Design, Features, and Quality Call
The OnePlus One does not feel like a second $ 400 phone, unless your expectations are informed only Nexus 5 experience. Clean lines and tight build quality evoke a sense of desirability that sorely lacking in budget-friendly realm. Yes it is large (6.02 by 2.99 by 0.35 inches) and yes it's all plastic, but the size is a given with phablets, and I think Nokia polycarbonate solid-not shiny and flexible Samsung plastic.
Featuring our white test unit called silk finish, which is just a fancy way to say matte, while the black model has a textured sandstone finish. The back cover is actually removable too, and commitment OnePlus swappable options like real wood and carbon fiber. Philosophy of OnePlus may be "never settle," but fans of removable batteries and expandable storage will have to settle for the non-removable 3,100mAh battery and built-in storage. In our first test, the OnePlus One lasted for 17 hours of continuous talk time, but dropped calls with the remaining about 10% of battery life. That should be more than enough battery life for a day's worth of moderate use, and anecdotally, I felt strapped for battery life while testing.
The 5.5-inch, 1080p IPS display is on par with the best I've seen, including the HTC One (M8) and Samsung Galaxy S5. Not be able to identify any real difference in sharpness at this level (401 ppi), while viewing angle is about 180 degrees and color reproduction is neutral without looking muted. Below the display is capacitive Menu, Home, and Back buttons, but you can disable them in favor of standard software navigation buttons.
There are two speaker grilles flanking the micro USB port on the bottom edge, get surprisingly loud, but the sound is still relatively thin. Above the display is a multi-colored LED notification is far too evident in its default configuration, but can be toned down menu settings.
GSM (850/900/1800 / 1900MHz), UMTS (Band 1/2/4/5/8), and LTE (Band 1/3/4/7/17/38/40), this one is well OnePlus equipped to handle a variety of networks, including AT & T and T-Mobile here in the US I tried the phone with an AT & T SIM, which worked perfectly in New York City.
Call quality, unfortunately, is one of the biggest sore spot for OnePlus one. Volume in the earpiece is frustratingly weak and made the caller on the other end sound muted, distant, and difficult to hear over even the most innocuous of surrounding noise. Shipping via mic fared better, coming through more clearly, but still on the low side for volume. The headphone jack works fine for music, not like our initial hands on, but OnePlus one can route calls through a wired headset.
I also noticed a bug when it comes to the proximity sensor of the phone calls. On most phones, taking the phone away from your face during or after the call is to awaken the screen from going to sleep. It almost never worked correctly on my test, making it near impossible for me to finish a call without fiddling with the Power button. Group-text worked fine with the number of iPhone and Android users, but one OnePlus has some issues downloading pictures sent as MMS.
Also onboard is a dual-band 802.11b / g / n / ac Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0. The OnePlus One has no problem connecting to a network of many Wi-Fi and easily paired with an ERA by Jawbone Bluetooth headset.