The OnePlus 2 arrived with us just a week ago and since that first day I have used it solely as my own personal phone. Here are 10 things I have learned about the OnePlus 2 in that time.
I’ve been using the OnePlus 2 now for a week. For the first day I used the Chinese Hydrogen OS, but quickly switched to Oxygen OS when I managed to get access to it. After a week of daily use this is what I have learned.
Oxygen OS is much better than Hydrogen OS
OnePlus China have completely redesigned Android for the local Chinese market. The Hydrogen ROM is very pretty but with no access to Google apps on the phone, and Chinese apps built-in to the system it isn’t really that useful for non-Chinese users.
To be perfectly honest though I feel many OP2 owners even in China will eventually make the switch to Oxygen OS. Not only is it cleaner and more Android like, but it also a much better performing ROM.
Oxygen OS is good but not perfect
Oxygen OS is a very lightweight ROM with only a few changes here and there from a stock Android installation. Being so close to stock you would hope that everything works as Google intended and it does.
All Google apps and social media apps that many of us use work perfectly on the OP2 and of all the Chinese phones I have tested Android Wear is more stable and can stay connected.
There are a few bugs that need to be solved to make the ROM perfect though. I have experienced random force closes in apps, and the system sometimes just grinds to a halt. Even with 4GB RAM on board, the OP2 doesn’t seem to handle multi tasking as well as the Asus Zenfone 2, of even LeTV Le1. This is the first stable release though and updates will hopefully fix these small issues and add more features.
OnePlus 2 Camera is good and consistent
There are a lot of mixed feelings about the camera on the OnePlus 2. I am more than satisfied with the camera on the phone. It might not produce as nice images as other devices that I have used, but it is consistently good.
With Oxygen OS the camera starts up quickly and if in auto mode will snap and save photos quickly without a pause. HDR and Clear Image modes are great too but you need to get use to the camera to know when to use these options to their fullest.
View more OnePlus 2 camera samples
OnePlus 2 fingerprint scanner is almost perfect
Of all the phones I have used the OnePlus 2 has the fastest and most accurate fingerprint scanner of any of them. Even when your prints get greasy or messy the OP2 will still grant you instant access.
But there are times when the scanner just refuses to do anything. Now and then the sensor won’t even recognise you have placed a finger on the lens let alone unlock. Double tapping the screen to wake the device up (if you have it set up, press the power button if not) fixes the issue, but hopefully ROM updates will make the scanner more stable.
OnePlus 2 Battery Life isn’t great
For the first few days with the OnePlus 2 I was in the office most of the time relying on WIFI and just generally playing around with the phone (as you do with any new device) and the battery life was really impressive. I easily got a day and a half on the first charge and believed that once I got in to a normal routine with the phone I could get 2 days battery life easily.
Gizchina News of the week
Yesterday morning I took the OnePlus 2 off charge at 7am and headed to Madrid. While there I used the phone for social media updates, checking the news (over LTE) taking a lot of photos, one very very short phone call, and had Android wear connected. Screen brightness was about half.
The phone completely ran out of juice by 5:30pm, thankfully I was at home again by then as I didn’t carry the USB type C cable with me. Battery life needs improving! A screen on time of only 3 hours 30 min is not good enough.
OnePlus 2 charging time is fast
There is no fast charging on the OnePlus 2 but the phone does charge very quickly. From 0% to 50% in just about an hour and fully charged around 2 hours or slightly more. That’s much faster than other standard charge phones, and while not quite as fast as VOOC I think I can live with it.
You can’t switch the camera view for video calls in some apps
This issue might not be affect you but we have found that while using QQ or Wechat for video calls we are unable to turn the camera from the front to rear or vice versa. I don’t know if this is only a bug with Tencent bugs as I don’t use Skype, but I will try to test it for the full review.
OnePlus 2 WIFI signal strength is amazing
WIFI signal strength on the OnePlus 2 is very good. We can use the WIFI from the local cafe while in the garden, which is perfect and something that we are not able to do with other phones or even my Macbook. LTE, Bluetooth etc are all also amazing good too.
OnePlus 2 Audio is only ok, and MAXX Audio doesn’t really help
After treating my ears to the amazing audio that purrs out of the LeTVLe 1 I have been truly spoiled, nothing else sounds quite as good and that includes the OnePlus 2. Audio is good, and can no way be described as bad, but it lacks the richness of other phones.
The OnePlus 2 offers MAXX Audio, an audio enhancement system which we also saw on the OPO and a few OPPO phones, but it really does nothing to improve the sound. In fact the first time I used MAXX Audio it didn’t work at all for a few minutes but then suddenly sprung to life with a shock of bass which caught my attention. Since then MAXX Audio works, but it isn’t really much of an enhancement.
OnePlus 2 USB Type C is super fast
Having a Type C USB on your phone can be annoying if you need to charge your phone up and you don’t have the cable with you. The chances of meeting someone else with a USB Type C device to lend you a cable while out and about or even buying a spare in an emergency is slim until the technology is more widely used.
It does have a benefit though, and that benefit is speed. Moving photos or video files from the OnePlus 2 to your computer is very fast, fast to the point that you might find yourself needlessly moving larger and larger files just to see how quick it is.
OnePlus 2 review and giveaway coming soon
The full OnePlus 2 review is already being written up and we have even secured a OnePlus 2 to giveaway so watch out for news of this coming in the next week or so. In the meantime if you want to buy the OnePlus 2 without invite (the Chinese version of the phone) we recommend the following stores:
Where to buy the OnePlus 2 without invitation