Update: What are the differences between the International and Chinese OnePlus One?


oneplus one specifications

If you are waiting to get your hands on the OnePlus One and don’t have an invitation you might have been tempted to purchase the Chinese version of the phone, but what are the differences?

Update with info regarding LTE support in North America.

The OnePlus One is finally shipping to customers after a recent software update, but only to customers who are either lucky enough to already have an invite or manage to win one in the upcoming OnePlus promotion. This has left hopeful customers with a tricky decision, do they wait for an invite or do they import the OnePlus One from China?

OnePlus in China

Chinese OnePlus fans are much more fortunate than international fans. First of all there are many many more OPO in circulation in China, and secondly invitations aren’t needed to buy the phone.

oneplus one specifications

A first come first serve nature of sale in China has allowed clever buyers and resellers to secure stocks of the OnePlus One which they are now offering to international phone fans. So is there a catch? Is the Chinese OnePlus different to the international OnePlus One?

Differences between the Chinese and International OnePlus One

Going over the hardware specs we can see there is no major differences between the OnePlus One on sale in China and the one meant for invite customers, but differences do exist!

Update: LTE and WCMA

It has also come to our attention that LTE bands are different between the Chinese and Internatoinal OnePlus One. This isn’t going to affect customers in Europe much, but customers in the U.S will want to take a look at this. According to the specs LTE won’t work correctly in the U.S and you will only have partial WCDMA coverage. European customers are more lucky and will have LTE and WCDMA out of the box.

For more info for North American support follow the link below:

bands_int-chi

Gizchina News of the week


Cyanogenmod 11S

One of the major selling points of the OnePlus One is the CyanogenMod 11s custom ROM the phone ships with. Well here in China CM11s isn’t the default ROM! Instead the OPO comes with ColorOS, the same ROM found on Oppo phones.

Don’t worry about this too much though as it was announced during the OP launch that CM11S would be available to all customers to download as they please, so you should be able to switch OS once a download is available. Interestingly MIUI was also mentioned to be an alternate ROM so you can take a look at that too.

Read Also:  List of smartphones from Xiaomi, OnePlus and iQOO to be released in the last week of October

The body

Physically the Chinese and International OnePlus One are identical, but as CyanogenMod isn’t installed the CM branding is not on the Chinese version of the phone.

Again this is hardly a deal breaker and actually means the Chinese version of the phone looks cleaner, but if you did want the branding you could always buy an extra style cover (which many of you will likely do anyway).

Availability

Availability is another difference. If you want to be sure to get the OnePlus now while it is still a flagship killer I recommend you find a reliable reseller and buy one from China.

Pricing

As these Chinese OnePlus One phones aren’t being sold by OnePlus expect to pay slightly more over the international RRP. The additional cost will be to cover the resellers profit, shipping to them in China and possibly shipping and tax to your country of residence.

Warranty

As sales of the OnePlus have just begun we don’t know how they are going to handle warranties for imported phones. You might find that the only warranty you will have is through the reseller you buy it from, so again choose a reliable company.

Differences between the Chinese and International OnePlus One

oneplus one specifications

From all the details we have studied on the forums and the official OnePlus sites, these are the only differences between the two models, and there is really nothing here which might put a potential buyer off.

To be sure though we are currently awaiting the delivery of a Chinese OnePlus One to be shipped to us from reseller Lenteen. Interestingly they did offer to install CM for us before shipping, but we will do it ourselves and give you a how to article with instructions. We should receive the OnePlus One soon so keep posted for more news, how to’s and reviews.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

Previous Xiaomi: “We will start working on North America next year”
Next 2K display, 3GB RAM and 16MP camera, this is the Lenovo K920

36 Comments

    • June 13, 2014

      Added to the article 😀

      • nguser
        June 13, 2014

        Thanks 🙂

  1. nektarios
    June 12, 2014

    We are waiting impatiently

  2. iANDROID8.1
    June 12, 2014

    So there’s not much a difference after all

  3. miri
    June 12, 2014

    great job andi, looking forward to your oneplus posts…thanks

    • Andi Sykes
      June 13, 2014

      Added to the article 😀

    • nguser
      June 13, 2014

      Thanks 🙂

  4. Guest
    June 12, 2014

    We are waiting impatiently

  5. iANDROID8.1
    June 12, 2014

    So there’s not much a difference after all

  6. miri
    June 12, 2014

    great job andi, looking forward to your oneplus posts…thanks

  7. June 12, 2014

    Again you don’t mention the differences in LTE bands… It will not work properly in the US.

    • June 13, 2014

      Telling us the differences would be helpful then.

  8. Martin
    June 13, 2014

    Again you don’t mention the differences in LTE bands… It will not work properly in the US.

    • Andi Sykes
      June 13, 2014

      Telling us the differences would be helpful then.

  9. Johann von Schadowitz
    June 20, 2014

    Whjat about band 20 (800 MHz) as used by T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2/Telefonica in Germany?
    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_LTE-Netzwerken

    • Guest
      January 21, 2015

      Will not work on both International or Chinese OnePlus One.

  10. Johann von Schadowitz
    June 20, 2014

    Whjat about band 20 (800 MHz) as used by T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2/Telefonica in Germany?
    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_LTE-Netzwerken

    • Guest
      January 21, 2015

      Will not work on both International or Chinese OnePlus One.

  11. Charles
    June 26, 2014

    where to buy this in Hong Kong

  12. Guest
    June 27, 2014

    where to buy this in Hong Kong

  13. sylvain beauchamp
    July 1, 2014

    with the telus mobility is on lte is 1700!

  14. sylvain beauchamp
    July 1, 2014

    with the telus mobility is on lte is 1700!

  15. Jason
    July 13, 2014

    WIND in Canada uses the bands 1700/2100, which is AWS. Since this device supports 2100, do you think it will work on WIND? (Which is also T-Mobile in a way.)

  16. Guest
    July 13, 2014

    WIND in Canada uses the bands 1700/2100, which is AWS. Since this device supports 2100, do you think it will work on WIND? (Which is also T-Mobile in a way.)

  17. MetroMan
    July 21, 2014

    How about if you are an English speaker and have a Chinese phone in China, will the 4g that comes with the international version cause problems connecting to the Chinese, China Mobile or the Unicom systems. In other words I would like google play to get English apps but I am an English speaker using the phone in China?

  18. MetroMan
    July 22, 2014

    How about if you are an English speaker and have a Chinese phone in China, will the 4g that comes with the international version cause problems connecting to the Chinese, China Mobile or the Unicom systems. In other words I would like google play to get English apps but I am an English speaker using the phone in China?

  19. Fade
    October 10, 2014

    Is it a fake or produced by the same company? I’m not clear on where the chinese version comes from. Can you please explain?

    • December 10, 2014

      It’s from the same company

  20. Guest
    October 10, 2014

    Is it a fake or produced by the same company? I’m not clear on where the chinese version comes from. Can you please explain?

    • Aniss
      December 10, 2014

      It’s from the same company

  21. Yudi ^_^
    December 7, 2014

    Thnx man vuhuu!!!

  22. Guest
    December 8, 2014

    Thnx man vuhuu!!!

  23. Brian Obillo
    November 11, 2015

    Hi, i’m planning on buying a one plus one from someone and i’ve noticed his has china mobile 4g LTE brand at the back and a 4g label brand on the top right front of the phone. Is it legit considering the fact that the chinese model should be clean right??

  24. Brian Obillo
    November 11, 2015

    Hi, i’m planning on buying a one plus one from someone and i’ve noticed his has china mobile 4g LTE brand at the back and a 4g label brand on the top right front of the phone. Is it legit considering the fact that the chinese model should be clean right??