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5 facts about the mysterious OnePlus company & OnePlus One phone [Mobile 88 Online (Malaysia)]
[July 22, 2014]

5 facts about the mysterious OnePlus company & OnePlus One phone [Mobile 88 Online (Malaysia)]


(Mobile 88 Online (Malaysia) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) What has been amazing about the OnePlus brand is that it’s hype has grown at such a level in such a small amount of time, with members of mobile forums raving about how cheap and great the flagship OnePlus One smartphone is, just like the hype that accompanied the Oppo Find 7. Below are five facts about this smartphone and the company.



OnePlus produces smartphones from China, founded in December of 2013 and headquartered in Shenzhen, and if you have never heard of the upstart company- here are five interesting facts to get you started.

OnePlus is a sub-brand of OPPO OPPO is a consumer electronics manufacturer based in Dongguan, Guangdong, China. The brand has grown famous in Malaysia with the hoopla surrounding the Oppo Find 7 smartphone, offering some of the best specs on an Android smartphone for an incredibly reasonable price.


According to Gizmodo China, "OnePlus is definitely a wholly-owned sub-brand of OPPO". OPPO and OnePlus share the same shareholders, and the ratio of OPPO's investment in OnePlus is in fact 100%. Not to mention the similarity of design and technology used on their smartphones.

OnePlus One uses CyanogenMod CyanogenMod is an open source OS based on the Android platform. The version that the OnePlus One runs, the 11s, is based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat and is custom built for the OnePlus One.

The best part of utilising a customised open source OS is that you are still able to have the best of the Android experience and casual users would not even realize that it is actually a custom OS. This phone looks a little different in terms of their UI design, which can be seen in the unique application icon design.

What makes the current 11S OS so impressive is that it offers a superior out-of-box experiences with really cool gestures controls you can perform such as knocking the display twice to wake the screen or put it to sleep, bringing the camera up by drawing a circle, turning on the flash by drawing "V", drawing left or right arrows and dragging your two fingers to control the music and tracks.

Mind-blowing specs for a budget handset The OnePlus One uses the Snapdragon 801 processor that is also used to power the Samsung Galaxy S5. OnePlus One has also one of the bigger displays compared to other flagship smartphones, holding a 5.5-inch screen. But what is even more impressive is the thinness of the phone (8.9mm) and the fact that it is cheaper than the Galaxy S5 by around RM400 to RM600 in Malaysia.

The 3100mAh battery is pretty much able to last the whole day, more than most phablets with a similar form factor, and the One also sports a 13-megapixel Sony Exmor sensor which allows for great shots in low-light situations. There is also a 5MP front camera and great bottom-facing stereo speakers for audio. These little things make you wonder how can OnePlus afford to sell this smartphone at such a low cost. Which brings us to our next fact.

Oneplus is not making a profit from the Oneplus One OnePlus does not intend to make a profit for their first two years, and is cutting down on its marketing expenses by selling the OnePlus One directly, thereby avoiding the need to increase the recommened retail price that would be necessary if they were to sell through a retailer.

One means for OnePlus to start making money now is by selling accessories for their devices- which OnePlus sells at a reasonable profit margin for itself. The company is also trying to increase the scale for their phones in order to drive down the component cost of OnePlus devices, allowing the company to earn a small profit from it and also providing software services to their users.

What OnePlus believes is that creating a great product will attract customers and the Chinese upstart can discover how to generate revenue from it in the future.

You need to be invited in order to purchase this smartphone Eventhough the OnePlus One has yet to be widely exposed to the main stream market, the smartphone has been virally making the rounds of the tech community,  and the OnePlus crew is already struggling to make enough units fast enough for demanding buyers.

Hence, the invite system in place for ordering a OnePlus One is the only way to get the affordable handset. Customers who receive an invite to purchase OnePlus One will have 24 hours to purchase the handset or it will expire, however if the user gives away the invite it will last up to one or two weeks longer. The company intends to make changes to its purchasing mechanism once mass production ramps up.

Check out this cool video, where you can get the OnePlus One for a mere US$1, if you’re willing to smash your old phone.

For techies in Malaysia who are interested in purchasing the OnePlus One, take heart. Lazada Malaysia is selling the OnePlus One A0001 with LTE, 16GB, internal storage, in white colour at RM1199. Use the coupon code by ShopCoupons.my to get RM35 off your purchase.

(c) 88 Mobile.com 2014. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

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