The OnePlus One marked its one year in the market on June 26. With the impending release of its successor, the OnePlus Two, on July 27, it is expected that most OnePlus One users will shift their attention on the latest flagship smartphone of the Chinese manufacturer.
If there’s one thing that the global smartphone industry can remember about the OnePlus One, and its Chinese manufacturer truly proud of, it’s the fact that the handset was recognized as the most exciting Android phone of 2014 and the flagship killer.
With its great economies of scale and features that can actually rival the flagship smartphones of big name handset makers, OnePlus One ushered something different in the very competitive smartphone market – innovation and excellence need not come with a high price.
When it was released to the retail markets last year, OnePlus One had excellent features and great specifications that were actually at par with the Android flagship smartphones of 2014 including the HTC One M8, the Samsung Galaxy S5, and LG G3, the Sony Xperia Z3, among others.
But unlike those major flagships, OnePlus One had a price that is quite less than the others in the competitive lot giving smartphone users an affordable option. However, upon using the smartphone and discovered that its key features also rival those of the other flagships, the word easily spread around. And the rest is history. OnePlus One made it into the big leagues right on its first foray into the market.
Ushering a first
Other than its affordable price, OnePlus One actually ushered into the smartphone business a first not only in its class but in the entire industry.
When it first came out of the retail markets last year, OnePlus One is actually the first smartphone whose camera can shoot both Ultra High Definition (UHD) and 4K videos.
While many television sets have been claiming as early as last year that they are 4K capable TV, the truth is that they are merely UHD TVs.
According to the Phone Arena, the difference actually lies in the resolution. UHD has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels while 4K has a higher resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels.
Smartphone cameras of 2014, as well as those which made it to the market this year, can shoot videos at 3840 x 2160 pixels, which means that they are merely UHD capable. Only the OnePlus One smartphone can shoot videos at 4096 x 2160 pixels, and is thus the only smartphone to date that is 4K capable. Of course, that could very well change with the advent of the OnePlus Two later this month.
Excited for OnePlus One successor
The OnePlus One had its fair share of glory during its one-year market cycle and it’s about time that it relinquish its good run to its successor, the OnePlus Two.
If the OnePlus One packs a punch, then its successor is expected to pack a wallop. The OnePlus blog notes that apart from an upgraded Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, the OnePlus Two will feature a 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, ensuring that it is extremely powerful and future-proofed.
Despite the upcoming new flagship smartphone OnePlus, is not about to simply let its current flagship smartphone, the OnePlus One, go quietly into the night and let its successor take the limelight all by itself.
Apparently, OnePlus One will continue to hold sway as the flagship killer that it was regarded to be last year although it will not be as potent as before since it will pass on the reputation to the OnePlus Two starting July 27.
The ability to record in 4k on this phone is a marketing gimmick. I have a OnePlus One and the camera sharpness is so low you can only just barely tell the difference between 720 and 1080p. There’s absolutely no quality increase by recording in 4k on this phone. It just takes up more space.
Also those 13 megapixel images? They look like they’re 5 megapixels. And that’s being generous.
The smartphone world needs to understand resolution does not even come close to measuring a camera’s quality.