The OnePlus One Review
by Joshua Ho on November 19, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Mobile
- OnePlus
Still Image Performance
Quibbles with the camera application aside, it's important to look at the results that the OnePlus One's camera is capable of putting out. While it was effectively impossible to properly frame the ISO chart for resolution testing, we can look at a broad range of other situations that can help to distinguish the OnePlus One's camera one way or another.
In this example, the OnePlus One really does a good job with handling fine detail and dynamic range. There's relatively little artifacting given the sheer amount of detail that has to be captured in this landscape shot, and there's very little blurring of detail. Unfortunately, we can already start to see some luminance and color noise, as seen on the building on the left side of the photo.
In the interest of documenting camera behavior with the various OTAs, I managed to take a few lightbox photos with the OnePlus One as well. In this scene, we can see that the pre-38R the camera has similar behavior, but with much more detail preserved when viewed at 100%. Unfortunately, this also comes with rather significant luminance noise despite strong lighting to keep the camera at a relatively low ISO.
_thumb.jpg)
Unfortunately, the camera software is also lacking when it comes to HDR mode. A good HDR mode is almost required at this point as these smartphone cameras have so little dynamic range, and this is where the OnePlus One also falls short. Significant halos can be seen all around high-contrast areas. On the bright side, the output does have very high dynamic range, but it is glaringly obvious when used. This is especially odd as the IMX214 supports SME-HDR, which makes it possible to do HDR within a single photo instead of requiring multiple exposures that can cause these halos and ghosting effects.
On the other end of the spectrum, the OnePlus One is really a bit disappointing in low light. As one can see, before the 38R update there was effectively zero attempt at noise reduction in low light, and even when shrunk to 678 pixels wide it's pretty obvious that there is an immense amount of color noise. At 100%, there are even hot pixels present that make for an incredibly poor image. The slow shutter mode does make for some incredible quality, but this requires a tripod as exposure time can easily reach a second or more.
Thankfully, with recent updates OnePlus has added some level of noise reduction to the camera processing. Unfortunately, this doesn't fix much as pretty much any low contrast detail is smeared away and areas that don't have detail loss from noise reduction have significant amounts of noise. However, OnePlus is far from the only OEM that has these issues as the Galaxy S5 LTE-A actually has a bit less detail in this test scene despite the larger sensor size. The new updates have also made it extremely difficult to get a photo without significant blur from hand shake with RAW capture on, so this is an issue to consider as well.
On the bright side, with the flash on the OnePlus One does a respectable job. I don't see any real issues here, although the LEDs are a bit on the weak side compared to other devices that I've used this year. Overall, the camera of the OnePlus One is really just average at best. In daytime the camera is definitely quite good but there's already a lot of noise creeping into the photos before we consider low light photos. While the results are better than what we see with devices like the Galaxy S5, this comes at the cost of high amounts of shutter lag and motion blur.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
148 Comments
View All Comments
ttremeth - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
Agreed.grayson_carr - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
I owned one for a while and this comment is truth.DanD85 - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
Definitely not agree! As someone who had purchased 3 of OPO phone, I can tell you that all the phones I had purchased were & still are excellent. If you are calling yourself a techie than with this complaining act of yours, you are not deserve to call yourself that. I myself also received a DOA charger from OnePlus and the feedback from them has been great. I received a replacement unit not so long after I filed my report with them. No complaint from me so far. Haters like you go around the web and spreading bad rep about OPO and I would recommend those who still on the fend buy one and try for yourself. You won't find a better deal anywhere else period! The price to pay for those living in the USA is actually even lower than China! Which phone you can buy now can have that?augiem - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
Why is there always someone out there who tries to make things personal? You have no right to tell me what I deserve to call myself or not and have no right or reason to label me as anything. I have done the research and there are _many_ others who would agree with me. Read the OPO forums. I will not defend myself to you. God! EVERY single time. You people need to get a life and stop making tech your own personal religious war.srkelley - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
*claps*Harry_Wild - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
I just got done reading the feedback on OnePlus.net forum and cancel my order too. To much of a hassle if something happens to go wrong with the One!I rather spend a little more and have good customer service!
K_Space - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link
I do not honestly know if Oneplus originally intended this a phone to the mass market; even though for all intends and purposes it is now. The clue should be the invite system.I propose this was originally aimed as a 1st edition phone designed semi-exclusively for techies so that it irons out all the hardware, software buggy features. To this effect, the invite system would have worked pretty well with invites being sent out to developers, and android fans who not only are able to come to term with minor bugs but also tackle them in their quest to nourish their problem-solving addiction. It also gives OnePlus an accurate assessment of their customer care (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, the phone has become the victim of it's own popularity and when the phone landed with the non-intended target audience they rightfully complained about how unpolished it feels; the inviters should be a lot more cautious with their invitations. Joshua has done a splendid job reflecting his opinion regarding the suitability of the phone for the mass market, but if he received this as a developer phone I am certain he'd be extremely pleased.
If I was a phone producer; this is probably what I'd have done. Indeed all tech companies do this with their pre-alpha or alpha builds but to a much narrower base. Think Glass or Project Ara. OP just went global and now they are reaping their harvest (both good and bad fruits). I'm sure the Oneplus Two will be a far more polished and probably more expensive phone.
mrex - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
"Even people who are extremely happy with the phone consistently live with problems always expecting them to be fixed in the next patch"No problem, im happy, not waiting a fix. No crashing or so. Works perfectly. Yellow banding issue? yes, and that cannot be fixed (it is in hardware). I could have sent the phone back and got mobey back. But the yellow gloe can be hide with an app changing the colour hue of that area. So it doesnt bother me because i cannot see it at all. I only know it is there, and that bothers me, lol. For me this is the best phone i have had. I could buy another if i needed. I knew that the screen may have a yellow bottom before i bought this and i decided to keep this, because it was only visible in certain situations and i was able to fix it with an app though. Disappointed? Sure. Customer support prooably sucks - althought i got an answer on the next day, but i know many complains about it.
Battery is great. No signal lost. No crashing apps (i do have "only" paid apps, so i dont know if free apps have serious bugs.) No touchscreen lockups. Earpiece failures?? What kind? First time i hear about this.
Your reply was basicly just an assumption based on opinions from people who have had problems. How about making the same kind of assumption based on opinions from people who dont have problem? Or better, bash the phone when you actually have one to bash.
Could you show me the extremely buggy software topic? Im running official 44s without any problems at all.
johnny_boy - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
I just picked up an Honor 6 for nearly 100 euros cheaper (!) than the OnePlus One goes for on Amazon. (The European version of the Honor 6 is only available from Amazon.) Given the price difference, the more preferable screen size on the Honor 6, the better CPU performance of the Honor 6 and its expandable memory, seems like a no-brainer to me. If I were to get a Chinese smartphone, it wouldn't be the OnePlus One. (Also, what's up with the stupid sexist promo they had and the invite-only way to buy the thing?)ttremeth - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
I have one and was a little naive caught up in overwhelming positive reviews. Yes, head over to the OPO forums where people beg for invites. I bought one from China (identical except some LTE frequencies) and then got one of these elusive invites a few weeks later. Someone got very upset that they did not get my invite. It is absurd behaviour for adults begging and being so “nice” to get someone to give them an invite to buy the phone.Then if you read through their forums you will see many complaints of non-existent customer service and RMAs taking months as well as some hideous problems. Of course you need to weigh people’s comments against common sense but the Flagship killer is definitely not what it claims to be. However, I do like the phone personally.