The OnePlus One Review
by Joshua Ho on November 19, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Mobile
- OnePlus
WiFi
On the OnePlus One, it's quite surprising to see the retention of 802.11ac WiFi as such features are often the first to be cut to reduce the price of a product. In the case of the OnePlus One, we see Qualcomm Atheros' WCN3680 solution, which is a single spatial stream for a maximum physical link rate of 433 Mbps. While the physical link rate is one thing, practical bandwidth and performance is another. In order to test this, we use iperf on Android with Asus' RT-AC68U for maximum perfomance in this area.
In this test, I saw that the OnePlus One noticeably out-performed the rest of the single stream competition, but I suspect that there are some irregularities here as iperf would report bandwidth above 433 Mbps in certain cases. Subjectively, there are no real issues with WiFi performance and one should have little issue with this on the OnePlus One.
GNSS
As one might have guessed, the OnePlus One leverages the on-die modem for GNSS. This means that one can expect IZat (GPSOne) gen 8B. In general, I haven't found any issues with GPS on this device. With a cold lock (airplane mode on, no assistance data) I found that it took around 50 seconds to first acquire position, then around another 30 seconds to get high accuracy.
Misc
The haptic feedback on the OnePlus One is noticeably different from every other device I've used, with much more noise than vibration. The same TI BQ27541 fuel gauge is shared with the Oppo Find 7A, as is the TI BQ24196 charger chip. Reception, at least for T-Mobile US' band 4/AWS LTE is noticeably worse than most devices that I've tried. The dual speakers are loud and the quality is relatively good, but no better than what one might find on the iPhone 6.
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Anonymous1a - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
Really, this phone is like over six months old! And, you're reviewing it now? The whole point of a review is to help buyers make up their mind. Not a lot of people start buying when a device is six months old.grayson_carr - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
To be fair, the phone still isn't straight up for sale. You can't just go to their site and have one shipped to you on the spot. You can only pre-order it.Bob Todd - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
To be even more fair, their comment (not yours) is completely retarded. Pre-orders are closed. Nobody reading this review can even buy one right now. Still invite only until another pre-order window opens. So I'd say the review is still quite timely.Allan_Hundeboll - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link
If you know how to google you can find an invite in less than 10 minutes...Anonymous1a - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
So, just because they have a different business model, that means you should review it late? They may never open pre-orders proper for the One (in the way other companies do) so, if that's your rationale, Anandtech should never review the phone. Also, I don't know if you live in Asia, but, in some countries, you can actually just go to a shop and buy one. Yes, you'll pay a premium from $20-$50 but it will still be cheaper than competing phones.Anonymous1a - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
Also, how is it that OnePlus One is seen as the first device to challenge to challenge the $600+ flagship paradigm when Xiaomi has been doing this for at least two generations of devices?Socius - Friday, November 21, 2014 - link
Xiaomi makes devices targeted to the Asian market (think bands). These guys are making the same thing, but pushing the western markets hard with it. So it's basically higher quality Xiaomi for the masses.beggerking@yahoo.com - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
can you stop putting iphone benchmarks in the chart? everyone already know its biased and inaccurate.SanX - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
Great everything but the dark display and a bit ugly design. Good to have 6" and even 6.5" model too at the expense of bezel. Another good unknown Chinese brand is Zopo, I'm happy with its 6" phone for more then a year. No one including Apple beats its screen and battery life.frombauer - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
Want leading battery life with a mannageable size? Sony Z3 Compact. Loving mine, 4.6" might be a bit small, but it's light, fits a pocket nicely and lasts FOREVER on a charge. And has a full speed Snapdragon 801 inside driving a 720p screen, which makes it scream.