Review: OnePlus 2 is no Flagship Killer, but it does wound the competition

The OnePlus 2 has been dubbed the 2016 Flagship Killer, but can it live up to the name?

ONEPLUS has called its second smartphone the 2016 Flagship Killer. But can the £239 smartphone live up to its lofty moniker?

• Pros – Lightning Fast Fingerprint Scanner, OxygenOS is the best Android Skin on the Market, Staggering Value, Alert Slider is a Brilliant Addition 
• Cons – USB Type-C might be a hinderance before it becomes an advantage, Average Battery Life, Unreliable Fingerprint Scanner, Dull Display

Chinese firm OnePlus stormed onto the scene back in April 2014 with the staggering OnePlus One.

The sleek smartphone had an Apple-esque design, flagship specifications and was powered by the CyanogenMod operating system.

Coupled with a bargain-bucket price tag, the smartphone stole the hearts of tech geeks and consumers alike.

And now OnePlus is back with its difficult second album.

 

OnePlus offers a slew of different interchangeable backs

Like any good sequel, the OnePlus 2 is faster, slicker and fixes the majority of its predecessor's problems.

NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com has been making calls, playing games and surfing the web on the OnePlus 2 for the past three weeks.

Spoiler Alert – the OnePlus 2 is a phenomenal phone.

OnePlus' latest device sports a similar industrial design to its predecessor. But that’s not a criticism.

The smartphone – dubbed The 2016 Flagship Killer – has a sturdy aluminium-magnesium chassis and a sandpaper-like rear case.

Rough and grippy, the sandpaper-esque Sandstone Black shell is surprisingly pleasant to hold.

But if it doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, OnePlus has added the ability to swap its rear cases with a range of interchangeable shells.

Kevlar, bamboo, rosewood and black apricot are amongst the other cases currently on offer through the official OnePlus store.

 

Like its predecessor, the OnePlus 2 has a 5.5inch LCD display with a sharp 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution, topped with Corning’s latest ultra-tough Gorilla Glass.

The OnePlus display is a nice size – especially since the Chinese firm has managed to cram the phablet display into a manageable frame.

At 401 pixels-per-inch, the display is also pin-sharp. Unfortunately, the display is also disappointingly dull.

Colours can appear bland and boring – especially when the smartphone is placed next to a flagship smartphone from Apple, Samsung or LG.

Unlike its predecessor, OnePlus has added a fingerprint scanner to the front of the device.

When it launched, the fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus 2 was the fastest on the market.

Apple has since stolen that crown – but OnePlus' offering is still lightning fast.

 

The fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 2 is lightning fast, but unreliable at times

Unfortunately the fingerprint sensor is not always as accurate as its Cupertino counterpart and can take multiple attempts to unlock.

Regardless, the far-from-infallible fingerprint is a nice addition – especially since biometric security is far from common in the Android ecosystem.

Another brilliant new hardware addition is the Alert Slider. This acts as a physical switch for the notification modes offered in Android.

Moving the Alert Slider enables either all notifications, only priority interruptions or no interruptions at all. It's all much faster than digging through Android's settings menu.

OnePlus has also decided to use USB Type-C to sync and charge its second smartphone.

USB Type C is fast and completely reversible and will become the universal USB over the coming year. 

 

OxygenOS is the best Android skin to date – minimal but incredibly useful

Sadly that adoption is going to a take little while – so OnePlus 2 owners will have to endure a few painful months of scrabbling around for a compatible charger.

The OnePlus 2 is powered by a Qualcomm 810 processor which helps to keep the smartphone speedy.

There is also a 13-megapixel rear camera which can take a decent snap and shoot 4K video. 

The OnePlus 2 also bundles image stabilisation, fast laser focus and the ability to film slow-motion video and time lapse montages.

It's worth noting the OnePlus 2 does not support expandable storage over microSD, so the 64GB version might be your only choice if you plan to shoot plenty of Ultra HD 4K video.

The OnePlus camera is snappy and more than capable in good lighting conditions – but can't hold a candle to the stellar LG G4, which was released earlier this year.

 

The 13-megapixel camera on the OnePlus is more than capable

 

Battery life from the mammoth 3,300 mAh battery cell is also disappointingly average.

Granted, the OnePlus 2 will get you through a long day, but you'll still have to rummage for your only USB Type-C connector before you go to bed at night.

Hopefully OnePlus will be able to incorporate the new battery-saving smarts baked into Android 6.0 Marshmallow in its own custom operating system, dubbed OxygenOS.

The new in-house mobile operating system, which replaces CyanogenMod, is one of the Flagship Killer's best features.

OxygenOS offers an almost pure Android experience with only a few genuinely useful tweaks and improvements.

 

Among these tweaks, OnePlus has included the ability to install custom icon packs from the Google Play Store, the ability to re-order the icons in the drop-down quick settings menu, as well as granular control over app permissions.

Swiftkey is also built into the operating system as an alternative to Google's own keyboard.

These are all welcome additions and provide a much better experience than the bloated Android skins rolled out by Samsung, HTC and the eye-sore concocted by LG.  

During our time with the OnePlus 2, the firm regularly rolled out updates and fixes for the software – keeping its customers up-to-date on the latest features, bug fixes and security patches.

 

The Qualcomm 810 processor keeps the OnePlus 2 feeling fast and responsive

Final Verdict

The OnePlus 2 is a phenomenal phone and a worthy successor to its predecessor's break-out success.

However the smartphone does not quite live up to its nickname, the 2016 Flagship Killer.

The £239 smartphone has a number of flagship features – but there are almost always better alternatives already on the market.

 

OnePlus has a lightning fast fingerprint sensor, but the scanner included with the iPhone 6S is faster and infinitely more reliable.

The OnePlus has an average 13 megapixel rear camera which can shoot Ultra HD 4K video, but the LG G4 produces consistently infinitely better photographs.

OnePlus has added the ability to swap the rear case, but it's not as customisable as the plethora of options available with the new Motorola range.

The OnePlus 2 is without a doubt the best smartphone available in its unbelievably low price range.

It is fast, reliable and runs a brilliant new version of Google's Android operating system. But it isn't better than many of the best flagship smartphones of 2015, let alone 2016.