Here are 10 things I’ve learned about the OnePlus 2 after a week of owning one


oneplus 2 review

The OnePlus 2 arrived with us just a week ago and since that first day I have used it solely as my own personal phone. Here are 10 things I have learned about the OnePlus 2 in that time.

I’ve been using the OnePlus 2 now for a week. For the first day I used the Chinese Hydrogen OS, but quickly switched to Oxygen OS when I managed to get access to it. After a week of daily use this is what I have learned.

Oxygen OS is much better than Hydrogen OS

OnePlus China have completely redesigned Android for the local Chinese market. The Hydrogen ROM is very pretty but with no access to Google apps on the phone, and Chinese apps built-in to the system it isn’t really that useful for non-Chinese users.

oneplus 2 oxygen os vs hydrogen os

To be perfectly honest though I feel many OP2 owners even in China will eventually make the switch to Oxygen OS. Not only is it cleaner and more Android like, but it also a much better performing ROM.

Oxygen OS is good but not perfect

Oxygen OS is a very lightweight ROM with only a few changes here and there from a stock Android installation. Being so close to stock you would hope that everything works as Google intended and it does.

All Google apps and social media apps that many of us use work perfectly on the OP2 and of all the Chinese phones I have tested Android Wear is more stable and can stay connected.

how to install oxygen OS on the Chinese oneplus 2

There are a few bugs that need to be solved to make the ROM perfect though. I have experienced random force closes in apps, and the system sometimes just grinds to a halt. Even with 4GB RAM on board, the OP2 doesn’t seem to handle multi tasking as well as the Asus Zenfone 2, of even LeTV Le1. This is the first stable release though and updates will hopefully fix these small issues and add more features.

OnePlus 2 Camera is good and consistent

There are a lot of mixed feelings about the camera on the OnePlus 2. I am more than satisfied with the camera on the phone. It might not produce as nice images as other devices that I have used, but it is consistently good.

With Oxygen OS the camera starts up quickly and if in auto mode will snap and save photos quickly without a pause. HDR and Clear Image modes are great too but you need to get use to the camera to know when to use these options to their fullest.

View more OnePlus 2 camera samples

OnePlus 2 fingerprint scanner is almost perfect

oneplus 2 fingerprint scanner

Of all the phones I have used the OnePlus 2 has the fastest and most accurate fingerprint scanner of any of them. Even when your prints get greasy or messy the OP2 will still grant you instant access.

But there are times when the scanner just refuses to do anything. Now and then the sensor won’t even recognise you have placed a finger on the lens let alone unlock. Double tapping the screen to wake the device up (if you have it set up, press the power button if not) fixes the issue, but hopefully ROM updates will make the scanner more stable.

OnePlus 2 Battery Life isn’t great

oneplus 2 battery life

For the first few days with the OnePlus 2 I was in the office most of the time relying on WIFI and just generally playing around with the phone (as you do with any new device) and the battery life was really impressive. I easily got a day and a half on the first charge and believed that once I got in to a normal routine with the phone I could get 2 days battery life easily.

Gizchina News of the week


Yesterday morning I took the OnePlus 2 off charge at 7am and headed to Madrid. While there I used the phone for social media updates, checking the news (over LTE) taking a lot of photos, one very very short phone call, and had Android wear connected. Screen brightness was about half.

The phone completely ran out of juice by 5:30pm, thankfully I was at home again by then as I didn’t carry the USB type C cable with me. Battery life needs improving! A screen on time of only 3 hours 30 min is not good enough.

OnePlus 2 charging time is fast

There is no fast charging on the OnePlus 2 but the phone does charge very quickly. From 0% to 50% in just about an hour and fully charged around 2 hours or slightly more. That’s much faster than other standard charge phones, and while not quite as fast as VOOC I think I can live with it.

You can’t switch the camera view for video calls in some apps

oneplus 2 review

This issue might not be affect you but we have found that while using QQ or Wechat for video calls we are unable to turn the camera from the front to rear or vice versa. I don’t know if this is only a bug with Tencent bugs as I don’t use Skype, but I will try to test it for the full review.

OnePlus 2 WIFI signal strength is amazing

WIFI signal strength on the OnePlus 2 is very good. We can use the WIFI from the local cafe while in the garden, which is perfect and something that we are not able to do with other phones or even my Macbook. LTE, Bluetooth etc are all also amazing good too.

OnePlus 2 Audio is only ok, and MAXX Audio doesn’t really help

oneplus 2 maxx audio

After treating my ears to the amazing audio that purrs out of the LeTVLe 1 I have been truly spoiled, nothing else sounds quite as good and that includes the OnePlus 2. Audio is good, and can no way be described as bad, but it lacks the richness of other phones.

The OnePlus 2 offers MAXX Audio, an audio enhancement system which we also saw on the OPO and a few OPPO phones, but it really does nothing to improve the sound. In fact the first time I used MAXX Audio it didn’t work at all for a few minutes but then suddenly sprung to life with a shock of bass which caught my attention. Since then MAXX Audio works, but it isn’t really much of an enhancement.

OnePlus 2 USB Type C is super fast

oneplus 2 review

Having a Type C USB on your phone can be annoying if you need to charge your phone up and you don’t have the cable with you. The chances of meeting someone else with a USB Type C device to lend you a cable while out and about or even buying a spare in an emergency is slim until the technology is more widely used.

It does have a benefit though, and that benefit is speed. Moving photos or video files from the OnePlus 2 to your computer is very fast, fast to the point that you might find yourself needlessly moving larger and larger files just to see how quick it is.

OnePlus 2 review and giveaway coming soon

The full OnePlus 2 review is already being written up and we have even secured a OnePlus 2 to giveaway so watch out for news of this coming in the next week or so. In the meantime if you want to buy the OnePlus 2 without invite (the Chinese version of the phone) we recommend the following stores:

Where to buy the OnePlus 2 without invitation

Previous Geekbuying has the Redmi Note 2 on pre-order too!
Next Meizu MX5 Pro Plus sighted, could boast Exynos chip after all

67 Comments

  1. realjjj
    August 15, 2015

    “the system sometimes just grinds to a halt.” – try to monitor CPU clocks and see if it just can’t cope and dials down.

    • balcobomber25
      August 15, 2015

      That was my first thought, the SD810 is at fault.

  2. SPLEND1D
    August 15, 2015

    basically, more cons than pros

  3. Stiven
    August 15, 2015

    So when can we expect review of Umi iron? it’s been more than a month since you got it.

    • August 15, 2015

      They want to give me a new version of it as I had some hardware problems

      • Muhammad Yasir
        August 15, 2015

        true that … its been PISS POOR so far

      • Muhammad Yasir
        August 15, 2015

        true that … its been PISS POOR so far

  4. pa5t1s
    August 15, 2015

    Thanks @Gizchina:disqus for your review! Glad to read some positive words after all the hate and buzz around this phone. The compagny is failing ; but, at least, the product is (near) good and can be better in a near future.
    Now, that doesn’t distract me from Huawei Nexus and/or LeTV LeMax 😛 😀
    Edit: whenever you sell it as second-hand, PM me 😉

    • balcobomber25
      August 15, 2015

      The funny thing is they have always had a very good product, what kills the company is they continue to shoot themselves in the foot with piss poor marketing and PR. I have never seen with such a good product completely fail at selling the product.

      • iKosh
        August 15, 2015

        Basically the product is selling itself, and the marketing is holding it back.

      • iKosh
        August 15, 2015

        Basically the product is selling itself, and the marketing is holding it back.

      • pa5t1s
        August 17, 2015

        Indeed.

      • RiverHorser
        August 17, 2015

        they firstly can’t produce big numbers, never did so in China either and their flagship store is a sad proof for that. Calling it flagship killer is like calling any chinese kiddie who can walk and dumb a load without major injuries… the next Christiano Ronaldo…

        • Yeti hand
          August 17, 2015

          HAHAHAHAHA

  5. Angry Mobile Nerd
    August 15, 2015

    Wow without a USB C cable (or at least an adapter) you’re really SOL.

  6. Dante
    August 15, 2015

    You are a fast learner Andi…

  7. Uradick Headsure
    August 15, 2015

    It’ll be biggest disappointment of 2015 i think.

  8. realjjj
    August 15, 2015

    “the system sometimes just grinds to a halt.” – try to monitor CPU clocks and see if it just can’t cope and dials down.

    • balcobomber25
      August 15, 2015

      That was my first thought, the SD810 is at fault.

  9. SPLEND1D
    August 15, 2015

    basically, more cons than pros

  10. mike
    August 15, 2015

    Yeah, that USB-C is just a refashioned Micro USB 2.0 port. Any speed improvements might be due to the Samsung eMMC 5.0 NAND or the implementation.

  11. Stiven
    August 15, 2015

    So when can we expect review of Umi iron? it’s been more than a month since you got it.

    • Andi Sykes
      August 15, 2015

      They want to give me a new version of it as I had some hardware problems

    • Guest
      August 15, 2015

      true that … its been PISS POOR so far

  12. pa5t1s
    August 15, 2015

    Thanks @Gizchina:disqus for your review! Glad to read some positive words after all the hate and buzz around this phone. The compagny is failing ; but, at least, the product is (near) good and can be better in a near future.
    Now, that doesn’t distract me from Huawei Nexus and/or LeTV LeMax 😛 😀
    Edit: whenever you sell it as second-hand, PM me 😉

    • balcobomber25
      August 15, 2015

      The funny thing is they have always had a very good product, what kills the company is they continue to shoot themselves in the foot with piss poor marketing and PR. I have never seen with such a good product completely fail at selling the product.

    • iKosh
      August 15, 2015

      Basically the product is selling itself, and the marketing is holding it back.

    • pa5t1s
      August 17, 2015

      Indeed.

    • RiverHorser
      August 17, 2015

      they firstly can’t produce big numbers, never did so in China either and their flagship store is a sad proof for that. Calling it flagship killer is like calling any chinese kiddie who can walk and dumb a load without major injuries… the next Christiano Ronaldo…

    • Yeti hand
      August 17, 2015

      HAHAHAHAHA

  13. Angry Mobile Nerd
    August 15, 2015

    Wow without a USB C cable (or at least an adapter) you’re really SOL.

  14. Dante
    August 15, 2015

    You are a fast learner Andi…

  15. Uradick Headsure
    August 15, 2015

    It’ll be biggest disappointment of 2015 i think.

  16. Guest
    August 15, 2015

    Yeah, that USB-C is just a refashioned Micro USB 2.0 port. Any speed improvements might be due to the Samsung eMMC 5.0 NAND or the implementation.

  17. AdM
    August 15, 2015

    I heard that in order to solve the heating issue OnePlus deactivated 2 of the cores and the device only works with the remaining 6.
    Is it possible to confirm that?

    • Xalis
      August 28, 2015

      CPU Z would tell you that in 3seconds.

  18. AdM
    August 15, 2015

    I heard that in order to solve the heating issue OnePlus deactivated 2 of the cores and the device only works with the remaining 6.
    Is it possible to confirm that?

  19. AdM
    August 15, 2015

    I heard that in order to solve the heating issue OnePlus deactivated 2 of the cores and the device only works with the remaining 6.
    Is it possible to confirm that?

    • Guest
      August 28, 2015

      CPU Z would tell you that in 3seconds.

  20. gadget_ocd
    August 15, 2015

    Does this have 3 or 4 GB of RAM?

    Gizchina shop and several other places have listed 3 GB?

    • gulasfonhonibrk
      August 16, 2015

      16 GB ROM has 3 GB RAM and 64 GB has 4 GB RAM as far as I know

    • August 16, 2015

      mine is the 4GB RAM model

  21. gadget_ocd
    August 16, 2015

    Does this have 3 or 4 GB of RAM?

    Gizchina shop and several other places have listed 3 GB?

    • Guest
      August 16, 2015

      16 GB ROM has 3 GB RAM and 64 GB has 4 GB RAM as far as I know

    • Andi Sykes
      August 17, 2015

      mine is the 4GB RAM model

  22. trapchan
    August 17, 2015

    letv praised a lot here. is it really that good??

    • RiverHorser
      August 17, 2015

      yup, also their tech and customer support is worlds ahead of both OPPO and one+

      • trapchan
        August 17, 2015

        do you have one, or just reading people’s story. anyway, where can I buy without high markup price?

  23. RiverHorser
    August 17, 2015

    i still can’t see any proof that warrants labelling it a FLAGSHIP KILLER rofl

  24. trapchan
    August 17, 2015

    letv praised a lot here. is it really that good??

    • RiverHorser
      August 17, 2015

      yup, also their tech and customer support is worlds ahead of both OPPO and one+

    • trapchan
      August 17, 2015

      do you have one, or just reading people’s story. anyway, where can I buy without high markup price?

  25. RiverHorser
    August 17, 2015

    i still can’t see any proof that warrants labelling it a FLAGSHIP KILLER rofl

  26. Laktasi
    August 18, 2015

    Dear Andi!!! 🙂

    Please make rewiev of Meizu MX5 and make camera comparison with Meizu MX5, OnePlus 2 and LETV. THX!!! 🙂

    • Roki
      August 18, 2015

      Yes, Andi make it please!!! 🙂

      And what you thin Meizu MX5 or OnePlus 2? 🙂

  27. Guest
    August 18, 2015

    Dear Andi!!! 🙂

    Please make rewiev of Meizu MX5 and make camera comparison with Meizu MX5, OnePlus 2 and LETV. THX!!! 🙂

    • Guest
      August 18, 2015

      Yes, Andi make it please!!! 🙂

      And what you thin Meizu MX5 or OnePlus 2? 🙂

  28. Born In EightyFive
    August 18, 2015

    @Gizchina:disqus Small question : You have the Chinese version right?!
    Do you have 4G on both SIM’s?!
    Thx in advance

  29. August 18, 2015

    “Even with 4GB RAM on board, the OP2 doesn’t seem to handle multi tasking as well as the Asus Zenfone 2, of even LeTV Le1.” — It’s a wonder that LeTV was able to release a solid ROM on their first try.

  30. joe mont
    August 18, 2015

    This is an oddly clickbait title.

  31. Born In EightyFive
    August 18, 2015

    @Gizchina:disqus Small question : You have the Chinese version right?!
    Do you have 4G on both SIM’s?!
    Thx in advance

  32. 10basetom
    August 18, 2015

    “Even with 4GB RAM on board, the OP2 doesn’t seem to handle multi tasking as well as the Asus Zenfone 2, of even LeTV Le1.” — It’s a wonder that LeTV was able to release a solid ROM on their first try.

  33. joe mont
    August 18, 2015

    This is an oddly clickbait title.

  34. raj
    August 19, 2015

    Andi what about front camera performance & is it support wide angle selfie on front camera??

  35. Guest
    August 19, 2015

    Andi what about front camera performance & is it support wide angle selfie on front camera??

  36. mrjayviper
    August 28, 2015

    I highly doubt the USB type-C connector is any faster than microUSB since it’s only the connector that is USB type-C. It’s not USB 3.x

  37. mrjayviper
    August 28, 2015

    I highly doubt the USB type-C connector is any faster than microUSB since it’s only the connector that is USB type-C. It’s not USB 3.x