Category Archives: OnePlus One

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LG G Flex 2 vs OnePlus One Comparison

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By Rich W Woods

So far, I have found the LG G Flex 2 to be an amazing phone. To be completely honest, I found it to be less than exciting when I first heard about it, but when I finally got my hands on it, I realized more and more just how practical and intuitive the curved display is.

Then there’s the OnePlus One. The OnePlus One was one of the hottest phones of 2014, a flagship in its own right, selling for half of the price of its competitors.

Almost a year old, how does the OnePlus One stand up to competing flagships? With the LG G Flex 2, LG G4, Samsung Galaxy S6, and HTC One M9, the OnePlus One is facing down a whole new generation of Android phones. Can it handle the action? Let’s find out.

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HTC One M9 vs OnePlus One Comparison

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By Rich W Woods

The HTC One M8 and the OnePlus One were two of the hottest phones of 2014. The OnePlus One became popular for numerous reasons. There was the notorious invite system that made consumers actually work for the device, creating a form of brand loyalty among users. The stock ROM was CyanogenMod, something that drew in Android fanatics. Oh, and did I mention that it has the flagshipiest of flagship specs and for half the price of competitors?

Of course, we’ve compared the OnePlus One with the HTC One M8 before. That’s not big news. The HTC One M8 has now been refreshed. Now it’s time to see how the OnePlus One holds up to the HTC One M9.

The HTC One M9 has been overhauled in every way, with the exception of a physical redesign. The 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 801 has been replaced by a powerful 64 bit Snapdragon 810, the 2 GB of RAM has been replaced by 3 GB, and the ultrapixel camera on the rear has been moved to the front and replaced by a 20 MP rear camera.

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OnePlus One vs Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Comparison

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By Rich W Woods

This will be the second comparison I’ve done since I got my hands on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Now, I can imagine that a number of people from the OnePlus forums are reading this column, so you probably know that I have not historically been a fan of Samsung phones. You saw my review of the Galaxy Note 4, A Perversion of Innovation, and my review of the Galaxy Note Edge, Samsung Makes the Note 4 Worse.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, has been telling me that the Samsung Galaxy S6 is going to be the device to change all that. After having the Galaxy S6 Edge for two days now, I think they might be right.

Now those same people have told me that the Samsung Galaxy S6 has the best camera on the market as well. This is something I’m a little more skeptical about. After all, these are folks that went to their local AT&T Store and tested the camera. Honestly, you cannot get any kind of feel for a device, especially the camera, until you take it into the field, take some photos, and compare it to another camera on the same screen. I want to emphasize that it must be the same screen because the display on the Galaxy S6 is absolutely stunning, which is going to make those photos pop.

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OnePlus One: CM12 vs ColorOS Comparison

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By Rich W Woods

I’m going to be completely honest. These last couple weeks have been exhausting for me, and the comparisons I’ve done with the OnePlus One haven’t helped.

First, it was OnePlus One users asking me to compare the OnePlus One to other camera apps, such as CameraNextMod and ColorOS Camera. The results were nothing spectacular, so I looked forward to OxygenOS, which would bring all new firmware to the device.

Once OxygenOS finally came, I compared it to the iPhone 6, which is by now my control group for all of the changes in software and firmware on the OnePlus One. Next was the task of comparing the stock Google Camera app on OxygenOS to the ColorOS Camera app as well as CameraNextMod. CameraNextMod on OxygenOS seems to be the best results to date.

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OnePlus One vs iPhone 6 Camera Comparison Part 4: CM12

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By Rich W Woods

It has been a long road thus far. Way back in September, I compared the OnePlus One camera to the iPhone 6 Plus. It was before I really started doing a lot of more extensive camera comparisons, so I followed it up a few months later with a comparison of the OnePlus One and the iPhone 6.

The OnePlus One provided poor, washed out photos. Later, OnePlus pushed out an update, CM11 05Q, that promised camera improvements and delivered. I gave the OnePlus One a rematch against the iPhone 6 and the results were a lot better. A trend began. The iPhone 6 was my control group. While firmware and software continued to change on the OnePlus One, the iPhone 6 remained the same, allowing us to gauge the changes that came on the OnePlus One.

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OnePlus One Camera Comparison: OxygenOS vs ColorOS Camera

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By Rich W Woods

This should be the last of the camera comparisons since OxygenOS was released for the OnePlus One. So far, the stock camera app, Google Camera, has underperformed its predecessor, Cyanogen Camera on CyanogenMod 11. We’ve also shown that CameraNextMod is a massive improvement on the stock Google Camera app.

It would seem that the quest for the perfect picture with the OnePlus One is a never ending one. Plenty of OnePlus One users will claim that it has the best camera on the market “if you know how to use it”. Unfortunately, I’m trying to find the perfect photo for those that don’t “know how to use it”. After all, a smart phone camera is not a DSLR. It’s not even a point and shoot. Users of smart phone cameras need to be able to launch a camera app, tap the shutter button, and have a great photo to show for it.

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OnePlus One Camera Comparison: Oxygen OS vs CameraNextMod

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By Rich W Woods

I’ve had a lot of work to do with the OnePlus One lately. After all, we all care about what the camera can do but there is quite a bit of question as to what the right way to do it is.

When the OnePlus One first came out, the camera was terrible. All of the photos looked washed out. that led to users suggesting the HDR, Clear Image, and Smart Scene settings, which really didn’t help. When I reviewed the Nexus 6 and found that it uses the same camera hardware, I compared it to the OnePlus One using the Google Camera, which also didn’t help.

OnePlus ended up pushing out CM11 05Q, and update that promised significant camera improvements and it delivered. I tested CM11 05Q by comparing it to the iPhone 6 yet again and the results were much closer than they had been in previous tests.

Others are still suggesting different camera apps such as CameraNextMod, a modded version of the Cyanogen Camera app, and the ColorOS Camera app, as Chinese versions of the OnePlus One use. I compared the Cyanogen Camera app to CameraNextMod, which turned out to be a huge waste of time because it turned out that they use the same algorithm (imagine that! I won’t even back link to it). Then, by popular demand, I compared the Cyanogen Camera app to the ColorOS Camera app.

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OnePlus One: Cyanogen Camera vs ColorOS Camera Comparison

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By Rich W Woods

This is the last in a string of requests. First, a bit of a back story. I have done more camera comparisons with the OnePlus One than any other phone. This will be the 28th. You can see them all by clicking the link above. You can also see all of the photos I’ve used here.

The OnePlus One has a reputation for not having the best of cameras. The photos it takes historically look washed out, very washed out. Forget about using the flash to take a picture. When I was reviewing the Nexus 6, I found that the Nexus 6 used the same camera hardware as the OnePlus One. Since the Nexus 6 uses the Google Camera app as its stock camera app, I compared the OnePlus One to the Nexus 6 using Google Camera, and so it began…

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OnePlus One vs Moto E (2nd Gen) Camera Comparison

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By Rich W Woods

I know I’m going to take heat for writing this. People love to go nuts when I compare a low end or a mid-range device to the OnePlus One. I get it. The OnePlus One is the flagshipiest of flagship phones. The fact is that the camera is far from perfect and I’ve been extremely impressed with the Moto E camera since I got it a couple weeks ago.

I have been impressed with the Moto E as an overall phone. It uses the 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, which is a rare quality for a low end phone that sells for $149. Another rare quality that it has is LTE. I would be remiss to fail to mention the rare qualities that the OnePlus One has. It uses a 2.5 GHz quad core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 5.5″ 1080p LCD, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP front camera, and 64 GB of onboard storage. Oh, none of that is rare? Well, for a $349 phone, it is, numbnuts.

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OnePlus One: Cyanogen vs CameraNextMod Comparison

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By Rich W Woods

As many of you know, I have been on a quest to find the perfect picture taken with the OnePlus One. We know it has great hardware. In fact, it’s the same as the Nexus 6. The problem is that the photos tend to look washed out. CM11 05Q was a massive improvement, but it’s still not quite there.

My first inclination was to use Google Camera. After all, the Nexus 6 uses it and it takes beautiful photos. It didn’t work. I came to the conclusion that it was not the hardware nor the software, but the firmware, something that no app is going to fix (but OxygenOS might!). I was told to try FV-5. Nothing. I was told to try CameraNext. Nothing. And before you comment, no, CameraNext is not the stock Camera app on Cyanogen. Download it from the Play Store and find out.

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