The OnePlus One Review
by Joshua Ho on November 19, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Mobile
- OnePlus
Display
Within the past few years, smartphone displays have improved immensely. Color rendition, peak brightness, contrast, resolution, viewing angles, and power draw have all improved since the first modern smartphones that appeared in 2007. Of course, while it was once possible to judge relative quality in displays by subjective comparison, most smartphones no longer have TN displays or poor maximum brightness. In order to better test displays, we turn to SpectraCal’s CalMAN 5 with a custom workflow.
In the basics, we see that the OnePlus One has a reasonably bright display and acceptable display contrast, although there's room to improve in both. OnePlus has also done a good job of making sure that their display gets dim enough for night time reading, as minimum brightness is around 4.2 nits. Viewing angles are also great. While contrast with viewing angle changes isn't as good as AMOLED panels, I don't see any color shifting with viewing angle changes. This seems to remain an advantage of IPS panels for now.
In grayscale, we see that the white balance is just a bit blue, but there really isn’t a big issue there. The OnePlus One sets a record for grayscale accuracy. I would like to see a bit better color balance at the higher scales, but it's really just nitpicking. Specifically, red needs to be bumped up to be in line with green and blue. It's understandable why this is done though, as the display's backlight will be the weakest in red in general.
In the saturation sweep, OnePlus has done a great job to make sure that colors are as accurate as possible. The only issue here is that the red, magenta, and blue is a bit weaker than it should be. Some extra saturation would definitely tighten up the accuracy here in addition to making the display more appealing than it is now. However, the display is still incredibly well-calibrated, and will be more than accurate enough for general use.
The strong showing in the saturation sweep helps carry the OnePlus One through to do well in the ColorChecker. For the most part, we see that much of the error comes from the issues previously discussed with grayscale. The display overall is great, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s really just nitpicking at this point. The OnePlus One manages to display colors more accurate than almost everything on the market. The only real issue I've noticed with this display is that there's a bit more IPS glow than I'd like when shifting viewing angles.
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wyewye - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
An article beginning with "There's really not much else to be said" ...Why do you keep this smug asshole on your team, Anand? Are you really looking to drive away viewers?
Regarding the OnePlus One, this config would have been decent in mid 2013. Coming in late 2014, this phone is not only not a flagship killer but average at best.
Harry_Wild - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
"Reception, at least for T-Mobile US' band 4/AWS LTE is noticeably worse than most devices that I've tried. "I'm a T-Mobile user; and this above result sure makes me uneasy to even consider it as a purchase! Hopefully, One Plus, can find some way to fix the LTE for T-Mobile so it can be more clear!
Munna2002 - Friday, November 21, 2014 - link
I'm a T Mobile user and haven't had issues with the OPO reception in the NYC metro area. LTE speeds are as fast as those observed with a Samsung S3 and S5.littlebitstrouds - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
The reason this phone is so popular isn't that it matches up perfectly with flagships, even though it does it's best job, but rather that for $350 off contract it allows you to finally have a near flagship phone on non-contract services without breaking your bank. I went from an EVO LTE with $99 a month from sprint, to $50 a month with t-mobile non contract. $50 savings a month, and I don't have to use last year's gear while doing it.BabelHuber - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
I do not understand why CM is criticized because of its options:I like them and I use them - for me a stock Android phone has too few options. I need to use Xposed/ Gravitybox to get the options back, otherwise I can't stand it.
Also I do not understand what is wrong with CM's Theme Engine: It works well and there are lots of themes I really like.
Of course there are also themes which do not work correctly one way or the other, but that's not the Theme Engine's fault.
So I would see it exactly the other way round: CM adds sensible features to Android. Of course there are also lots of settings in CM which I don't use, like the profiles.
But why should I be embarassed about this? I use what I want and I ignore the rest. That's what options are for.
Also I didn't have difficulties getting used to CM at all.
So I think from the software side Joshua Ho got it wrong.
If I would be malicious I'd say it's no wonder that the Anandtech staff likes iOS so much, because they seem to be too stupid to use a fully-featured OS :-)
srkelley - Thursday, November 20, 2014 - link
It's not that they're dumb, far from it, but that the presentation of the options can leave a lot to be desired. Joshua Ho points out the number, but the number of options alone isn't the real issue. It's too number made available to people that require them to either search outside of the ui to understand or to learn what they do through trial and error.I'm perfectly fine with that, I have a OPO (https://plus.google.com/+ShirondaleKelley/posts). Still, such a thing must be cited. Even power users just want to be users sometimes. Maybe they just want to exert their power through workflows instead of configuration. Maybe they want to be able to recommended a good phone to friends without becoming their personal and default support option. Having such a thing the review reminds you of what the norm is and allows for a much more comprehensive review. It's constructive criticism, not scalding or venomous criticism.
Since we're all power users here, maybe we would still get to phone for our friends but decide to install miui or preconfigure certain items. A review like this certainly helps with the decision of what to recommend and how to handle it.
BabelHuber - Friday, November 21, 2014 - link
In my experience, people like CM's options, even the 'regular' users.My GF uses CM11 on her Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.4 - I had to install it because she hates the Samsung-UI the device came with. With CM, she is satisfied with the device.
I've also shown two friends how to install CM on their older devices (SGS2 and HTC Desire HD). They also like it.
Nobody said that he/she is confused. Nobody wants to have less options.
So I still think that CM is fine and I still do not understand how somebody would prefer less options. It just does not make sense to me.
srkelley - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link
Yes, and that's good for them.Again, it's not solely the number but in how they're presented. If it had a more cohesive, polished presentation then the number really wouldn't matter. The way that some part of the interface exposes (or doesn't) functionality is the true issue here.
No, that doesn't mean that everyone will have trouble. I just don't believe that you should have search outside of a ui to understand how to complete basic and intermediate level items. That can be the cause with some of the cm11 functions. It's nowhere near all of them, it's something that I see the team fixing over time. It used to be way more daunting in the beginning, the team has been making great improvements while adding more functionality and I love it for that.
slfisher - Monday, November 24, 2014 - link
Do you have a "CM for Dummies" reference to point to on how to configure it? thanks.icekyuu - Monday, November 24, 2014 - link
Try this - http://cornerplay.com/2014/08/05/cyanogenmod-onepl...For the record, I love CM's customization options.
I vastly prefer the Google Camera app though. I suspect what happened is the reviewer got frustrated with the CM Camera app and that boiled over for everything else. When everything else is actually fine.