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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martyh1 - Thursday, January 15, 2015 - link
I agree. But that's for me. Other users have different needs. For me, 64GB is way more than enough. And my Note 3 is not benefiting me by having an SD card slot when I have to take off the cover to get to it. For me, an SD card slot is most useful if you can insert/remove it extremely easily.tipoo - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
Yeah, that's my primary concern. Though the 32GB is reasonably priced, especially compared to other high end phones.tipoo - Friday, November 21, 2014 - link
Actually 64 for just 50 more, not 32... quite reasonable. That would be good enough for me.dawheat - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
Surprised there's no mention of touch issues. My OPO is decidedly my backup phone now, even on the newest firmware, b/c the touch response still isn't as good as other brand name phones. It's gotten much better but you still get missed swipes, zooming when you didn't mean to, etc. To me, it's a big negative to an otherwise excellent phone.ratbert1 - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
I was trying this phone out while I had my N5 on L preview. I have been trying to decide whether to keep my N5 or this. I love the display and the software works for me except for transition stuttering at times. I agree there are way to many customization options for me to become familiar with as far as themes. I do enjoy the battery life. Even in remote locations where my other two phones will be dead by late afternoon, this still has 30% left. In the end I can't get over the size. I keep my phone in my front pocket and this is too big. My hands are not big, so it is a two handed affair all of the time.Since getting and enjoying Lollipop on my N5, I will keep it and sell the One. I will definitely miss it though.
Jax Omen - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
Can we please get someone who isn't busy fellating Apple to review android phones? Seriously, so sick of this guy. I don't even have to know what the phone is to know how the review will end, every one of his android phone reviews ends with "it's not a bad phone, but there are better options in the market". EVERY. SINGLE. REVIEW. This one bafflingly adds "too much choice having decisions to make on my phone confuses me" just to further drive home the point that he's in a love affair with Apple.Master_Sigma - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
The author doesn't fellate Apple in this review at all. In fact he spends a lot of time praising its hardware (except for the camera) and overall design. Its only in the software that he feels it needs work and, as a OnePlus One owner, I completely agree with him. The software really does need a lot of polish before it can punch with the flagships. However, given the price ($350 for 64GB of onboard storage is insane) its very easy to overlook the software issues. That, and OnePlus has been very good so far with keeping this phone is updated. The last 2 updates alone fixed alot of issues that earlier reviewers like Marques Brownlee were having.mrex - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
Polish what? The software is excellent already (44s).Phasenoise - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
I think you've got blinders on. The review was actually pretty positive and notes while not suitable for direct comparison to high-end smartphones (does not mean Apple), the price is good and the compromises may not bother you.tipoo - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
Did you just have that in your clipboard to post without reading the review? Apple hardly got any mention, and the review was pretty positive. Pointing out the negatives is a reviewers /job/, so I don't know why you'd knock that part...You know, unless you're fellating Oneplus.