It is April 2014, and a tiny startup called OnePlus has just released a ‘Flagship Killer’ that is shaking the foundations of the mobile industry. The OnePlus One is a technical middle finger to the £600 price tags of Samsung and Apple. In the UK, it is the ultimate ‘insider’s’ phone, initially available only through a mysterious invite system that has created a level of feverish demand usually reserved for Glastonbury tickets. It’s a large, imposing 162g device finished in a unique ‘Sandstone Black’, a textured, gritty material that feels like a cross between volcanic rock and premium felt. It is tactile, incredibly grippy, and unlike anything else on the British high street.
The technical headline is the value-to-performance ratio. For just £229, you are getting the absolute top-tier silicon: a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and a massive 3GB of RAM. At a time when the Galaxy S5 is still shipping with 2GB, the OnePlus One is a multitasking monster. The screen is a 5.5-inch Full HD LTPS LCD (1920 x 1080) with 401 PPI. While it lacks the punch of an AMOLED, it is remarkably bright, colour-accurate, and features a ‘Touch-on-Lens’ technology that makes the display feel closer to your fingertips. Under the hood, it doesn’t run a standard manufacturer ‘skin’; instead, it ships with CyanogenMod 11S, a community-driven version of Android 4.4 KitKat that offers a level of technical customisation, from themes to CPU performance tweaks, that is a dream for the UK power-user.
On the imaging front, it features a 13-megapixel Sony Exmor RS sensor with a 6-lens array and an f/2.0 aperture. It records 4K video and features a 5-megapixel front-facing camera for the burgeoning selfie generation. Connectivity is comprehensive with 4G LTE (though famously missing the 800MHz band used by some UK rural networks), Wi-Fi ac, and NFC. The 3,100 mAh battery is a solid performer, easily surviving a day of heavy use. The OnePlus One is a landmark bit of tech; it proved that you didn’t need a multi-million-pound marketing budget to build a world-class smartphone. It is a raw, powerful, and deeply customisable device that has forever changed the expectations of what an ‘affordable’ phone can be.