I'm completely disappointed with the way phone market evolves. I don't want a <i>cheap</i> phone, I want a phone that works.<p>I want my phone to have enough memory and processing power to handle its operating system without hiccups. It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you. I want my phone to have it all - Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA, accelerometer, thermometer, barometer, SD card, double SIM, removable battery; all sensors and standard protocols and features that companies use now to segment markets. I don't see a reason for a phone to not to have it all other than vendors trying to extract more money from people by forcing them to choose the least inferior option. But fuck it, I'll pay even $1000+, just create a phone that works.<p>And I want a tool, not a fitness toy for bored first-worlders. Double, no - triply so for wearables. People ask me why I just bought a Pebble instead of one of those shiny touch-screen "smart"watches. It's simple - I want a tool, not a glorified pedometer. While I think a touchscreen would be really welcome, still, Pebble seems to be the only wearables company that wants to make something useful instead of shiny. But I am yet to find such a comapny for phones themselves.<p>It's disheartening when you compare what we know we can do with what is actually done because of business reasons.
I'm really sad that it won't have CyanogenMod; that was the biggest reason that I purchased a One. It's a real shame that there was that whole fight over exclusivity in India (IIRC, it sounds like CM's fault, but I'm not 100% certain).<p>I'm interested to read details of how the fingerprint unlock works. Remember that a fingerprint reader is insufficient to be secure, as fingerprints are low-entropy and relatively public.
Is anyone else in the "My perfect phone would be my current one but with a battery that easily lasts 3+ days" boat? I've currently got an iPhone 5S, and I can achieve this with those portable USB chargers. I've no need for any of the other features which new generations of smartphones are adding (multi-core\multi-ghz processors, huge amounts of RAM etc), though there's <i>perhaps</i> a killer app round the corner which will advantage of this. Otherwise I cannot see myself replacing my 5S in the next couple of years (except for Apple dropping support, or me dropping it in my beer)
No NFC, which seems like an odd choice. Wonder how much that shaved off the manufacturing cost.<p><a href="http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/07/27/oneplus-says-it-dropped-nfc-from-the-oneplus-2-because-oneplus-one-owners-werent-using-it/" rel="nofollow">http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/07/27/oneplus-says-it-drop...</a>
Give me a 4.5-inch phone with slightly lower specs (a battery-saving 720p screen would be enough at that size) for less than $300, and I'm sold.<p>For the time being, though, I'm going to wait out the "my phone is bigger than your dick" game that everyone and their dog seems to be engaged in. 175 grams is way too heavy to carry around in a pocket, let alone hold with one hand for more than a few minutes. And yet everyone competes in the already overcrowded "flagship" market instead of trying to find a niche.<p>I hope at least some manufactorers will return to their senses before my 4.27-inch, 107-gram Galaxy S4 Mini begins to feel unbearably slow.
I think Asus deserves some credit here as well for selling a 4GB RAM Intel Atom phone with dual SIM and SD card slot for comparable prices:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_ZenFone#ZenFone_2" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_ZenFone#ZenFone_2</a><p>Of course, as usual, their own skin and who knows how long you get updates.
It has a removable back, but no removable battery or expandable storage? I can sort of understand if the back wasn't removable... but on this one, it is. In this price range you can find many other Android phones which do have those features.<p>Here's one, for example:<p><a href="https://www.fastcardtech.com/Elephone-P7000-Android-Phone.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.fastcardtech.com/Elephone-P7000-Android-Phone.ht...</a>
No NFC? Guess I'll have to stick with my OnePlus One if I want to continue to use PGP safely on my phone - <a href="https://grepular.com/An_NFC_PGP_SmartCard_For_Android" rel="nofollow">https://grepular.com/An_NFC_PGP_SmartCard_For_Android</a>
The competitiveness of the Android handset market gets even more brutal. 4.7" to 5.5" is flooded with phones that are that are $199-$399.<p>This is not including models that are 12+ months old that are discounted but still have solid specs.
In all of the comments, I see a lot of excitement about the "features" the company is able to pack for a "low" cost.<p>I would like to say this in simplest possible way<p>-- One plus one support model and execution is poorest of all phone makers --<p>The emphasis and culture in the company is to grow fast without concern towards individuals paying still very high prices for their phones but not getting the worth. The half life of the phone is lower than market and people do face issues when the OS changes are pushed without a good amount of testing.<p>One plus one forums are inundated with people all over the world having hardware issues and the insufficient support they have been receiving. The founder Carl Pei has made commitments to improve support however the progress has fallen short on promises.<p>One Plus One ended up being a huge lesson for many customers. One plus two would just end up being another phone without company getting its act together.
<i>> For $300, you got a well-made, nice-looking phone with cutting-edge hardware and few compromises to be found</i><p>I don't think it is nice-looking. It's not ugly. It's just normal. It looks very similar to some Android phones.
OnePlusOne was interesting mainly because it had cyanogenmod.
I can't wait to read reviews about OxygenOS. (but I have to say: cyanogen was much more interesting)
"features a 5.5-inch, 1080p screen"<p>I hope it's not the same screen as in the One... Other than that, it looks like a good improvement.