew until the faithful Benson Leung came along is the resistor type was way incorrect, which makes charging the device pretty dangerous!
Granted to sum up Oneplus this year: You win some, you lose some.
sandy105 - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Where did you read about the 801AA and its graphics performance issues ? . I have the OPO and the 801 does well on most games , but i saw a oneplus X review where game performance was sun optimal and it got me thinking why did it happen.zeeBomb - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Oneplus forums say it all.