OnePlus One leaks out ahead of April 23 reveal - Oppo looks, Moto style
We have to give it to OnePlus - it managed to keep its heavily hyped phone inalmost complete secrecy until halfa week before the announcement. A record-like achievement, consideringhow rampant leaks sproutin the smartphone business. Still, ahead of April 23, alleged press renders of the OnePlus One arenow out for everyone to see. While the photos do look legitimate, there's always the possibility they were puttogether by crafty designers. So don't take our conclusions as the final wordon this phone.
Disclaimersaside, this might very well be the OnePlus One. It's a beautifulsmartphone with adesign that says"Oppo Find 7 onthe front, Moto X on the back." The first half of this well-intended joke of ours makes a lot of sense, as OnePlus is founded by former Oppo staff.It seems they decided to preserve and refine the Find 5/Find 7's elegant design when they walked out to make theirown phones, which is a sensible thing to do when one has such a finefoundation on their hands.
Notably, theside bezels around the 5.5-inch display appear to be quite slim.But the OnePlus is a big boyof a smartphone - its footprint is said to be 6 x 2.98 x 0.35 inches (152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9mm). These dimensions are analmost exact match with the Oppo Find 7’s (6.01 x 2.95 x 0.36 inches/152.6 x 75 x 9.2mm), but theOnePlus is slightly thinner. They are also bigger than the Xperia Z1's (5.69 x 2.91 x 0.33 inches/144.4 x 73.9 x 8.5 mm), but thankfully, smaller thanthe LG G Pro 2's imposing phablet presence (6.22 x 3.22 x 0.33 inches/157.9 x81.9 x 8.3mm. As OnePlusclaimed that the One gets perfectly covered up when put under a Xperia Z1, thesedimensions might not spell the truth.
Moving on to the back, we learn that OnePlus is going tooffer interchangeable panels in different textures and colors. The so-calledStyleSwap panels willbe available in textures such as denim, bamboo, kevlar, silk, and sandstone.The last three are said to be made from the actual materials.
Ready for more? We have some screenshots from the OnePlusOne's CyanogenMod11S-based Android build. It's a very minimal, barebones UIwith a few design touches. It looks nice and it probably looks well coupledwith the smartphone's minimalistic, cleaned-up design. Still, if you don't likethe stock Android vibe, you know that launchers and themes are just a few tapsaway.
The OnePlus One's official announcement is about to happenon April 23 (next Wednesday). But the smartphone won't be going on sale for afew weeks after, and in a somewhat polarizing move, its maker decided to throwin an invitation scheme that makes being able to buy the OnePlus One somethingof a privilege. Then again, being able to enjoy a more powerful andbetter-looking smartphone than the Nexus 5 for the same-ish price is something of a privilege.
Update: According to Francois from Cyanogen, the UI screenshots are legitimate, but show an older build of the OPO.
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