The OnePlus 2 was launched today amidst the usual hooplah and fanfare that has now become customary of every OnePlus announcement. Leaks and rumours gave us a fairly good look at the phone prior to the launch, and some even made up their minds about the phone by then. However, after seeing the phone in the flesh with its stylish StyleSwap covers, etc., there’s a section which has changed its mind.
Here we’ll discuss the top 5 features of the OnePlus 2 which may cause you to start liking the fairly radical design of the phone.
Feature #1: 4GB RAM
The OnePlus 2 isn’t the first phone in the world to have 4GB RAM, and also not the cheapest. However, it is certainly the most affordable 4GB RAM phone with the Snapdragon 810 CPU. The OnePlus 2 will run the company’s own OxygenOS system, and given OnePlus’ fascination with lightweight operating systems, the combination of OxygenOS and 4GB RAM should prove more than just a handful.
Feature #2: Fingerprint Sensor
OnePlus fooled everyone by making the fingerprint sensor look like an actual physical home button that could be pressed. As we know now, that isn’t the case, and the silver edge around the home button only serves an illusion of the area being ‘pressable’.
What is cool about the fingerprint sensor is that you don’t even need to wake the phone to have the sensor read your fingerprint. All you need to do is put your finger on the sensor and voilà, if the pattern matches, you’ll be granted access to your homescreen then and there.
Feature #3: Laser Autofocus
Laser autofocus is something you’ll have seen on only super high priced phones up until the OnePlus 2… and the MX5 to be fair. Laser autofocus allows the phone’s camera to find focus super fast via means of (you guessed it) a beam of laser.
YouTuber MKBHD was granted early access to the OnePlus 2, after which the reviewer confirmed that the focus on the OnePlus 2 was indeed super fast as you would expect from a laser autofocus camera. That’s not it, the camera sensor may not be the highest res you’ve seen this year, but apart from laser autofocus, it also sports OIS (optical image stabilization).
Feature #4: USB Type-C
This was a feature OnePlus announced in the first leg of its spec announcements for the OnePlus 2. There’s nothing quite groundbreaking about USB Type-C when you think of it… but that’s only when the standard has already been introduced.
When I put my non-USB Type-C phones for charging, especially in the dark, I first attempt to insert the cable into the micro USB port, only to realize it’s inverted. Then I invert the cable… only to realize (mysteriously) that it is still not going to fit. Only God knows why that happens, but USB Type-C should save souls like me from troubles like that.
Feature #5: Physical Mute Switch
The physical mute switch from the iPhone seems to have become quite a favourite among Chinese manufacturers. The LeTV phones did that earlier this year, and then there’s the OnePlus 2. What’s cool about the mute switch on the OnePlus 2 is that it works in three steps, giving better control over sounds/notifications, or profiles in general.
Features like the physical mute switch, etc. combined with the fact that the OnePlus 2 is in fact narrower than the One should make the phone a lot more usable.
Conclusion
The OnePlus 2 probably doesn’t seem as bad as it did before its launch now, does it? Of course, it has a design that will take getting used to, but then its OnePlus we’re talking about.
We’ve also compiled a list of the top 5 features that lack on the OnePlus 2, which you can check here.
Honestly, am I the only one thinking that USB type C is not a feature, but just a gimmick?
I can go anywhere without my USB 2 cable, and I am 90% sure that i will find someone who got one that I can borrow. USB C… hrrrrr no sure, maybe in 5 years.
That is true and it’s very convenient to have a standard micro usb but then again type C can simply be plugged in in any direction and micro usb being a quantum state connector you have to try 3 times to get it right.
There are 2sided microusb cables
I have never seen something like that and all the results I find for 2/double sided micro USB cable are all standard micro USB to double sided USB type A. Of course that is a step in the good direction but the micro side is still standard. On the bright side of USB type C is that Apple is adopting it as well, in fact they were the first to use it so maybe finally we will settle on a single cable for everything by every manufacturer.
If 90% of the manufacturers jump on the USB C next year. That’s ok.
So far without any stats we can say that 2% of the manufacturers are implementing USB C. Even Samsung does not do it.
I guess that Oneplus decided to go with USB C just to sell more of theirs cables.
and no NFC? and slow charging?
No thanks, this is far from a flagship killer.
I don’t understand the lack of NFC which barely takes up space, it’s cheap, has very low power consumption and is getting widely adopted for payments and almost every phone has it now, even midrange ones.
The lack of fast charging I understand since that kills the battery pretty quickly, according to some in one year your battery is dead with it. I’ve never seen it so I don’t know how true that is but it makes sense. If battery was changeable and they included a spare one then fast charging would have sounded a lot better.
This new OnePlus 2 turn out to be quite a disappointment. I don’t think I’ll upgrade from OPO to this.
Flagship killer, yeah… of 2014!
Amen!
none of that makes it a “2016 flagship killer”, as you’ve already stated that every of those features already exist in other, sometimes even cheaper phones on the market.
also: usb-c? gimmick. physical mute switch? gimmick. laser autofocus? old, but good nonetheless. i just remembered that it came with the LG G3 back in the days (released over a year back) and the laser af just worked for distances of maximum 40cm. hooray for macros and selfies, nothing more. 4GB ram? wow, but useless in these times. oh, and fingerprint? holy moly, haven’t seen that before, just wow!!!
They could have added Radio and MHL atleast 🙁
1+2 was obsolete the moment i read the spec.
The silver edges surrounding the home button serves with an actual purpose for the fingerprint sensor to be activated (the Swedish fingerprint manufacturer Fingerprint Cards did the same actual thing on the HTC One M9+ & Huawei Mate 7), as it has a field (in lack of better words) in the area within the edges which detects that you have placed the finger on the sensor & it then activates the screen and as well unlocks the device. That functionality is actually more energy efficient than having the fingerprint sensor activated at all time, adding to that it’s simply a great feature as mentioned in this article.
Some of Fingerprint Cards customers: Huawei, Oppo, HTC (not One Max which was Synaptics sensors), Meizu (not the MX4 Pro as it was Goodix’s sensors, MX5 is FPC’s though), Newman, ZTE, Ulefone, Elephone, OnePlus, Dazen, Gionee, Coolpad, Oukitel, LeTV & some other smartphone manufacturers. Fingerprint Cards were actually the sensor manufacturer Google decided to work with when they wanted to add fingerprint sensor capabilities to the Android M, and as FPC has had their sensors in 3 smartphone models from Huawei we will all the rumours with Huawei releasing a Nexus device we will probably see the sensor from FPC in one Nexus device at least this fall.
fingerprint sensor? No thanks. Bigger optical sensor? Yes please.
Happy with the new USB connector. Let’s hope this is a trend followed by others.