If you are waiting to get your hands on the OnePlus One and don’t have an invitation you might have been tempted to purchase the Chinese version of the phone, but what are the differences?
Update with info regarding LTE support in North America.
The OnePlus One is finally shipping to customers after a recent software update, but only to customers who are either lucky enough to already have an invite or manage to win one in the upcoming OnePlus promotion. This has left hopeful customers with a tricky decision, do they wait for an invite or do they import the OnePlus One from China?
OnePlus in China
Chinese OnePlus fans are much more fortunate than international fans. First of all there are many many more OPO in circulation in China, and secondly invitations aren’t needed to buy the phone.
A first come first serve nature of sale in China has allowed clever buyers and resellers to secure stocks of the OnePlus One which they are now offering to international phone fans. So is there a catch? Is the Chinese OnePlus different to the international OnePlus One?
Differences between the Chinese and International OnePlus One
Going over the hardware specs we can see there is no major differences between the OnePlus One on sale in China and the one meant for invite customers, but differences do exist!
Update: LTE and WCMA
It has also come to our attention that LTE bands are different between the Chinese and Internatoinal OnePlus One. This isn’t going to affect customers in Europe much, but customers in the U.S will want to take a look at this. According to the specs LTE won’t work correctly in the U.S and you will only have partial WCDMA coverage. European customers are more lucky and will have LTE and WCDMA out of the box.
For more info for North American support follow the link below:
Gizchina News of the week
Cyanogenmod 11S
One of the major selling points of the OnePlus One is the CyanogenMod 11s custom ROM the phone ships with. Well here in China CM11s isn’t the default ROM! Instead the OPO comes with ColorOS, the same ROM found on Oppo phones.
Don’t worry about this too much though as it was announced during the OP launch that CM11S would be available to all customers to download as they please, so you should be able to switch OS once a download is available. Interestingly MIUI was also mentioned to be an alternate ROM so you can take a look at that too.
The body
Physically the Chinese and International OnePlus One are identical, but as CyanogenMod isn’t installed the CM branding is not on the Chinese version of the phone.
Again this is hardly a deal breaker and actually means the Chinese version of the phone looks cleaner, but if you did want the branding you could always buy an extra style cover (which many of you will likely do anyway).
Availability
Availability is another difference. If you want to be sure to get the OnePlus now while it is still a flagship killer I recommend you find a reliable reseller and buy one from China.
Pricing
As these Chinese OnePlus One phones aren’t being sold by OnePlus expect to pay slightly more over the international RRP. The additional cost will be to cover the resellers profit, shipping to them in China and possibly shipping and tax to your country of residence.
Warranty
As sales of the OnePlus have just begun we don’t know how they are going to handle warranties for imported phones. You might find that the only warranty you will have is through the reseller you buy it from, so again choose a reliable company.
Differences between the Chinese and International OnePlus One
From all the details we have studied on the forums and the official OnePlus sites, these are the only differences between the two models, and there is really nothing here which might put a potential buyer off.
To be sure though we are currently awaiting the delivery of a Chinese OnePlus One to be shipped to us from reseller Lenteen. Interestingly they did offer to install CM for us before shipping, but we will do it ourselves and give you a how to article with instructions. We should receive the OnePlus One soon so keep posted for more news, how to’s and reviews.
Check this out: http://forums.oneplus.net/threads/warning-chinese-model-shady-dealers.31040/
Added to the article 😀
Thanks 🙂
We are waiting impatiently
So there’s not much a difference after all
great job andi, looking forward to your oneplus posts…thanks
Check this out: http://forums.oneplus.net/threads/warning-chinese-model-shady-dealers.31040/
Added to the article 😀
Thanks 🙂
We are waiting impatiently
So there’s not much a difference after all
great job andi, looking forward to your oneplus posts…thanks
Again you don’t mention the differences in LTE bands… It will not work properly in the US.
Telling us the differences would be helpful then.
Again you don’t mention the differences in LTE bands… It will not work properly in the US.
Telling us the differences would be helpful then.
Whjat about band 20 (800 MHz) as used by T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2/Telefonica in Germany?
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_LTE-Netzwerken
Will not work on both International or Chinese OnePlus One.
Whjat about band 20 (800 MHz) as used by T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2/Telefonica in Germany?
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_LTE-Netzwerken
Will not work on both International or Chinese OnePlus One.
where to buy this in Hong Kong
where to buy this in Hong Kong
with the telus mobility is on lte is 1700!
with the telus mobility is on lte is 1700!
WIND in Canada uses the bands 1700/2100, which is AWS. Since this device supports 2100, do you think it will work on WIND? (Which is also T-Mobile in a way.)
WIND in Canada uses the bands 1700/2100, which is AWS. Since this device supports 2100, do you think it will work on WIND? (Which is also T-Mobile in a way.)
How about if you are an English speaker and have a Chinese phone in China, will the 4g that comes with the international version cause problems connecting to the Chinese, China Mobile or the Unicom systems. In other words I would like google play to get English apps but I am an English speaker using the phone in China?
How about if you are an English speaker and have a Chinese phone in China, will the 4g that comes with the international version cause problems connecting to the Chinese, China Mobile or the Unicom systems. In other words I would like google play to get English apps but I am an English speaker using the phone in China?
Is it a fake or produced by the same company? I’m not clear on where the chinese version comes from. Can you please explain?
It’s from the same company
Is it a fake or produced by the same company? I’m not clear on where the chinese version comes from. Can you please explain?
It’s from the same company
Thnx man vuhuu!!!
Thnx man vuhuu!!!
Hi, i’m planning on buying a one plus one from someone and i’ve noticed his has china mobile 4g LTE brand at the back and a 4g label brand on the top right front of the phone. Is it legit considering the fact that the chinese model should be clean right??
Hi, i’m planning on buying a one plus one from someone and i’ve noticed his has china mobile 4g LTE brand at the back and a 4g label brand on the top right front of the phone. Is it legit considering the fact that the chinese model should be clean right??