Design, Features, and Call Quality
The OnePlus One does not feel like a sub-$ 400 phone, but if your expectations are informed only by Nexus 5 experience. Its clean lines and strict quality build evoke a sense sorely lacking in desirability to budget-friendly terrain. Yes it is large (6.02 by 2.99 by 0.35 inches) and yes it is all plastic, but the size is a given with phablets, and feel solid, not glossy polycarbonate Nokia and Samsung flexible 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 OnePlus commitment swappable options like real wood and carbon fiber. OnePlus's philosophy may be "never settle," but fans of the removable battery and expandable storage will have to settle for the non-removable battery 3,100mAh and built-in storage. In our initial test, the OnePlus One lasted for 17 hours of continuous talk time, but dropped calls with the remaining about 10% battery life. That should be more than enough battery life for a day's worth of moderate usage, 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 find any real difference Sharpness at this level (401 ppi), while the viewing angle is almost 180 degrees and color reproduction is neutral without looking muted. Below the display is capacitive Menu, Home, and Back buttons, but you can disable it in favor of standard software keys to navigate.
There are two speaker grilles flanking the micro USB port on the bottom edge, you get surprisingly loud, but the sound is still pretty thin. Above the display is a multi-colored notification LED is far too evident in its default configuration, but can be toned down in the settings menu.
With the GSM (850/900/1800 / 1900MHz), UMTS (bands 1/2/4/5/8), and LTE (bands 1/3/4/7/17/38/40), the OnePlus One better equipped to handle a variety of networks, including aT & T and T-Mobile here in the US I tested the phone with an aT & T SIM, which worked perfect 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 hard to hear over even the most innocuous of surrounding noise. Shipping via mic fared better, coming more clear, but still on the low side for volume. The headphone jack works fine for music, not like in our initial hands on, but the 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. In most phones, taking the phone away from your face during or after the call is wake the screen from sleep. It is almost never worked correctly on my test, making it near impossible for me to finish a call without fiddling with the Power button. Group texting worked fine with a number of iPhone and Android users, but one OnePlus has some issues with downloading pictures sent as MMS.
Also onboard are dual-band 802.11b / g / n / ac Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0. The OnePlus One has no problem connecting to a multitude of network Wi-Fi and easily paired with an ERA by JAWBONE Bluetooth headset.