This is the $299 OnePlus One

Here it is, the phone launch we have been waiting for these past few months! The OnePlus One flagship has finally launched. Here are the full OnePlus One specifications and launch details.

Today’s launch held in Beijing marks the debut of OnePlus. It is hard to believe with all the hype surrounding the start-up that they had yet to put our their first phone, well here it finally is and here are all the important OnePlus One specifications and details.

OnePlus One Specifications and features

OnePlus had been quite open and honest about the OnePlus One, providing teasers and even announcing key specification details of the phone before the launch. If you had managed to miss earlier coverage then let me remind you.

Similar to the Oppo Find 7a the OnePlus One gets a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display from JDI with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, Qualcomm provide the Snapdragon 801 processor running at 2.5Ghz, plus there is a hearty Adreno 330Gpu and 3GB RAM on board.

Onboard storage options include either a 16GB version of 64GB model. There is no micro SD card so choose the memory option you want with care especially if you like to watch video or take plenty of photos. Speaking of the camera the rear sensor is a 13 megapixel Sony Exmor IMX214 with 6 lenses for better clarity, f2.0 aperture and dual LED flash. Camera features include 4K video recording, slow motion and all the usual still camera options such as panorama, HDR and filters. The front camera is a 5 mega-pixel 80 degree angle unit.

Audio is handled by built-in stereo speakers in the base of the phone, while 3 microphones in the body handle noise cancellation.

OnePlus announced the One with support for GSM, WCDMA 3G and LTE networks. Bands for each are GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900Mhz, WCDMA Bands 1/2/24/5/8 and 4G LTE bands: 1/3/4/7/17/38/40. WIFI 2.4/5Ghz 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, Glonass, NFC and a digital compass are all there too!

A 3100mAh battery is also included and while the rear panel can be removed and replaced with optional Style Swap covers the battery is a non removable unit. Charging is via a USB 2.0 plug in the base of the phone. Unfortunately fast charging VOOC isn’t supported.

All that is left is the single LED notification light at the top of the phone (yes, it has various colour options) and a micro SIM tray (which must be removed to remove the rear of the phone).

CyanogenMod 11s

Interestingly for the Chinese market the OnePlus One will ship with ColorOS, so today’s launch didn’t cover much about the features found in CyanogenMod 11S. However, we did get some hands on time with the CM version (an early build) which features themes store, optional on-screen buttons (when activated this turns off the capacitive buttons), and CyanogenMod’s own camera application.

The CM version of the phone will also include enhanced security for your SMS via CyanogenMod’s privacy guard. We’ll bring more details of the features once the final build has been announced.

OnePlus One Price and availability

So overall there were very few surprises with the OnePlus One launch. Features were as they said they would and the phone looks pretty good, and feels better in the hand than the Find 7a. So what about the big surprises OnePlus promised at the?

The price is the biggest surprise! in the run up to the launch OnePlus promised the OPO would cost less than $400 and they were not kidding! The OnePlus One will cost just $299 or 269 Euros for the 16GB version silk white model while the 64GB Sandstone black version will be just $349 or 299 Euros.

As already mentioned the OPO will be available via invite, however the first 100 phones will be available through the OnePlus One Phone Smash, which as you can probably guess ask fans to smash their current phones for the chance to buy a OnePlus One for only $1!

What do you think of the OnePlus One? Is this the phone you had hoped it would be? Do you plan to smash your current phone to get one?