
The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be - Zweihander
http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/27/9051753/oneplus-2-smartphone-hands-on
======
TeMPOraL
I'm completely disappointed with the way phone market evolves. I don't want a
_cheap_ phone, I want a phone that works.

I want my phone to have enough memory and processing power to handle its
operating system without hiccups. It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can
just start lagging on you. I want my phone to have it all - Bluetooth, WiFi,
IrDA, accelerometer, thermometer, barometer, SD card, double SIM, removable
battery; all sensors and standard protocols and features that companies use
now to segment markets. I don't see a reason for a phone to not to have it all
other than vendors trying to extract more money from people by forcing them to
choose the least inferior option. But fuck it, I'll pay even $1000+, just
create a phone that works.

And I want a tool, not a fitness toy for bored first-worlders. Double, no -
triply so for wearables. People ask me why I just bought a Pebble instead of
one of those shiny touch-screen "smart"watches. It's simple - I want a tool,
not a glorified pedometer. While I think a touchscreen would be really
welcome, still, Pebble seems to be the only wearables company that wants to
make something useful instead of shiny. But I am yet to find such a comapny
for phones themselves.

It's disheartening when you compare what we know we can do with what is
actually done because of business reasons.

~~~
userbinator
_It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you_

IMHO the blame for that lies with the software, not the hardware. Android is
basically the realisation of the original Java OS, but on hardware fast enough
that its performance has become "acceptable" \- most of the time.

As for the other features; Bluetooth, WiFi, accelerometer (and
compass/magnetometer), SD, dual-SIM, and removable battery are pretty much
standard on every generic Chinese phone now since they're based on reference
designs that have all those components (they cost almost nothing - it would
probably take more work to _remove_ them and customise the HW/SW - and it's
yet another feature point they can list.)

I'd consider such a "full-featured" phone "flagship", but what the term
appears to mean today is just a fast CPU, big screen, and pretty looks, with
the other features appearing and disappearing seemingly randomly.

~~~
ofcapl_
I don't want to start here any flame war or something, but that's the main
reason why I've switched to Windows Phone OS - for 100$ - 150$ You've got the
system that runs like a charm (I'm not smartphone power user so all apps I
need are available in Windows Store)

~~~
Alterlife
I HAD a windows phone (Lumia 620) for about 6 months before I gave up trying
to get used to it and went back to Android.

The animations are just too slow and annoying for me to get used to. There
needs to be a way to turn them off. The phone wasn't laggy. It's just the
animations that got on my nerves.

~~~
vvillena
The animations in Windows Phone hide the loading times. The phone wouldn't be
any faster without them.

------
wtbob
I'm really sad that it won't have CyanogenMod; that was the biggest reason
that I purchased a One. It's a real shame that there was that whole fight over
exclusivity in India (IIRC, it sounds like CM's fault, but I'm not 100%
certain).

I'm interested to read details of how the fingerprint unlock works. Remember
that a fingerprint reader is insufficient to be secure, as fingerprints are
low-entropy and relatively public.

~~~
beefsack
If they don't lock it down and is similar to the One, then it should be
incredibly easy to switch to CM.

I'm running CM12.1 on my One at the moment and it's leaps and bounds better
than the stock CM11S ROM that comes with the device.

~~~
patrickdavey
I have been slightly paranoid to flash mine (came from China I think and not
quite correctly installed as the OTA updates don't take with a signature
mismatch). If you have the time - can you tell me

1\. Are they easy to brick? 2\. Is there a decent guide for updating?

Thanks!

~~~
eyko
Just back it up, fastboot unlock, and flash a recovery image. You'll thank
yourself you did it. As per your questions:

1\. Not that easy to completely brick. If you try to flash the wrong recovery
or boot, it will fail to start even in recovery mode (bricked?). I've done
that to mine, but I was still able to boot it up while tethered (I have two
phones and I inadvertently used the image for my other phone on my One Plus).

2\. Loads of guides on their forums or google in general. Also, Nexus 4 or 5
guides are the same procedure, just replacing with the relevant images and
ROMs (the OnePlus One's codename is Bacon, in case you're looking at what roms
to download).

------
smcl
Is anyone else in the "My perfect phone would be my current one but with a
battery that easily lasts 3+ days" boat? I've currently got an iPhone 5S, and
I can achieve this with those portable USB chargers. I've no need for any of
the other features which new generations of smartphones are adding (multi-
core\multi-ghz processors, huge amounts of RAM etc), though there's _perhaps_
a killer app round the corner which will advantage of this. Otherwise I cannot
see myself replacing my 5S in the next couple of years (except for Apple
dropping support, or me dropping it in my beer)

~~~
crdb
Depending on how heavy your use is, you should look at the Xiaomi Mi4i.

I picked it up as a Nexus 5 replacement solely for the ridiculously large
battery (3100mAh or 72% more than the similarly sized iPhone 6 and still 6%
more than the 6 Plus). It's slimmer and more solid (the N5 has a tendency to
get dented), and arguably has better specs (it definitely deals with Skype, my
only performance hog, much better). When I was in the market, there was
nothing that came close in terms of battery life. IRL it has been alright, if
I read a book and check emails most of the time it will die in about 32 hours
but going into town for meetings (i.e. only using maps, email and the odd
Kindle), I've found it only lost 30% battery/day.

Cost me around 205 USD including shipping and a 6 month warranty, but if it
breaks I'll just buy another one. It's only 1/5th the cost of an iPhone...

The Xiaomi portable chargers are also pretty neat.

I don't know about US availability as it appears most things Xiaomi are
directly ripped off Apple and there's probably copyright issues. Check out the
Mi Note to see what I mean...

~~~
smcl
I'm in the EU so I suspect it maybe a little easier to pickup a Xiami phone.
3100mAh is pretty impressive by the sounds of things, so as long as the power
consumption hasn't scaled similarly that could be an interesting option. I'll
check it out!

~~~
crdb
Watch out not to get the Mi 4 by accident. The Mi4i was launched this year and
was basically designed to be a "premium smartphone at emerging markets prices"
whereas the Mi 4 is the "China flagship", whose design is a stretched iPhone
5S (you might like that though) just like the Samsung Alpha. It's a lot more
expensive and as far as I'm concerned unjustifiably so. i stands for
"international".

I don't think the power consumption is as smart as the N5; it def drains about
the same in airplane mode as not in airplane mode, whilst the N5 basically
became as good as switched off. On the upside power management seems much
better when it comes to dealing with networks; maybe I was on the wrong
frequency bands. The N5 battery was shockingly bad; after a year and a half I
was getting barely 1.5 hours of use out of the thing. Great when you're
stranded in Tokyo and relying on Google Maps and Translate...

FWIW my iPhone 4 from years ago is still the most durable phone I've owned. I
still get a good 3 days battery out of it (it's our guest phone) and it can go
weeks on airplane mode in the drawer. But when you've tasted a 5" screen and
multitasking, it really is too little...

------
4lun
No NFC, which seems like an odd choice. Wonder how much that shaved off the
manufacturing cost.

[http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/07/27/oneplus-says-it-
drop...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/07/27/oneplus-says-it-dropped-nfc-
from-the-oneplus-2-because-oneplus-one-owners-werent-using-it/)

~~~
johnm1019
I'm guessing it was more related to the 'feature' of having replaceable
backplates.

------
kijin
Give me a 4.5-inch phone with slightly lower specs (a battery-saving 720p
screen would be enough at that size) for less than $300, and I'm sold.

For the time being, though, I'm going to wait out the "my phone is bigger than
your dick" game that everyone and their dog seems to be engaged in. 175 grams
is way too heavy to carry around in a pocket, let alone hold with one hand for
more than a few minutes. And yet everyone competes in the already overcrowded
"flagship" market instead of trying to find a niche.

I hope at least some manufactorers will return to their senses before my
4.27-inch, 107-gram Galaxy S4 Mini begins to feel unbearably slow.

~~~
zphds
You could pick up the Nexus 5. I switched to OPO from Nexus 5 and it had the
perfect dimensions. Lightweight and great for one-hand usage. The battery is a
bummer though.

~~~
kijin
The maximum screen size I'm looking for is 4.5 inches, maybe 4.7 if the bezel
is very thin. Maximum weight: around 120 grams.

The Nexus 5 is bigger and heavier than that, but I'm keeping it near the edge
of my radar in case I have no other choice.

<rant> LG recently began to market the Gram, a series of high-end ultrabooks
that weigh less than 1000 grams. Why on Earth is nobody trying to market
medium-to-high-end phones that weigh less than 100 grams? </rant>

------
NietTim
I'm sorry but, 400 bucks is cheap now? It's a great phone for the price, don't
get me wrong, but I think 400 bucks is a lot of money.

~~~
darklajid
'Cheap' is used in a specific context here. The headline says 'how cheap a
_flagship_ phone can be'.

There are cheaper phones out there. Would you name them among 'flagship'
devices?

~~~
pjc50
What's the minimum spec to be considered "flagship?"

------
danieldk
I think Asus deserves some credit here as well for selling a 4GB RAM Intel
Atom phone with dual SIM and SD card slot for comparable prices:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_ZenFone#ZenFone_2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_ZenFone#ZenFone_2)

Of course, as usual, their own skin and who knows how long you get updates.

~~~
kijin
Forget updates, you can even run full-blown Windows 10 and Office on that
beast. If only it came with Windows apps and drivers to use the phone-related
features...

[http://www.greenbot.com/article/2946255/windows-7-running-
on...](http://www.greenbot.com/article/2946255/windows-7-running-on-an-asus-
zenfone-2-is-too-cool-not-to-share.html)

~~~
userbinator
That's being done with KVM, so it's not really booting and running Win7
natively on the phone (the hardware is probably not close enough to a PC to be
able to do this) but inside a VM.

You can find people running various other versions of Windows (and even MS-
DOS) on an Android phone, again as a VM.

------
userbinator
It has a removable back, but no removable battery or expandable storage? I can
sort of understand if the back wasn't removable... but on this one, it is. In
this price range you can find many other Android phones which do have those
features.

Here's one, for example:

[https://www.fastcardtech.com/Elephone-P7000-Android-
Phone.ht...](https://www.fastcardtech.com/Elephone-P7000-Android-Phone.html)

------
mike-cardwell
No NFC? Guess I'll have to stick with my OnePlus One if I want to continue to
use PGP safely on my phone -
[https://grepular.com/An_NFC_PGP_SmartCard_For_Android](https://grepular.com/An_NFC_PGP_SmartCard_For_Android)

------
bruceb
The competitiveness of the Android handset market gets even more brutal. 4.7"
to 5.5" is flooded with phones that are that are $199-$399.

This is not including models that are 12+ months old that are discounted but
still have solid specs.

~~~
pja
Heck, my Nexus 4 is still perfectly usable. The only real motivation for me to
upgrade is LTE (which has finally rolled out to my city in the UK).

~~~
sellweek
What's your experience with Lollipop? Mine had pretty large problems with 3G
and Wi-Fi signals after upgrading.

~~~
pja
I’m running Cyanogenmod 12.1 & everything has been fine so far. Haven’t tried
the official Android L releases.

------
SimplyUseless
In all of the comments, I see a lot of excitement about the "features" the
company is able to pack for a "low" cost.

I would like to say this in simplest possible way

\-- One plus one support model and execution is poorest of all phone makers --

The emphasis and culture in the company is to grow fast without concern
towards individuals paying still very high prices for their phones but not
getting the worth. The half life of the phone is lower than market and people
do face issues when the OS changes are pushed without a good amount of
testing.

One plus one forums are inundated with people all over the world having
hardware issues and the insufficient support they have been receiving. The
founder Carl Pei has made commitments to improve support however the progress
has fallen short on promises.

One Plus One ended up being a huge lesson for many customers. One plus two
would just end up being another phone without company getting its act
together.

~~~
tdkl
Sounds like a Nexus by Google, so ...

------
vinceyuan
_> For $300, you got a well-made, nice-looking phone with cutting-edge
hardware and few compromises to be found_

I don't think it is nice-looking. It's not ugly. It's just normal. It looks
very similar to some Android phones.

------
yCloser
OnePlusOne was interesting mainly because it had cyanogenmod. I can't wait to
read reviews about OxygenOS. (but I have to say: cyanogen was much more
interesting)

~~~
mfjordvald
OxygenOS is being made by the Paranoid Android team. These guys definitely
know what they're doing. Expect a more minimal experience with UX
optimizations aimed at features users use daily.

------
sergiotapia
Disappointed with the invite system again. Did the first version no sell well
enough?

~~~
tudborg
The opposite. To little supply for the demand. They used the invites to
"throttle" the purchase rate to be able to keep up. They probably thought an
invite system was a better aproach than a weekly free-for-all aka. SuiciDDOS
against the webshop. Hopefully, this time supply will be significantly higher,
meaning the invite system will be removed as soon as they know they can keep
up with demand.

~~~
tomjen3
Even if that only takes six months the phones isn't going to be interesting by
the time you can actively purchase it.

~~~
alimbada
You buy phones for their "interesting" factor rather than actually wanting to
use it as a phone? If so, you're probably an _extremely_ tiny minority in that
regard...

~~~
tomjen3
By not interesting I mean a better version from some other company will be
available.

------
moondowner
"features a 5.5-inch, 1080p screen"

I hope it's not the same screen as in the One... Other than that, it looks
like a good improvement.

------
almightysmudge
If it's anything like the Oneplus One it's a buggy ill supported piece of
crap.

~~~
rjcz
I take it you own one and would like your objective opinion. What exactly was
wrong with it?

~~~
almightysmudge
I was in a bit of a mood with it when I commented, but for good reason. A
couple of the problems I've had :-

When the battery drained, it refused to boot past the "cyanogen" boot screen.
Twice. A common problem that required a factory reset. Would say it's charged
to 100%, until the moment the USB was removed and it instantly went to 4%.
Every time, no matter whether it had been drained, or charged when turned
on/off. Again, factory reset fixed it. Wont vibrate more than once with the
OnePlus official flip cover when calls are incoming on silent mode. WhatsApp
vibrations cant be turned off since CM12 upgrade. Doesn't do 4G in Europe.
There's probably a carrier whom it does work with, but from my last bit of
research there isn't in the UK. Perhaps Three though.

I've used CM happily on other handsets, and encountered far fewer and far less
frustrating. However if you're marketing a phone specifically to be used with
CM, I'd expect a lot more QA to be put into it. If you're happy with a
"hackable" phone and you're willing to put up with missing calls, disappearing
notifications, private lock screen notifications showing message contents
still, then it's not a bad way to waste £300, but I want a reliable phone I
dont have to fight with, so I'm sacking it off very soon.

