OnePlus 2 is a flawed but enjoyable sequel (REVIEW)

The OnePlus 2 makes a superb first impression. After slipping open the bright red box, the glistening, monolithic fondleslab begs to be picked up, and that’s when you feel and see the unusual rear, which looks and feels like something between a pumice stone and old suede. You toss it up in the air a bit and appreciate its heft. It feels solid. Then you turn it on and see a fresh and clean riff on Android 5.1.

Deeper in the box is a white-and-red-charger alongside a red cable that’s thin and flat and refuses to get in a knot.

But not every part of the OnePlus 2 made such a good impression during my week with it.

Still, right out of the box you get the feeling OnePlus has paid attention to the details with its new phone, which went on sale this week in a handful of countries around the world. In the US, the OnePlus 2 costs US$329, but in much of Asia it’ll cost anywhere from US$350 to US$380.

The model tested is the 64GB global version running Oxygen 2.0. Before we dive into a full review of OnePlus’ “2016 flagship killer” – yes, that’s the marketing tagline – here are the specs alongside some prime rivals:

Hardware

The OnePlus 2 has improved on last year’s One with a metal frame, a fingerprint scanner baked into the home button, refreshed cameras, and beefier internals, such as 4GB of RAM to keep the Snapdragon 810 processor purring along. Like with the original, there’s still a 5.5-inch 1080p screen. Note that if you choose the version with 16GB of storage, you get 3GB of RAM; it’s an unusual differentiation.

The OnePlus 2 is a bit thicker and heavier than the One, perhaps because of a larger battery. It feels rather heavy. It weighs 175g (the One was 162g), making it one of the heavier phones out there.

The thickness is more noticeable than the mass. It looks so thick that I placed my iPhone 6 on top of my wife’s Xiaomi Note and expected that they’d both be about as thick as the OnePlus 2. Yes, my estimation was off by quite a bit, but there’s no ignoring that this thing isn’t slim.

Performance and battery

Screen and sound

Software and features

Camera

Conclusion