OnePlus One – SomeGadgetGuy

When you’re a newcomer you’ve got to build buzz. OnePlus is waking into a very mature market, so they need to get people talking. They need those internet points and hashtags and Youtubes. Their hook however is borderline irresponsible.

The OnePlus One smartphone looks like it could be an attractive competitor. The specs are cutting edge, comparable to many flagship devices currently on the market, and people are already talking about the intro level price of $299. It would seem that’s not good enough though.

The first batch of 100 One phones will be filtered out to a select few contest winners. What’s the contest requirement? Smash your current high end phone, and you might be selected to be one of the first hundred.

Not just any phone will do either, the list is very specific limited to phones manufactured within the last two years. HTC Ones, Galaxy S3-5’s, LG G2’s, and high end Lumias. The current cream of the smartphone crop, all still functional and competitive handsets.

The messaging is clear if a bit mean-spirited:

“Look at all these folks ready to smash their own flagship phones for a CHANCE to get our phone. That means it’s desirable!”

Using customers’ own social media followers to spread videos, hope for a few viral hits, and a good chunk of their marketing is tackled for cheap.

It’s all in good fun right? Continue reading “OnePlus Smash Your Phone Contest: When PR Encourages Irresponsible Behavior”

This is shaping up to be an interesting entry in the Android ecosystem.

The OnePlus One smartphone aims to take down current flagship phones with cutting edge specs at a price point lower than Google’s Nexus. It took me a second to realize the name of the company was “One Plus” and the first phone is the “One”. We’ll have to see if HTC will weigh in on that branding…

“We are not a company looking to go global. We were born global, with employees hailing from all corners of the world.”
-OnePlus Mission Statement

The spec sheet is formidable for a $299 phone. A 5.5″ 1080p screen, protected by Gorilla Glass 3, will be powered by a Qualcomm 801 series chipset. The camera is a 13MP Sony sensor capable of 4K video recording. 16GB of built in storage (though there is no SD card slot), and 3GB of RAM for demanding services and games. A 3100mAh battery should provide almost two day run time. Triple microphone arrangement for stereo recording and noise reduction, and rear firing stereo speakers complete the hardware.

Jumping the price $50 will move you from 16GB of storage to 64GB. A welcome change in pricing as most manufacturers supply an extra 16GB with a $100 price increase.

The radios on board look like they’ll be fully compatible with AT&T’s network. Looking at the various bands included, you should see support for T-Mobile LTE, but it might not work well on their 3G network.

In all this looks like an ambitious device at any price. Moving this phone at roughly half the price of our current flagships certainly opens up some exciting potential.

One area the team might be saving some money is on software. The OnePlus One uses a build of CyanogenMod, a custom version of Android built by a team of developers off of the Android Open Source Project. It’s known for being an aggressively lean and fast flavor of Google’s OS. Since OnePlus isn’t developing their own custom build of Android, and it doesn’t seem that they’re applying skins or themes either, it’s one area the company has been able to pinch some pennies.

Starting April 25th, the first 100 OnePlus One phones will be available via a “Smash” promotion, where customers can secure a One for $1 if they smash their old phone. I find promos like that to be a bit crass, as I’d rather see people recycle, but you can be sure there will be a line of people ready to grab an inexpensive phone even cheaper.

You can see more of the OnePlus One in their teaser video, or scroll lower for the full PR.