The OnePlus One Review
by Joshua Ho on November 19, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Mobile
- OnePlus
Display
Within the past few years, smartphone displays have improved immensely. Color rendition, peak brightness, contrast, resolution, viewing angles, and power draw have all improved since the first modern smartphones that appeared in 2007. Of course, while it was once possible to judge relative quality in displays by subjective comparison, most smartphones no longer have TN displays or poor maximum brightness. In order to better test displays, we turn to SpectraCal’s CalMAN 5 with a custom workflow.
In the basics, we see that the OnePlus One has a reasonably bright display and acceptable display contrast, although there's room to improve in both. OnePlus has also done a good job of making sure that their display gets dim enough for night time reading, as minimum brightness is around 4.2 nits. Viewing angles are also great. While contrast with viewing angle changes isn't as good as AMOLED panels, I don't see any color shifting with viewing angle changes. This seems to remain an advantage of IPS panels for now.
In grayscale, we see that the white balance is just a bit blue, but there really isn’t a big issue there. The OnePlus One sets a record for grayscale accuracy. I would like to see a bit better color balance at the higher scales, but it's really just nitpicking. Specifically, red needs to be bumped up to be in line with green and blue. It's understandable why this is done though, as the display's backlight will be the weakest in red in general.
In the saturation sweep, OnePlus has done a great job to make sure that colors are as accurate as possible. The only issue here is that the red, magenta, and blue is a bit weaker than it should be. Some extra saturation would definitely tighten up the accuracy here in addition to making the display more appealing than it is now. However, the display is still incredibly well-calibrated, and will be more than accurate enough for general use.
The strong showing in the saturation sweep helps carry the OnePlus One through to do well in the ColorChecker. For the most part, we see that much of the error comes from the issues previously discussed with grayscale. The display overall is great, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s really just nitpicking at this point. The OnePlus One manages to display colors more accurate than almost everything on the market. The only real issue I've noticed with this display is that there's a bit more IPS glow than I'd like when shifting viewing angles.
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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.