Still an amazing purchase 5 years after it first came on the scene!

So there are 2 big caveats to using this phone in 2019. 1) While the stock software is perfectly stable and usable, Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) is badly outdated so be prepared to install custom ROM. 2) Camera quality does show it's age particularly in low light but is still capable of some pretty decent shots which is impressive for a 5 year old phone. Now with those 2 things out of the way, the OnePlus One is still a HIGHLY recommended phone for anyone in the budget market in 2019. I moved recently and my wife and I needed a couple of usable phones on the cheap and didn't wanna get locked into a phone contract. After going through multiple options, I decided to take the plunge and get 2 of these refurbished babies for my wife and I. Simply put...one of my best tech purchases in recent times. The display is still perfectly serviceable in 2019 and is way better than most other displays you'll get in other $100 budget options. It's obviously not bezeless or 18:9 aspect ratio but from a practicality standpoint, both those fads are pointless imo so this actually counts as an advantage over newer phones for me. The backlit on-screen navigation buttons are actually quite refreshing to use but since the buttons aren't actually physical, you can totally disable them in software if you prefer using a navbar with no real hassle. The micro USB slot is perfectly fine with me since I haven't really made the wholesale switch to USB C. I still think it's silly that the headphone jack is a "feature" in 2019 but this phone has one and it works well. The volume and power buttons are sensibly placed and reasonably tactile. The battery is non-removable but the 3100 mAh battery provides enough juice to take you through a day of light to regular usage quite comfortably. There's no Micro SD card slot but 64GB storage is more than adequate unless you store A LOT of videos and movies on your phone (which I don't do) so that's a win as well. Now my favorite part about this phone...how it actually works. I find it amazing that there are 2018 and 2019 budget and mid-rangeoptions effectively locked into Nougat and Oreo making them effectively obsolete/outdated from the very get-go, while this 2014 phone can be updated to a fully functional Pie ROM within a few minutes and runs it effortlessly. As mentioned before, it does require a little bit of technical know-how but for anyone who can use a computer reasonably well, rooting and installing custom software on this phone is easier and more accessible than almost any other brand of phone on the market. The custom ROM community is amazing for this device as well so there are many stable ROMs available from Kit Kat that this phone launched with all the way up to Pie (newest at the time of writing). Because of that community support, this phone with a SD 801 processor and 3GB RAM is a better value purchase than almost any budget phone out as it still runs extremely smoothly, handles daily tasks without a hitch and even does a solid job of handling light to moderate gaming. I'm not a heavy gamer but based on how smoothly this runs the games I tend to play (COC, Dream League, Duel Links, a couple of Nintendo emulators, etc), I'm pretty sure it can handle some modern titles fairly well. In summary, if you're on a budget, this is a wonderful option in 2019 if you get a decent refurbished model. The hardware holds up really well. Basic features like WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC all work wonderfully well. The only area of the phone which really shows it's age compared to modern mid-range options is the camera and that still produces pretty decent quality pics for a 5 year old smartphone camera. I know this is a longer review than most but this phone is so impressive that it's worth it to write an epistle gushing over what a great value it is right now. When this phone launched in 2014, I wanted one really badly and never got to have one. Now that I finally have one in 2019, I realize this phone was every bit as good as I thought it was then and is still an amazing value proposition today.. Photos attached 1 & 2) Screenshots from my wife's lockscreen running a Custom ROM for Android 9.0 Pie 3) Screenshot of my home screen on another Custom ROM based on Android 9.0 Pie 4 & 5) Pictures taken with actual review unit (my OnePlus One running Havoc OS 2.2 based on Android Pie. Low light situation with camera flash. Pictures intentionally scaled down to 3.1 MegaPixels since I really have no use for larger size pictures on my phone/laptop right now (plus the lower megapixel size means less memory used 😁)Read full review

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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned