When the OnePlus One came out, it was a pretty big sensation. For a new company to manage to stand out in the already incredibly saturated Android market and get such good reviews, it was quite the feat – so naturally, many people were expecting great things from the successor of the device. Now that the phone is here and has been getting reviewed by various critics and fans, what’s the final verdict? Sadly, it seems like it didn’t manage to live up to the expectations that some people had for it, especially those who were hoping that it’s going to surpass the success of its predecessor.
The launch of the device didn’t have any of the interesting marketing that the OnePlus One was surrounded with, and the company seemed to put more effort into the promotion of their last device compared to this one. Some have reported that it was just not financially feasible for them, as it was costing them a lot of money to make advertisements like that, something which they could not maintain on such a scale for another launch.
And the feeling that the company is tight on resources can be felt in the design of the new phone too, as the OnePlus Two seems to have been designed on a budget to some extent. The phone lacks some features that people were expecting to get, while it still retained some of the more unusual features of the previous device, leading some people to question what the company was thinking with the design of their new phone.
For example, it may not have NFC or wireless charging – or even the quick charging capabilities of the OnePlus One – but on the other hand, it does have the brand new USB Type-C connector, as well as dual SIM support and even a fingerprint reader.
This combination of features has been seen as peculiar by some reviewers, and the common consensus seems to be that OnePlus have chosen poorly in the corners that they want to cut for this release. Sure, it may have been a good idea to develop this device on a budget in order to ensure that they will be able to profit sufficiently from it, but some of the features they’ve chosen to remove have been a bit questionable as a whole.
Still, the device does have its merits. It looks quite good and there has obviously been a lot of attention on its physical design. This was something that people liked about the OnePlus One back when it came out, and now the successor of the phone is continuing that trend even more spectacularly. The physical dimensions haven’t changed almost at all, but the device does have a more refined and attractive look now, and seems to give off a bit of a luxurious vibe.
An interesting addition to the design is the notification switch, which allows users to toggle between the three preset notification levels in Android with just one flick, namely going between “All notifications”, “Priority only” or none.
This has been claimed to be a bit of a gimmick by some, but it’s still a nice feature that we expect users to go for quite regularly once they get used to it. The overall design of the phone feels comfortable and intuitive enough, and the phone has a nice feeling to it when it’s held in the hand, according to most reviewers. Opinions are pretty much universal about this.