The OnePlus One Review
by Joshua Ho on November 19, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Mobile
- OnePlus
Still Image Performance
Quibbles with the camera application aside, it's important to look at the results that the OnePlus One's camera is capable of putting out. While it was effectively impossible to properly frame the ISO chart for resolution testing, we can look at a broad range of other situations that can help to distinguish the OnePlus One's camera one way or another.
In this example, the OnePlus One really does a good job with handling fine detail and dynamic range. There's relatively little artifacting given the sheer amount of detail that has to be captured in this landscape shot, and there's very little blurring of detail. Unfortunately, we can already start to see some luminance and color noise, as seen on the building on the left side of the photo.
In the interest of documenting camera behavior with the various OTAs, I managed to take a few lightbox photos with the OnePlus One as well. In this scene, we can see that the pre-38R the camera has similar behavior, but with much more detail preserved when viewed at 100%. Unfortunately, this also comes with rather significant luminance noise despite strong lighting to keep the camera at a relatively low ISO.
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Unfortunately, the camera software is also lacking when it comes to HDR mode. A good HDR mode is almost required at this point as these smartphone cameras have so little dynamic range, and this is where the OnePlus One also falls short. Significant halos can be seen all around high-contrast areas. On the bright side, the output does have very high dynamic range, but it is glaringly obvious when used. This is especially odd as the IMX214 supports SME-HDR, which makes it possible to do HDR within a single photo instead of requiring multiple exposures that can cause these halos and ghosting effects.
On the other end of the spectrum, the OnePlus One is really a bit disappointing in low light. As one can see, before the 38R update there was effectively zero attempt at noise reduction in low light, and even when shrunk to 678 pixels wide it's pretty obvious that there is an immense amount of color noise. At 100%, there are even hot pixels present that make for an incredibly poor image. The slow shutter mode does make for some incredible quality, but this requires a tripod as exposure time can easily reach a second or more.
Thankfully, with recent updates OnePlus has added some level of noise reduction to the camera processing. Unfortunately, this doesn't fix much as pretty much any low contrast detail is smeared away and areas that don't have detail loss from noise reduction have significant amounts of noise. However, OnePlus is far from the only OEM that has these issues as the Galaxy S5 LTE-A actually has a bit less detail in this test scene despite the larger sensor size. The new updates have also made it extremely difficult to get a photo without significant blur from hand shake with RAW capture on, so this is an issue to consider as well.
On the bright side, with the flash on the OnePlus One does a respectable job. I don't see any real issues here, although the LEDs are a bit on the weak side compared to other devices that I've used this year. Overall, the camera of the OnePlus One is really just average at best. In daytime the camera is definitely quite good but there's already a lot of noise creeping into the photos before we consider low light photos. While the results are better than what we see with devices like the Galaxy S5, this comes at the cost of high amounts of shutter lag and motion blur.
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AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, November 22, 2014 - link
How bout a Samsung Alpha review? The >5" space doesn't suit me.MDX - Sunday, November 23, 2014 - link
So, in summary, you liked the phone but cyanogen had too many options? I'm pretty sure this phone is targeting those who enjoy the additional privacy and options provided by Cyanogen. Anandtech as a whole seems to conveniently ignore the privacy issue as a whole (very disappointing, btw) but to do that for this review is to completely ignore one of the main reasons why this phone has become so popular. Yes, one can put cyanogenmod on most any android device, but not everyone has the will or the know-how to do so.madwolfa - Monday, November 24, 2014 - link
"..the first to kill the concept of a 650 USD"... but what about Nexus??Narg - Monday, November 24, 2014 - link
They should have used Windows Phone for the OS, then it would have been 100% polished and virus free...Rashkae - Monday, November 24, 2014 - link
So, why not review the Sony Z3 as well?Chostakovitch - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
Here si an invite which have 12 hours left: GLVT-FMIA-VRIY-JQHG.I am a happy customer of this product since 3 weeks. I planned to buy the Nexus 6 but changed my mind because the hefty price tag.
I am an AnandTech reader since the 440BX days.
I don't agree reviewer point about software. For example, I am so happy to be able to block by default all the intrusive apps request to personal stuff as localization, address book, journal logs, photos and so on. CyanogenMod is a must.
It is sad that OnePlus plan to use their colorOS for their next flagship killer.
Finally, this is true that the device height is a bit too big for me but since it is a bit less than iPhone 6 plus, this is acceptable. Anyways, I bet everyone will follow the band wagon and change their small iPhone 4/5 for phablet within the next two years.
nasqb112 - Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - link
I should have posted this earlier, but I was able to purchase the 1+1shortly after it was released. After having used it for a while, I can confidently say this is one of the best phones I have ever used. It feels like a very premium device and the grey, fine-sandpaper textured back does wonders for grip. At first I felt it was a little too big (I feel 4.7 - 5.0 is the sweet spot) but I quickly got used to it. The screen quality is great as well as the sound (obviously not as good as HTC One). As a fairly heavy user, the battery is up to task. It last all day and I come home with a solid amount of battery left (around 40%). To get an idea of my typical day: GPS high accuracy is always on and I use the phone for emails, texts, google maps/yelp, Uber/Lyft, watching movies/shows and reading kindle books during commute to and from work.In terms of the software, Cyanogen Mod is highly customizable and response time for launching apps and switching screens is fast. I have recently (over the past 2 weeks) had a couple of glitches but these were minimal such as the lock screen being unresponsive until I pressed the power button down again to wake it up.
I live in NYC and have used the phone on both T-Mo and AT&T. It was as simple as popping in a SIM card and the phone worked right away. I was impressed as I expected to have to switch up a lot of settings. Call quality is good, especially on AT&T. I wish there was a version of this phone that supported VZ bands!
If you have the opportunity to purchase this phone, I say pull the trigger! Paying $350 for 64gb is a great deal considering this is a premium device from a new company with great support. The forums are very active so you can get help quite quickly if you need it. As a guy who switches his phone around once per year (awesome corporate phone policy!), the 1+1 was awesome enough to keep me from switching to an iPhone 6+ as well as the Nexus 6 so it is a great device. I highly recommend it!
Dark._.Knight - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
PLEASE HELP ME!!!My phone One Plus One charge to 100% took time 5\6 hour. Why? First charge took8/9hours. Now 5/6 hours? It happen to all one plus one phone user?