OnePlus One cut-price Android phone on sale to all... for 1 HOUR Word-of-mouth sensation the OnePlus One smartphone finally goes on general sale to the public next week – six months after the phone was launched, and after a number of not-always successful promotional gimmicks. But only in 16 territories. And you only have an hour on Monday to check out. OnePlus One Android smartphone Like …
Yes, I agree. Then there's the fact that the Nexus 6 is coming out, and though it costs a lot more, you do get a much better product for the money. Waterproofing, for a start, and then there's the fact that Google will not permit anything to sully their good name.
OnePlus One, on the other hand, have kept on with the invite nonsense entirely too long. A little chase to try get an invite, yes, OK. Pratting me about for weeks with seemingly no chance of getting a phone; sod the lot of 'em!
Then there's the fact that they are using the known-vulnerable CyanogenMod image on the phone. We know there is one vulnerability on there, oh and this is a Chinese-made phone with a Chinese-modified OS on it as well. Feeling scared yet? The thing almost certainly has some sort of spyware on it, even if this is not activated by default or even at all. To add to the risk, the units are too cheap.
Law 0: Stupidity cannot be destroyed, only deflected.
Law 1: Stupidity expands to fill the space available.
Law 2: Stupidity flows from the more stupid to the less stupid.*
Law 3: Too many laws for the stupid to count.
*Because there is more of it, and it is armed with more clubs.
I managed to pick up one of these in the "20,000 invite warm-up" thing after randomly spotting it on Twitter, and it is a nice bit of kit really, nicely made for the money, and Cyanogen is an excellent version of Android of course.
One *major* problem - they shipped it with a Shucko-type charger and one of the nasty-cheap UK adapters that you (or a child) can do all sorts of dangerous things with:
http://i.imgur.com/KFifbfs.jpg
For Android market penetration, perhaps.
I've had two invites for this phone, the first I passed on because I was waiting for the Nexus 6 announcement, and the other I received passively. It's really not that difficult to get an invite, you just have to do a little bit of legwork. There are numerous forums with community spirited "you get an invite, you give your invites to the next on the list" schemes going.
It's an exceptional phone, and whether or not it's being sold at cost, and what "cost" even means, is moot really. The nearest competitors are double the price. I think Google in particular have shot themselves in the foot making the Nexus 6 so large (my thumb is stretched just using this OPO 5.5" screen) and so expensive. Carriers 1 Consumers 0.
If you can, get one. I've had no issues whatsoever. The build quality is excellent, even the packaging was nothing like I expected it to be. Phones like this are a reminder of how much profit is usually being made on them.
I have the pleasure (and that's not sarcastically) of owning one of these phones after being gifted an invite - screw buying an invite on eBay! I don't like the fact that it will not work on 4G with O2 but seeming that with 3G I am getting ~7Mbps down ~1.5Mbps up this is fine for my day to day use. I rarely tether and when I do only need web and emails otherwise this would irritate me.
The charger really could have done with more thought as Gareth79 highlighted - it's shocking (pun?). The other thing is that due to the battery capacity to have it charge at a decent rate the charging cable is of a high quality but short. You try and use most other MicroUSB cables and it takes an age to charge, all to do with the gauge of the USB cable (https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/oneplus-one-charging-cable-alternative.68517/). So am trying, in vain so far, to find a decent cable so I can have one at work, home, car etc...
A great phone, version 2 will be better. Here's hoping that they sort out the issues (4G too) and do a better job of releasing the phone to the general public!
Good luck!
Yeah right. So how is it they are running so much marketing, servers, shipping, (probably) a complains/service department, etc, etc. They are probably making a tidy profit on this thing. With some clever bookkeeping (even legally) the outside world does not need to know this.
Cost per unit = Total Cost / Units
Total Cost = Staff, Development, Insurance, Licencing, Packaging, Public Relations, Loans (Including Fees and Interest), Component cost, Assembly Cost, Shipping Cost, and no doubt there are a lot of other things I have not included.
This is how "At Cost" Generally works. For example, In Europe if your child smashes something in a store and your asked to pay for it, you pay the "Cost" value, not the stores "Price" for it. So if they got said item for €86 and charge €385 for it, you pay €86.. Even if said item cost £2 in china.
Charities tend to run off of the same system, they make no "Profit", but they can have a lot of hidden "Cost".
If they say they are selling at cost then what you likely have here is a "company" that will make 0 (+/- some random value), but some staff and directors who will possibly pocket a huge wad of cash.
Now, here is the upside.
Say they put the phone out, and 30,000 of us get one for that price ($349, that's about 46% of what apples first Iphone cost with inflation, or about 46% of a 64 gig iphone 6).... There will be court battles, followed by some random "luck" where the US finds spyware on there that China has inserted, and soon we'll not be able to buy them at all. The company will close doors and everyone will walk away happy.
Us (having the phones)
Them (Having paid themselves good money probably!)
Apple (Competition is bad)
Us Politicians (We stopped them there China folk from stealing our American Jobs)..
http://en.comebuy.com/searchindex/result/index/?q=oneplus
delivery was longer than expected - should have been 10 day DHL, but they took 2 days to process the order and ship - and then it took 15 days to appear - so almost 3 weeks.
Still, absolutely worth it. 30 hours battery life and stunning piece of kit.
if I've made a mistake in buying one.
I just got so sickened at the thought of paying wads for a new phone, that when I read the great reviews for this from some very well known and respected sites and publications, it seemed like a no-brainer.
Yes, some folk had issues, but then, some folk always have issues.
I'm expecting it tomorrow. I may just keep it sealed and Ebay it off for £10 more than I paid.
$370 US including shipping, that is cheap. Sure you can get a "free" phone from your carrier, but it really isn't free. That free phone, see how many updates are released for it in a year and then compare that to year two.
Android L will come to the OnePlus, can you say that about a phone you bought 6 months ago?
My phone is less than a year old, but it cost me less than $100 - unsubsidized. (I'm on an MVNO PAYG subscription. I've had contracts with Sprint and AT&T in the past, and I don't see any reason why I'd ever want another.)
No, it's not a "top of the line" phone. And I can't see any reason why I'd need one. The model I have does calls and SMS just fine. It keeps my contact list. It has GPS and the navigation software is adequate. Those are the only things I really need my phone to do. As a bonus, it also does pretty well at things like keeping a calendar, keeping little to-do notes and shopping lists, playing music (on the rare occasions I want that), and displaying e-books (handy if I'm stuck waiting somewhere with nothing better to do).
I'm sure some people need a pocket equivalent of an '80s supercomputer for, um, some reason. I don't. I could certainly afford to spend $400 every year on a new shiny, but I'm much happier sticking with my perfectly-adequate phone and putting that money toward something else.
(My phone's battery is also good for 2-3 days of regular use. And it has a physical qwerty keyboard, which this "steal", like most whizzbang phones, seems to lack.)
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