The OnePlus One (colloquially abbreviated to OPO and also known as OnePlus 1) is an
Android smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
manufactured by
OnePlus. Unveiled in April 2014, it is the first product by OnePlus. The OnePlus One was designed to compare favorably – in performance, quality, and price – to
flagship devices by leading smartphone manufacturers. It was also intended to be developer friendly, and has since received a wide variety of ROMs and custom kernels from the community. The OnePlus One shipped to most markets with the
Cyanogen OS operating system pre-installed, a commercial variant of
CyanogenMod
CyanogenMod ( ; CM) is a discontinued open-source operating system for mobile devices, based on the Android mobile platform. It was developed as free and open-source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added origi ...
.
The phone was first made available for sale on 25 April 2014, exclusively from the OnePlus website, but initially required prospective customers to obtain an invitation before they could purchase it. These invitations were primarily distributed by the company through contests, some of which attracted attention for their unconventional or controversial nature. On 6 June 2014, the device was available for general sale. As of 20 April 2015, the device no longer required an invite to purchase.
[
]
Development
The OnePlus company was founded on 16 December 2013 by former Oppo vice-president Pete Lau
Pete Lau, or Liu Zuohu (), is a Chinese entrepreneur and business executive. He is the co-founder and the chief executive officer of Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus.
Career in Oppo
Lau started working in Oppo as a hardware engineer. He la ...
. The company's main goal was to design his "dream" smartphone; one that would balance the quality of high-end devices from its major competitors with a lower price than other phones in its class. He argued that, despite their lower cost, users would "never settle" for the lower-quality devices produced by other Chinese companies, and similar startups such as Blu
Blu or BLU may refer to:
Businesses and brands
*Blu (Italian company), a telecommunications company
*Blu Manga, an imprint of Tokyopop
* blu eCigs, a brand of electronic cigarette owned by Imperial Tobacco
*BLU Products, an American mobile phone m ...
and Yota
Yota (russian: Йота) is a Russian mobile phone brand and mobile broadband manufacturer. Yota is a trademark of Skartel LLC.
On 9 May 2012, Yota's WiMAX was replaced by its LTE network. In September 2012, 4G networks were launched in the ...
. Lau compared the ideals of OnePlus with those of the Japanese company Muji
(), or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-bran ...
, with a focus on high quality products with simplistic designs.[ The company's primary cost-cutting measure was a decision to exclusively sell the device online, rather than at retail or through wireless carriers, citing the success of a similar online sales model for Nexus devices.] Continuing Lau's association with the platform from the Oppo N1
Oppo N1 is an Android smartphone developed by Oppo Electronics. Unveiled on 23 September 2013, the N1 was released on 10 December 2013.
While some models shipped with Oppo's ColorOS software, the N1 was the first Android device to offer an off ...
, OnePlus entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Cyanogen Inc. to base its product's Android software upon Cyanogen OS, a commercial variant of the popular custom ROM CyanogenMod, and use its trademarks outside China.
The OnePlus One was officially unveiled on 23 April 2014 for a limited release on 25 April: described as a "flagship killer", its prices were set at US$299 and US$349 for the 16 GB and 64 GB models respectively—which one critic estimated was roughly half the price of the then recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy S5
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is an Android-based smartphone unveiled, produced, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of the Samsung Galaxy S series. Unveiled on 24 February 2014 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, it was rel ...
.
Release and distribution
The device was sold online exclusively through the OnePlus website. Stock of the device was previously limited through an invite system; the company had made the device available for purchase without an invitation during special promotions, however, such as on Black Friday, and in December 2014 for the holiday shopping season
The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...
. On 9 February 2015, OnePlus announced that it would begin to hold such open sales every Tuesday. In an announcement on 20 April 2015 marking the one-year anniversary of its release, OnePlus announced that the One would be available without an invite "forever", but hinted that the requirement may return for its successor. Co-founder Carl Pei explained that "by rigorously testing and improving our logistical structure over the last one year, we are far more confident that our processes have matured enough for us to handle the increased production and after-sales support that comes along with opening up sales. It's what we've been working towards, and now we're ready."
Invites were first given out through a promotion known as "Smash the Past", in which 100 users would be selected to win an opportunity to purchase a 16 GB OnePlus One for only $1, along with three invites they can give to friends, if they record a video of themselves breaking their previous phone. Some users misinterpreted the promotion, however, and prematurely posted videos on YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
of them breaking their phones. Users were later not required to destroy their phones, and could instead donate them to the charity Medic Mobile.
OnePlus launched a second contest, "Ladies First", on 12 August 2014, inviting women to take photos of themselves holding the OnePlus logo or having drawn it on their bodies, with the winners decided by a vote receiving an invite to buy the One, and a OnePlus T-shirt. The promotion was met with controversy, as others felt that the contest promoted the objectification of women
Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an Object (philosophy), object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Ob ...
: some users posted entries that consisted of existing photos of women with OnePlus logos edited onto them, while another posted a picture of herself performing middle finger
The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is also calle ...
gestures, accompanied by a comment denouncing the contest as sexist.[ In response to the criticism, the contest was pulled only hours after it was announced: the company stated that "we want to encourage even more women to get involved with and excited about the amazing things happening in tech right now. The 'Ladies First' contest was a very misguided effort by a few isolated employees to do just that, however there is no question the post not only failed to better include our female community but actually perpetuated a stereotype that OnePlus in no way supports or condones."] On 25 August 2014, OnePlus began a summer-themed photography coverage as a replacement, giving away 10,000 invites.
In December 2014, the One was released in India exclusively through Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
; invites were still necessary to purchase the device outside special promotions, which have been held occasionally since its launch. OnePlus also announced plans to establish a presence in the country, with plans to open 25 official walk-in service centres across India.
In August 2015, nearly 18 months after its release, the One was officially released in the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...
exclusively through a local online retailer souq.com. Customers can purchase the phone without the need of an invite.
Micromax conflict
Sales of the OnePlus One in India were temporarily halted following a temporary injunction
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...
granted to Micromax Mobile 01 or '01 may refer to:
* The year 2001, or any year ending with 01
* The month of January
* 1 (number)
Music
* 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001
* ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000
* ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011
* ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawano ...
, alleging that the sale of the device in India violated its exclusive rights to distribute Cyanogen-branded products in South Asia—an agreement announced in November 2014 as part of a new joint venture, YU, and that its agreement superseded the agreement Cyanogen Inc. had established with OnePlus. The company disputed the arguments, noting that its Cyanogen-based software was different from that of Micromax's, and argued that the exclusivity agreement only meant that Cyanogen could not partner with any other company based in India, and did not inhibit the ability for OnePlus to market its products in the country with its trademarks.
In response to the partnership, OnePlus had already begun the development of a new, in-house Android distribution, known as "OxygenOS", which it planned to replace CyanogenMod with for the device that the company planned via software updates to models distributed in India, along with a version for Chinese models known as "H2OS". On 25 December 2014, the court reversed the sales ban, noting that YU and OnePlus were within different market segments—low-end and high-end devices respectively.
Specifications
Hardware
The device's internal hardware includes a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 system-on-chip clocked at 2.5 GHz, 3 GB of RAM, and a 5.5-inch, JDI 1080p
1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen ve ...
IPS LCD
IPS (in-plane switching) is a screen technology for liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). In IPS, a layer of liquid crystals is sandwiched between two glass surfaces. The liquid crystal molecules are aligned parallel to those surfaces in predetermined ...
display. It includes either 16 or 64 GB of non-expandable storage. Its rear-facing camera features a 13 megapixel, Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
-manufactured Exmor
Exmor is the name of a technology Sony implemented on some of their CMOS image sensors. It performs on-chip analog/digital signal conversion and two-step noise reduction in parallel on each column of the CMOS sensor.
Exmor RS is the world's ...
IMX214 sensor, alongside a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The OnePlus One supports LTE networks using bands 1, 3, 4, 7, 17, 38, and 40. Due to the company's startup stature, only one model of the device was released worldwide, without any additional regional SKUs like other smartphones.
Exterior
The chassis of the OnePlus One is constructed from magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...
, and is accompanied by a curved, textured rear cover in either black or white. Special denim
Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. While a denim predecessor known as dungaree has been p ...
, Kevlar
Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...
, and bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...
wood covers were also unveiled as accessories, but the bamboo covers were temporarily cancelled due to quality issues. The device features capacitive navigation keys, but they can be disabled in favor of customizable navigation keys rendered on-screen. '' Anandtech'' characterized its design as being a "close cousin" to the Oppo Find 7A
, although with a non-user-replaceable battery.
Software
Outside China, the OnePlus One shipped with CyanogenMod
CyanogenMod ( ; CM) is a discontinued open-source operating system for mobile devices, based on the Android mobile platform. It was developed as free and open-source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added origi ...
11S, based on Android 4.4.4 "KitKat". The latest version of CyanogenMod 11S is 11.0-XNPH05Q. In China, OnePlus One ships with Oppo's ColorOS distribution, based on Android 4.3 "Jelly Bean".[ Alongside additional features added to the Android platform through Cyanogen (including wider customization options, an audio equalizer, encrypted messaging, and application privacy controls), the 11S software adds persistent voice commands, and gestures that can be performed while the phone is in standby to perform various functions, such as double-tapping the screen to turn it on, drawing a circle to go to the camera, and drawing a "V" to activate flashlight mode.]
An upgrade to Cyanogen OS 12.0, based on Android 5.0.2 "Lollipop" was released for all OnePlus One devices outside China on 14 April 2015. The latest version of Cyanogen OS for this phone is 13.1.2-ZNH2KAS3P0-bacon based on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1(AOSP), released in August 2016. This brings latest September Security Patches for Android and improves the deep integration of "Cortana"-Microsoft's Digital Assistant into Cyanogen OS due to strategic partnership between Microsoft and Cyanogen; Microsoft also being an important investor in the company. Two in-house Lollipop-based distributions, OxygenOS and HydrogenOS, were released earlier, on 4 April 2015, outside and inside China respectively. On 9 April 2016, OnePlus One devices running Cyanogen OS started receiving Cyanogen OS 13.0.1 based on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. Team Cyanogen started rolling out Cyanogen OS 13.1 on 10 June 2016. CyanogenOS 13.1 for OnePlus One includes mods for Skype, OneNote, Microsoft Hyperlapse and an updated Cortana mod.
Android 9.0 "Pie" is available for the device through the successor of CyanogenMod, LineageOS. The same applied for Android 10 and Android 11. Third-party operating systems such as Ubuntu Touch
Ubuntu Touch is a mobile version of the Ubuntu operating system, being developed by the UBports community. Its user interface is written in Qt, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, ...
can also be installed on the OnePlus One.
Reception
The OnePlus One has received a positive reception, not withstanding occasional technical issues and lack of support. The design was unique compared to other smartphones, with the rear panel's "hite Hite or HITE may refer to:
*HiteJinro, a South Korean brewery
**Hite Brewery
*Hite (surname)
*Hite, California, former name of Hite Cove, California
*Hite, Utah, a ghost town
* HITE, an industrial estate in Pakistan
See also
*''Hite v. Fairfax
...
crisp smooth plastic or the lack
Lack may refer to:
Places
* Lack, County Fermanagh, a townland in Northern Ireland
* Lack, Poland
* Łąck, Poland
* Lack Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, US
Other uses
* Lack (surname)
* Lack (manque), a term in Lacan's psychoanalyti ...
sandpaper-like texture hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
feels good regardless of your preference", while "the front panel is also beautiful because of its minimalist style and lack of visible hardware buttons". There was much praise for the One's hardware, shared with contemporary devices that often cost up to twice as much. Tests found that the One usually performed as well as or even better despite being half the price of its rivals, not only due to its specs but also attributed to its largely bloatware-free CyanogenMod OS. In addition, its CyanogenMod operating system offers more customization options than stock Android albeit being less stabl
The OnePlus One was one of the fastest phones upon its release and its specifications have aged well after a couple of years.
The OnePlus One was generally considered superior to its closest competition. The similarly-priced Nexus 5
Nexus 5 (code-named Hammerhead) is an Android (operating system), Android smartphone sold by Google and manufactured by LG Electronics. It is the fifth generation of the Google Nexus, Nexus series, succeeding the Nexus 4. It was unveiled on ...
was more widely available and had more guaranteed updates from Google, however it suffered from some design compromises including mediocre battery life and camera quality to keep the price low, plus its internal hardware was aging. In terms of specifications and size, the OnePlus One could be compared to the much pricier 5.5-inch LG G3
The LG G3 is an Android smartphone developed by LG Electronics as part of the LG G series. First released in South Korea on May 28, 2014, it is a successor to 2013's LG G2. Inheriting design elements from the G2, such as its thin screen bezels ...
whose screen was higher resolution but inferior qualit
Similar to the Google Nexus
Google Nexus is a discontinued line of consumer electronic devices that run the Android operating system. Google managed the design, development, marketing, and support of these devices, but some development and all manufacturing were carried ...
line of devices, the One has expanded the trend of high spec but mid-priced Android devices; by 2015 when the succeeding OnePlus 2
The OnePlus 2 (also abbreviated as OP2) is a smartphone designed by OnePlus. It is the successor to the OnePlus One. OnePlus revealed the phone on 28 July 2015 via virtual reality, using Google's Cardboard visor and their own app.
OnePlus sol ...
was released there was competition from numerous affordable flagships including the Moto X Pure
The Moto X Style (branded as Moto X Pure Edition in the US) is the flagship third-generation of Moto X Android smartphone developed and manufactured by Motorola that was released on September 2, 2015.
Release
The Style was announced on July 28, ...
and Asus ZenFone 2
Asus ZenFone is a series of Android (operating system), Android smartphones designed, marketed and produced by Asus. The first-generation ZenFones were announced at the Consumer Electronic Show#2014, 2014 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas V ...
br>
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8242/the-oneplus-one-revie
The OnePlus One's original distribution via an invite-only order system made the device difficult to acquire, so some reviewers decided against recommending i
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8242/the-oneplus-one-review]
The OnePlus One, in retrospect, has been considered one of the best-supported community developer phones, with a wide variety of ROMs and custom kernels. The succeeding OnePlus 2
The OnePlus 2 (also abbreviated as OP2) is a smartphone designed by OnePlus. It is the successor to the OnePlus One. OnePlus revealed the phone on 28 July 2015 via virtual reality, using Google's Cardboard visor and their own app.
OnePlus sol ...
and subsequent OnePlus phones have not amassed such third-party support, furthermore their pricing has risen to mainstream.
Sales
As of the end of 2014, the OnePlus One has sold over one million units, despite only planning to sell up to 50,000 units. The East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
n market accounted for 39% of the company's shipments in 2014, followed by Europe with 33%, 22% in North America, and 7% in India. In total, the device generated a total revenue of $300 million through December 2014.
Gallery
See also
* ZUK Z1 - another CyanogenMod
CyanogenMod ( ; CM) is a discontinued open-source operating system for mobile devices, based on the Android mobile platform. It was developed as free and open-source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added origi ...
-powered smartphone
References
{{OnePlus , state=collapsed
OnePlus mobile phones
Android (operating system) devices
Ubuntu Touch devices
Mobile phones introduced in 2014
Discontinued smartphones
Mobile phones with 4K video recording