OnePlus One - my review

Just a month back my Nokia Lumia 820 conked off and its display got screwed up! Courtesy - my wife!

Lumia 820 was a fantastic phone (and it still is!) with great display and camera however was handicapped because of the Windows OS. Mind you Windows OS is pretty good but for a person who has tasted the Android blood, this OS may be primitive stuff.

I got the Lumia 820 one day after its launch which is more than 2 years and hence I decided to go for a new one.

There were lot of mobiles in my contention like ASUS Zenphone, Moto G (2nd Gen),  Xiomi but then when I did some research on the OnePlus One, I was bowled over.

I would consider it as the Numero Uno phone of the segment and it would give the rest of the "master" androids a run for their money.

After a lot hard work over the social media for the invite finally ordered the phone with 10 mins in hand for its expiry.

My take:

Size: one of the features where I was a little apprehensive cos I find 5.5" a little too big. I have used Dell Streak earlier and people used to gaze with awe because 5" during those days was a big deal. In two days when i got my OnePlus, this fear went out of the window.

5.5” inch is big. Yes it is, but you can handle it with two hands it’s easy. Size is one of the best features of this phone and you would realize this only when you watch a few videos on this phone. Remember the Sandstone finish? – gives a super awesome rough grip.

Display – is a stunner with 401 Pixel/inch! It has awesome color reproduction with great sharpness.  Auto brightness and the warm hue are additions for ambient lights and eye fatigues.

Call Quality – Fantastic call quality with noise cancellation

Battery Life – I would say is average compared to their tall claims with 3100 mAh battery. For me it comes around a day with decent use (not heavy for sure!) and I think my phone battery is still getting acclimatized with my usage. Pl remember I DON’T game at all and I have hardly 80-90 apps overall with 20 odd apps always active in the background.

Design – Absolute beauty! Thin, lightweight (trust me!) and the finish gives it a posh look. It is made up of high quality plastic but nowhere would you get the feel of that material. It will fit into the pocket but riding a bike with it is a challenge because you would be cramped for space when you bend your legs for the gear/brakes.

Processor - Snapdragon 801 Quad Core Processor clocked at 2.5 GHz for flawless performance and Adreno 330 GPU for perfect acceleration at par with iOS devices. The Device has 3 GB of RAM and works like a war horse!

Media & Sound: Full HD support and plays almost all the important file extensions. Sound quality is better than the most and with the headsets (JBL Silver Bullet), I cannot ask for anything more.

Camera – plays a spoilsport here. 13 MP rear camera with Sony glasses and 5 MP front. My selfie pics are much much better than the other pics from the rear camera cos of motions blurs resulting due to the absence of IS. I think the rear camera pic quality is poor compared to the Lumia 820 carl zeiss lens though was had less mega pixels.

Storage – 64GB (Internal only!) is like a world in your phone! What more?

Price – 22k, is awesomely priced for this featured phone which would beat its competition with same or similar features hands down.

Overall there’s lot hype behind this phone but after a month and more of usage I think this phone is a beast. It is the best Android device available in the marked and would go on to kill its competition in the same circuit. The invitation is a pain but it’s worth it!

For me: Air, Water, Cloth, Food, RE Bullet & now OnePlus One! :)