Among the sea of Android handset manufacturers, for me personally, there are 3 manufacturers that stand out most at the moment:
Xiaomi – for producing great phones with exemplary build quality at an incredible pace that has one of the best android skin out there and great price.
Samsung – for knowing that their past plasticky designs are crap and having the balls to really turn things around with their Galaxy A & S series, which makes them truly going toe-to-toe with Apple (finally!), and then there’s the OnePlus.
I won’t fault you if you haven’t heard about this peculiar Chinese brand, it’s because of 1) they’re new, and 2) they are not available broadly due to the unique way they market & distribute the product (read: ridiculous).
But they have created devices that has flagship specifications with half the price of a Galaxy S6, which gained them great reputation from their users and blows the online reviews out of the water.
It suits their motto – Never settle – where it supposedly reflects their desire to always push the boundaries of what a flagship phone should be. (it’s a great motto, but you might not want to implement it to your love life)
Now, they’re officially entering the market through official sales channel locally with OnePlus X, their lower range device compared to their flagship, the OnePlus 2 . It has the older Snapdragon 801 processor (which is definitely no slouch), 3 gigs of RAM, and 16 gigs of internal memory with expendable storage capability.
What’s so special about this device? Well, for starters, it uses glass & metal constructions – the premium materials that most flagship phones uses – but here’s where it truly shines: the price. It costs US$250, or around 2,8 – 3,3 million, depends on where you’re getting them.
Right now it’s sold through BliBli, but you can always find some agan-agan reseller in KasKus peddling them as well. For the price, it’s hard to find other phones that can compete with the specifications while wrapped in such exceptional choice of material.
Let’s start with the packaging. In short, it’s Apple-esque in terms of the material & craftsmanship that they used. Thick & smooth carton laminated in doff finishing, that gives you that slow drop when you’re opening the device.
Opening it, you’re presented with the device neatly on top of the first box layer. Lift it out, and you’ll see the cool tangle-free OnePlus USB cable that makes other USB cables look thoughtless in comparison.
There’s also your regular stuff, SIM tool (that you can replace with paperclip), papers & warranty, but no headphones included. This is basically to reduce the cost, and since i already have several headphones, i won’t be losing sleep over this.
What surprises me are the inclusion of screen protector (installed) and a silicon case. Something that no other brand haven’t done before. I guess the reason why they do this is because of the phone’s design itself. Just look at it.
Silky smooth black glass sandwich the solid metal frame, with ridged texture on the sides and button. It’s truly a beauty to behold. Some people are comparing this with the iPhone 4 which in my opinion, remains Apple’s phone with the best choice of material by far. The cold & silky feeling and the heft does a good job of assuring you that this is a premium device. A jewel perhaps.
The size (5 inch) also makes it the perfect size for me. Some people take comfort in smaller screens or bigger ones, but my sweet spot is 4.7-5.1 inch, and this phone suits it nicely. This phone supports either dual SIM card (for that other person you want to hush about? – hey, I won’t judge) or Micro SD card on its tray. I do prefer separate slots, but this will do just fine since I only use one phone number.
I’ll be using this phone as my main device for the upcoming days, to see where it performs in processor performance, battery life, camera, sound quality, and overall durability – since my phones are usually drenched in sweat whenever I took them for running, and just the overall day-to-day perks of using them.
Feel free to shoot any questions and i’ll try my best to answer them. Cheers!
lifejoyblogs 