This is the OnePlus One!
The only Android phone that made me care about Android devices in general.
It was released in June 2014 and I immediately fell in love with it.
At the time it was very difficult to acquire though.
You had to have a special invite in order to buy one and I was begging left and right
for someone to send me a code.
I had no success, and then out of nowhere, I found the phone selling in a local store.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Apparently, they had bought a few devices, but no one had heard about the brand yet,
and people were reluctant to buy them, so a few in stock, the OnePlus Ones were quietly
sitting there, ready to be purchased.
I immediately snatched one, and the enchantment happened.
The unboxing experience was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, at least from an Android
perspective.
The phone had this sandstone finish that was grippy and cool.
The OS was minimal, flat and clean, compared to everything else on the market.
It was absolutely stunning.
The whole idea about OnePlus was sort of rebellious.
5 years later, that same OnePlus One is here, still working.
Briefly, here’s what it’s been through.
I used it for about a year as my daily driver, after which I moved to use other Android phones
for testing purposes.
This OnePlus found itself in the hands of our office assistant who used it extensively
for 2 years as her main device.
Now, it still serves as a testing phone for the apps that we build at the office.
You can imagine what its been through over the last years...yet, it still works like
a champ.
Hey guys, this is E and let’s check out the OnePlus One in 2019...right before the
release of the OnePlus 7.
Let’s start with the obvious wear and tear.
After 5 years of total abuse, pockets, bags, occasional drops, and numerous hands this
device has aged with dignity.
The back sandstone panel is now very soft and flat to the touch and wears the scars
of life, but I think it looks quite good.
Let’s not forget that this is, in fact, a removable back that not only reveals the
beautiful red battery, but it is also replaceable, so if I had a new one
I could change it real quick.
No water resistance I need to worry about.
Perhaps the most visible damage has been done to the front glass, which is Gorilla Glass 3.
Since it lived without any protection, there are significant, visible scratches.
But again, nothing that compromises the functionality.
This phone charges it’s 3100mAh battery via MicroUSB, cause USB-C was not a thing
in 2014 let alone Dash Charge.
Surprisingly, the battery still lasts a full day, and it has absolutely brutal standby
time.
The 5.5” IPC LCD panel works great in this regular 16:9 ratio.
It is plenty bright for its time and is very responsive.
The fixed on-screen navigation buttons on the bottom of it, are a bit dim already and
they are hard to see, but they still work.
As you can guess, they are fixed in place, so you cannot choose the arrangement.
This phone predates face recognition and came out around the time fingerprint sensors were
a breakthrough, so the only security options here are passcodes or pattern locks.
The OnePlus One is running Android 6.0.1 Marshmellow with Cyanogen 13.1.2.
When it first came out, this phone arrived with Android KitKat with a very edgy and flat
skin which I still love and miss to this day.
Due to proper optimization and software integration, the Quad-core 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 with
3GB of RAM is more than enough and 5 years later, this phone runs silky smooth and perhaps
better than the Pixels of today.
The entire experience is absolutely effortless.
Aside from the lack of OS gestures and some of the latest Android features, the overall
experience with this phone very pleasant.
Apps load decently fast and management is pretty good.
The OnePlus 1 has a single 13MP main shooter with f.2.0 aperture and this is perhaps the
one component of the device that really shows the age of the phone.
Cameras have become so good these days, that even to the untrained eye, one can tell that
this is an older device.
Surprisingly, this phone is capable of a 4k video recording which honestly, I don’t
remember being possible at the release of the OnePlus.
Apparently it was.
What was also possible, was out of the box 64GB storage, which is 2014 was what 512GB
of storage is today.
All this, for a price of...wait for it - $349.
This was the true flagship killer at the time.
What does all this say about OnePlus?
The built quality of this phone shows OnePlus' determination.
It was truly a device that deserves the slogan NEVER SETTLE.
I can only hope that the soon to be announced OnePlus 7 (or its multiple variations) will
follow the great foundation of their first and true flagship killer.
As for this very phone, I think it is finally time to turn it off and give it some rest.
It deserves to be preserved and chill side by side with the best.
This is E
Over and out!