The latest smartphone from Chinese upstart OnePlus is a self-proclaimed “2016 flagship killer” starting at just £239 in the UK, but is it really that good?



OnePlus has made a name, in some circles at least, for creating solid high-performance smartphones that rival top-end devices from the likes of Samsung, LG and Apple for less than half the price.

Can the OnePlus 2 better the solid start made by the OnePlus One?

Simple, solid and grippy

Sandstone black back feels like light sandpaper, which makes for an easy-to-grip phone. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The OnePlus 2 is a significant step up in build quality and design. The all-glass front, metal sides and removable plastic back all feel very well built with absolutely no give or twist anywhere in the body.

The default “sandstone black” back cover won’t be to everyone’s taste with its sandpaper-like texture. It helps the phone stay put in your hand, though, where every other metal or glass-backed phone is quickly becoming slippery like a bar of soap. The curvature of the back also makes it easy to hold.

The OnePlus 2 is quite thick and heavy by today’s standards at 9.9mm thick and 175g in weight. For comparison the 5.1in Samsung Galaxy S6 is 6.8mm thick and weighs 138g and the new 5.7in S6 Edge+ is 6.9mm thick and weighs 153g. LG’s 5.5in G4, however, is 9.8mm thick and weighs 155g.

The 5.5in screen has a 1080p resolution and a pixel density of 401 pixels per inch (ppi), which is significantly less dense than the 5.5in quad HD screen of the LG G4 with 538ppi. The difference is noticeable, the higher resolution screen is sharper, but for the money most users will likely be satisfied with the sharpness of the 1080p screen.

Viewing angles are good, but the colour reproduction of the display is somewhat muted. Whether that’s good or bad depends on personal preference, but it makes photos look a little dull compared to the richer screens of most of the OnePlus 2’s competition.

One of the OnePlus 2’s most interesting features is a slider for selecting between notification settings: alarms only, priority notifications and all notifications. It works well and is a thoughtful addition.

The mute slider on the side works well and makes using Google’s priority notifications much easier. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Specifications

Screen: 5.5in 1080p LCD (401ppi)



5.5in 1080p LCD (401ppi) Processor: Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor



Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor RAM: 3/4GB of RAM



3/4GB of RAM Storage: 16/64GB; no micro SD card slot



16/64GB; no micro SD card slot Operating system: Android 5.1.1 “Lollipop” with OxygenOS



Android 5.1.1 “Lollipop” with OxygenOS Camera: 13MP rear camera with OIS and laser autofocus, 5MP selfie cam



13MP rear camera with OIS and laser autofocus, 5MP selfie cam Connectivity: Dual-Sim LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, Glonass and USB-C



Dual-Sim LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, Glonass and USB-C Dimensions: 151.8 x 74.9 x 9.85mm



151.8 x 74.9 x 9.85mm Weight: 175g



Hot and fiery

Hot to touch but the screen is slightly muted compared to the saturated Amoled screens common on high-end devices. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The OnePlus 2 has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor, which is notorious for getting very warm, and a choice of 3 or 4GB of RAM depending on whether it comes with 16 or 64GB of storage space.

The phone flies along, with little lag beyond the home button (more on that later), but the OnePlus 2 can get uncomfortably hot. During normal use the phone gets warm to touch, which is fine. When downloading a series of apps during setup, however, it got uncomfortably hot to the touch – there was no way I was putting that in my pocket.

It only heats up at the top section of the phone around the camera, top edges and buttons. The bottom stays cool, which means most will not notice it until touching the top or attempting to make a call. No slowdown due to heat was noticeable.

Dual sim and USB-C

The sim card tray holds two Sim cards at a time so that two numbers can be used simultaneously. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The OnePlus 2 can take two sim cards, which mean two numbers and plans can be used simultaneously. A work and a personal number can come to the same phone, or a local sim can be used while traveling alongside a home sim to make calls and data cheaper. Dual-sim support is rare in devices available in the UK, but more common in China and devices aimed at developing markets.

The OnePlus 2 is one of the first smartphones to come equipped with the new USB type-C connector instead of microUSB. It can be put in either way up and is much easier to use. Even the other end, the one that plugs into a USB port or charger, can be inserted either way up. It is only USB2, however, which means the OnePlus 2 does not benefit from the faster transfer speeds of USB3.

USB-C is new and cables are in short supply, which means you will have to carry around the OnePlus 2’s cable to make sure you can charge it. That won’t be a problem in the future, when more devices switch over to the new connector.

The USB type-C connector can be plugged into the end of the smartphone either way up, which means no more fumbling to find the right way up. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The OnePlus 2 lasted around 1.5 days per charge in my testing involving listening to three hours of music streamed over Bluetooth, 20 minutes of gaming, 90 minutes of browsing and hundreds of notifications and emails.

For most people the OnePlus will likely last two days between charges.

Missing features

The OnePlus 2 is lacking a few obvious features that are quickly becoming the mainstay of the flagship smartphones OnePlus portends to try and kill.

One is near-field communications (NFC), which is under used now, primarily for pairing Bluetooth devices with one tap (no pin required) or setting up a new phone and moving details from an old one.

However, in the near future when Android 6 Marshmallow and Android Pay rolls out, which uses the NFC chip and fingerprint scanner to authenticate contactless payments in stops and stores, NFC will become a much more important feature.

Wireless charging and is quick charging are also missing, which means the OnePlus 2 takes over two hours to fully charge instead of under 90 minutes.

Software

Gestures and buttons can be modified along with a range of other small tweaks to the standard Android experience. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The OnePlus 2 runs the company’s own version of Android called OxygenOS, instead of Cyanogen OS like the OnePlus One after a falling out between the two companies.

Most users will not notice the difference between OxygenOS, Cyanogen OS and standard Android Lollipop experience. It looks good, runs fast, is bloat free and is immune to the Stagefright security bug out of the box.

OnePlus has added a couple of noteworthy features. Its app permissions settings allows users to restrict app access on a case-by-case basis to phone features and personal data such as location, camera and audio recording.

Gestures for activating features such the camera and flashlight are also useful, as are options to change the battery icon in the status bar and to arrange the quick settings tiles.

Some bugs within the software are present. I was using the latest version of the OnePlus 2’s software but occasionally it would crash, such as when attempting to access the permissions screen of certain apps. The smartphone would also get to 5% battery and instantly shut off, meaning the battery meter wasn’t quite right.

Camera

The 13-megapixel camera on the OnePlus 2 is solid, if a little slow. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The OnePlus 2’s 13-megapixel camera is very good for the price, with significantly better detail, sharpness and clarity than almost any smartphone under £300. It doesn’t have quite as good depth of field or image reproduction compared to the camera on the Samsung Galaxy S6 or LG G4, for instance, but it is close.

Low light performance is decent, but the camera app is relatively sluggish, occasionally taking a while to capture the image, which sometimes means the subject has left the frame before the picture is taken. The five megapixel selfiecam is also solid, surpassing most of the competition.

Fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint scanner is great when it works, but can be confused by smudges on the glass home button and software bugs stop it waking the phone every time. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The home button on the OnePlus 2 is a fingerprint scanner, which recognised my thumbs around 90% of the time making it one of the best.

It is capable of waking up and unlocking the smartphone straight to the homescreen, which is great when it works. I found that smudges on the glass caused issues, and around 30% of the time the fingerprint sensor failed to wake the phone, which was irritating.

The home button can also be very unresponsive requiring a solid push of the thumb to get it to do anything, rather than a light touch as it should be.

Apps such as Evernote and Lastpass also can’t use the sensor, as they can on a Samsung Galaxy S6 for instance, meaning the fingerprint scanner is relegated to simply unlocking the phone and nothing else. That may change in the future.

Price

The OnePlus 2 costs £239 for the 16GB storage version with 3GB of RAM or £289 for the 64GB version with 4GB of RAM. For comparison a 32GB Samsung Galaxy S6 costs £415 and an LG G4 costs £340.

Verdict

The OnePlus 2 gets a lot of things right, and only a few things wrong. The build quality is great, the design is attractive, the specifications high and the software is good.

There are a few software bugs to work out, the sandpaper-like back doesn’t feel premium, it’s quite heavy and the lack of NFC, in particular, is irritating and will hamper futureproofing. The heat issue of the Snapdragon 810 processor remains, but only crops up from time to time.

On the whole the OnePlus 2 isn’t the “2016 flagship killer” it claims to be, but it is a very good smartphone for under £300. The biggest issue is actually buying one, which requires an invite – a type of queuing system - that is hard to come by.

Pros: fast, powerful, good camera, fingerprint sensor, stock Android with a few useful additions, excellent value, USB-C, dual-Sim, decent screen Cons: poor quality speaker, no NFC, no wireless charging, no quick charge, USB-C, difficult to buy, software bugs, gets really hot

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