OnePlus Finally Reveals Its Flagship Killer Handset — the OnePlus 2

OnePlus, the Chinese startup behind the popular OnePlus One, has finally revealed its next flagship — the OnePlus 2.

The new OnePlus 2 sports a 5.5-inch display with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, a fingerprint sensor that can store up to five prints, 13-MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and f/2.0 aperture.

Under the hood, it is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 3/4 GB of RAM, and a 3,300mAh battery. It has dual-SIM slots but no microSD option for additional storage.

“Our goal is to just have enough margin to keep the company running and not make a profit,” OnePlus cofounder Carl Pei tells Mashable. “When we launch a new product, we normally make nothing selling it,” he says, adding that the company expects its margins to improve over time as it sells more devices and hardware costs go down.

The OnePlus 2 ships with the company’s signature “sandstone black” back cover. The textured cover manages to strike the right balance between providing a good grip and while not feeling (or looking) cheap as is often the case with textured covers employed by other manufacturers

Pei says the company spent a lot of time improving the phone’s camera, with an emphasis on improving its performance in low-light environments — one of the few weaknesses of the OnePlus One. To do this, the startup added a laser focus, optical image stabilization (OIS) to the hardware and hired a dedicated team to work on the camera’s software.

The handset ran CyanogenMod, a highly customizable version of Android and one of the most popular alternative flavors of Android.

OnePlus was forced to change things up with this release, following the OnePlus One’s ban in India after a rival company received the exclusive rights to distribute Cyanogen in the country. The result is OxygenOS, OnePlus’ own custom version on Android, based on Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The 64GB OnePlus 2 model priced at $389 will be available in the United States in Europe beginning August 11, on the company’s website. The $329 16GB mode will follow, though the company hasn’t provided an exact time. As with the last release, the phone will only be available through OnePlus’ online store and buyers will need an invitation before they are able to place an order.

The company has attempted to reduce much of the friction around the invitation process by making 30,000 to 50,000 invitations available at launch. OnePlus will also be offering prospective customers a hands-on experience with nine pop-up stores in the United States, Europe and Asia, where customers will be able to demo the device and secure an invitation. The pop-up stores will open in New York City, San Francisco, Berlin, Paris, Milan, London, New Delhi, Bangalore and Jakarta beginning July 31.

Source: mashable.com