Anyone else got the One yet? Rob R. surely?

I've had mine for a couple of days now, and thus far it seems a nice enough (though LARGE) phone. Random observations:

CM11S is very similar to stock Android on the surface, which made the transition from my Galaxy Nexus to this pretty easy.

I like the Privacy Guard features, and have carefully gone through and set restrictions on each and every app.

At last.. a setting to DISABLE wake on power connect/disconnect!!

LTE is quick, though even HSPA (not even HSPA+) was never really a bottleneck for me. It's a phone, not a server!

Well, not really a phone. I do use it as such from time to time, but mostly it is "the internet in my pocket" (yes, that's a smartphone, I'm not quite that happy to see you).

The stock ($15) flip case is a lot better than the forums at OnePlus might let on. I'm using it until the glass screen protector (eBay) arrives, but might just keep using even after that.

Less lag than the G.Nexus -- definitely a faster phone, but not really a huge leap that I've noticed so far, other than screen size.

The on-screen keyboard in portrait mode is finally large enough now for my stubby fingertips. I switched back to the G.Nexus briefly and was shocked how tiny the on-screen buttons were!

No extra invites yet, but they do claim to be stepping up with them this month. If any arrive, I'll offer them here first.

CM11 is very good stuff. PrivacyGuard strikes an excellent balance in the too-much vs. not-enough controls department. I'm currently running CM11 on my Nexus 7 (2013 + LTE) tablet, and stock Android on my Nexus 5 phone and switching back and forth is seamless.

Curiously, if you want to run the latest Android build on the Nexus 7 tablet, you have to go with CM (or some other 3rd party thing). Google is still a release behind, for whatever reason, but only on the LTE variant of the tablet.

The OnePlus One does look great and I am very interested in actually seeing one in person. But, the whole lottery/queue for an invite is a poor way to do business when dealing with a phone. In the phone world, to delay getting it into my hands by a month or more is suicide. Things change so quickly and rumors about the next thing are out before I have a chance to buy.

It's unlikely I'll be getting a OnePlus One due to timing. But, the lack of Qi charging makes me even more hesitant. I have the iOttie Qi mount in my car, and it rocks. I'd rather not live without the convenience of just snapping my phone into the mount and have it charge without fumbling for cables.

I've been using the Nexus 5 basically since launch and it's still a fantastic phone. I really wish it had a removable battery. Maybe the OnePlus Two will come with wireless charging and a removable battery. It might be perfect then.

The funky thing about the battery is that it actually is somewhat accessible -- remove the back cover, and there it is. But not rigged for easy replacement. Strange that.

I'm now installing CM11 on the G.Nexus (right now!), and.. well.. that phone is slower than I remembered it to be, compared with the One.

Say.. anyone know what app one needs to install for Google phone/sms (Goggle "Voice") ?

I've never used it before, and am having trouble locating it in the Play Store. Lots of apps with similar names, but not from Google.

EDIT: Found Google Voice by searching from a computer --> "This app is incompatible with your device." --> doesn't like the lack of a SIM card, I guess.

Or perhaps a better question: The G.Nexus is going to be used around the home on wifi -- no SIM card. So I'm looking for a wifi based SMS/Texting app to use on it.

Anyone got a recomendation?

Thanks.

PS. Speaking of which.. I used the scissors method to convert my "standard SIM" from the G.Nexus into a "micro SIM" for the OnePlusOne. Worked fine. I did purchase a $5 kit with sticker templates and adapters for the purpose.

Google Voice will install on tablets, so I doubt it's the lack of SIM card that's stopping it from installing.

I'm sure you have access to a US VPN service. You should probably try and download the Google Voice app (and setup a GV account) through that. I don't think Google Voice ever officially made it outside the US.

Ah.. okay, I just read somewhere that Google Voice was USA + Canada, but apparently not for app-install purposes. The OnePlusOne doesn't get it (without tricks) either.

Found another free service while hunting: Text+

Free 2-way SMS over wifi, to/from regular mobiles as well as other Text+ users. It also has voice calling, both inbound/outbound. 2.2 cents/minute USA+Canada, or free to/from other Text+ users.

The service assigns a (free) local telephone number to enable it to interact (text/phone) with other (regular) mobiles.

We just want it for texting, and so far, so good.

Note: the default Android Phone app can use Wifi for calling over a SIP account (eg. voip.ms), so I set that up for voice calls. Lots of lag -- about 1.5 seconds or so, but a bonus when needed.

My speedtest earlier today. The upstream is close to twice the bandwidth this very server used to have last year. Downstream was actually a tad faster then my VDSL2 connection at home.

The speed can be a benefit though. The faster the transfer finishes for a phone, the sooner a slot is freed up on the tower. And the sooner the phone can put the cell radio back to idle saving power.

I'm amazed at how quickly the mobile networks are improving these days. Once T-Mobile completes their transition to LTE across their mobile footprint, it may become a viable broadband provider for my mom. DSL at 768kbit was not stable enough to remain connected for her for more then an hour a day. Satellite has terrible latency, and costs more per GB then a mobile plan would.

That's pretty decent mobile data throughput. The local cell gear where we live here gives the One about 20mbits/sec in both directions on HSPA+. And perhaps 42mbits/sec or so for the downlink on LTE. The initial burst shows as much faster, before some kind of traffic shaping kicks in.

Speedtest sure does chew into the data allowance quickly though, so I've stopped using it hourly now.

Edit: the "Copy to Clipboard" link at Speedtest.net gives a nicer embedded graphic: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/937767333.png

T-Mobile ended up exempting speedtests from their data caps. Reason being, the employees used to be locked to a cap without the option to get unlimited like the customers have. As they rolled out LTE, the employees were testing all the time and burning through their allowance quickly.

I'm looking into the differences between LTE and HSPA, driven by the exposure the last job gave me into cellular radios. So much of the basic signaling has changed that measuring "good" signal strength is quite a bit different. LTE handles interference in a better way. It's a good advance in the radio tech to help support more and more devices out in the wild together.

I'm eager to also see the changeover to Voice over LTE (VoLTE) as it brings a little more bandwidth for higher quality calls. US providers seem to be experimenting with it across a small number of phones and markets currently.

20mbit on HSPA+ is really good, and right near the cap of what that spec is capable of. 42mbit hints the LTE is the first generation. The ~90mbit from my tests hints at LTE-Advanced, what was initially deemed the proper 4G transition point. Verizon here in the US is calling it XLTE.

Before I got into empeg hacking, I actually had a mid-career stage managing/advising a cellular radio firmware group at a large company. But all of the latest stuff (HSPA, LTE..) came after I moved on from that phase.

Cheers!

VoLTE? people still use voice?

mlord: Nice. The early protocols are interesting to look into, seems like initially a lot of hacks came together to make data transfer work over a network not initially designed for such. LTE feels like the first time they've really gone back to the drawing board to implement a cellular data spec.

dbrashear: Yep. Until this country decides it wants to give all it's citizens reliable internet, I'm still stuck using pure phone voice services to keep in touch with parts of my family. I would like to see phone interviews evolve at some point, had some pretty painful ones during my current job hunt.

Hilariously, last week I dropped off my spouse at her job and because I had a day off I planned to drive to Harrisburg to take some train pics and have some sour beer. I realized before I got outside the city that I had no phone (but I had my LTE iPad)... within short order I installed Google Hangouts, told GVoice to use it, and arranged a doctor appointment for the next week, among other things, without actually even having a phone.

So, I guess I'm one to talk.

Mine should arrive tomorrow, and as I already use CM11 on most of my mobile devices I'm hoping it will be seamless.

Not sure when invitations turn up, but happy to pop in here when they do...

Excellent!

We just returned from a week at the cottage, where the 1+1 was used for wifi-hotspot internet access over HSDPA+/LTE. Wicked quick, just like high-speed Cable internet.

CM-11S is good, though ever so slightly flaky in the latest update to an Adroid 4.4.4 base. There seems to be an update for the 1+1 every 10 days or so, fixing various small issues from that. Current release is "33R", which is good for most, but has some battery-life issues that have since been resolved in mainline.

Cheers

We spent a good chunk of last week at "the cottage", where wifi tethering to the phone is the only available means for internet access.

The 1+1 tethering with HSDPA+ and LTE connections was wicked quick -- never saw anything remotely near those speeds when using the Galaxy Nexus (HSPA) there earlier in the summer. Surfing with the ultrabook on wifi was just as snappy and quick as with the 60/10 cable connection at home.

The 1+1 is definitely a keeper, even if it is a bit of a stretch in the front pocket of my jeans.

Cheers

I have three "invite codes" for the OnePlus One smartphone now -- available to whoever wants one. Just PM me. The invites must be redeemed (by purchasing the handset) within six days from now. Each invite is for one 64GB "Sandstone Black" handset, priced at US$349.

Handset details here: http://oneplus.net/one

I will be offering the invites elsewhere as well, but empeg BBS members have priority.

Cheers
-ml

Speaking of which -- there are threads on the OnePlus and XDA forums on how to enable the heretofore "missing" LTE band 20 on the One, which is of major interest to UK and European users.

Cheers

With regard to CM11 being "ever so flakey", I've definitely observed this, running CM11 on my Nexus 7 (2013, LTE) tablet. It works great, it really does, but after a couple weeks of uptime the network stopped working. A quick reboot and it was back in the game.

This is well worth it in return for the extra features that CM11 provides over stock Android (PrivacyGuard, trivial to root, etc.).

Ooh ooh ooh. I just broke the glass on my Nexus 4 this past weekend and need a new phone. Mark, can you give me a little bit of time today to look at some reviews and figure out if I should jump on this or wait for the upcoming Nexus 6 / Nexus X / whatever it's going to be called?

Hm, first thing I see is that apparently OnePlus is abandoning the invite-only system next month, so maybe the best bet is to wait to see what the new Nexus looks like.

Well, so long as you can wait -- judging by past history, the new Nexus is likely to be available (though understocked) in November, then out of stock for a month, then back in stock for a day, and so on.

Cheers

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm actually not in *that* much of a rush, since my wife's lending me her Nexus 5 until I find a replacement.

I'm pretty conflicted. The leaks for the new Nexus suggest it's going to be a big ol' phablet sized device, which doesn't sound appealing to me, but the OnePlus One doesn't have wireless charging, which is pretty much a dealbreaker.

I guess I'm going to wait things out for a while to at least get more relaible leaks of what's coming from Google.

These are exactly my concerns. I love the OnePlus One aside from the lack of Qi charging. I have Qi on my desk, in my car, and on my nightstand. It's really great.

The early leaks only mentioned a 6" model, but those stories were updated to include a smaller 5.2" version. Check the very end of this story.

I'll be waiting for the Nexus model and will jump on that if I can afford it at the time. I've used CM on every previous Android phone I've owned, and also saw flakiness in it. It would always get progressively worse over time. I'd also rather have the stock experience and the knowledge that I'll be receiving the fastest updates.

Tony, I'm hopeful that the Nexus 6 or whatever it's called will have wireless charging, but I'm not going to be surprised if it doesn't. The second gen Moto X doesn't have it, and neither do most phones out there. I'm glad I didn't buy any more Qi pads!

The "stock" experience is totally available for the One (and many other popular phones), as a replacement ROM (aka. "distro"). CM11S is essentially that too, but with more settings exposed and a few different default apps.

After using it here, here's no way I can see going back to something without proper privacy controls. I've put it on my Galaxy Nexus as well.

Cheers

Mark, from what I've seen, the stock ROMs that get made by third parties for these phones is not quite the same thing. It also doesn't address the issue of how quickly the phones get that update.

But that doesn't really matter. What matters is we both have options available to us that fit the kind of phone we want, and that's great!

Don't suppose anybody has a spare invite?

I managed to get an invite elsewhere!

Phone ordered. Woot.

Super. You'll really enjoy this phone, so long as it fits in your pocket.

I'm planning to wait and see about whatever Google's got planned for the Nexus 6 (allegedly coming very soon, if not this week). My one-year-old Nexus 5 has served me well, but the screen is cracked and it's pretty roughed up. Perhaps more importantly, my daughter covets my Nexus 7 tablet, and I'd be tempted to replace my current Nexus 5 + Nexus 7 with a single 6" phablet if it did all the right things (e.g., if it could play videos for a couple hours while I'm on a plane and not kill the battery).

The New York Times ran a glowing review of the OnePlus recently, and their only complaint was that the camera wasn't particularly good. That's pretty much what you might say about the Nexus 5. I'll be curious how the Nexus 6 stacks up.

Cheers Mark. Looking forward to getting it in my hands and pocket!

Humn, I've heard that the camera is good on the phone, I've seen a few shots here and there and they look pretty good to me, either way makes little difference as I don't really use the camera much on my phone anyway, just the odd occasion.

I'm still on my N4 which I used this boards advice on when I was thinking of defecting from the iPhone. I haven't looked back and then N4 still seems as good today as it did the day it arrived, I just need a bigger screen.

Will let you know what I think of it when it arrives.

Cheers

Credible rumors are saying the Nexus 6/X is likely to be a larger Moto X, which, if true, would seem to suggest no wireless charging. I will of course hold on for confirmation, but if that's true, I may end up trying to grab a Nexus 5 at fire-sale prices and wait for the next generation, as chances are Android L will run just fine on an N5, and I honestly can't see giving up wireless charging just to get the pros and cons of a bigger device and maybe a better camera.

Yup. Best. Feature. Ever.

EDIT: Oh, that and 85% battery left at the end of the day.

I do like the wireless charging. My wife and I both have N5's and I have one of those Energizer dual-Qi chargers for us. Hopefully, since Nexus devices have historically done Qi chargers (N7 tablets, N4 and N5 phones, etc.), it's entirely reasonable to expect that from future Nexus devices.

Supposedly the announcement will be tomorrow. We'll see.

I would hope as well, but there's several problems with that. Those devices you mention are made by LG and Asus. The next Nexus is supposedly made by Motorola and the rumor is that it's essentially a large Moto X, which doesn't have wireless charging. I don't believe it even has a flat back (though I don't know how important that is for this).

Just amazing, can't even express how impressed I am with the hardware.

This phone really is bargain of the century.

Yes, it is a very decent bit of kit. Bright, clear display, very very fast, phenomenal battery life(*), and loads of other goodies. All for a quite reasonable price.

I wonder if that's why Google appears to be abandoning the "affordable Nexus" concept this time around.

(*) I expect one could get by with recharging it only once every 4-5 days, something that's not been possible since I gave up my old LG flip phone.

If you are the type who sometimes ends up with a bit of grit in your pockets, as I do when working around the garden, then some form of scratch protection for the screen might be a good idea.

Gorilla Glass may be tough, but it's softer than the sand/grit we have around here. I found a $5 glass (not plastic film) screen protector on eBay, and it is proving to be a wonderful top skin for the display.

Invisible, no noticeable interference with touch sensitivity, feels just like the naked screen. Recommended. Just hunt for a thin one with radius edges, and try not to get suckered into paying more than $10 (or equivalent) for "name brand" packaged units.

The one I found is now slightly more expensive: eBay.co.uk link. There are others that may be even better.

Cheers.

Here is an eBay link for UK buyers.

Cheers Mark.

I'd already ordered the ozrly one which turned up yesterday. I haven't had a chance to put it on yet though.

Still super impressed with the phone and in particular the battery life!

So apparently these Qi dongle things exist. Anyone have any experience with them? I don't like the fact that they tie up the micro-USB port and probably interfere with NFC, but I charge wirelessly most of the time, so as long as the charging is reliable, I figure a OnePlus One with one of those could be my ideal phone now that the Nexus 6 has been revealed to not be the value that the previous Nexus devices were.

I have an add on internal one in my S5 and doesn't appear to affect NFC significantly. It covers about 2/3 of the battery.
http://www.kogan.com/au/buy/qi-wireless-charging-card-galaxy-s5/

It has of late been getting warmer than I like on the charger. Also max charge rate is about 6-700mA compared with 1200-1500mA if connected via the micro USB.

Yeah, I've read about people trying to hack various Qi receivers to work inside the OPO, but the hacks look too hackish at this point, and results seem mixed at best from a quick read of the OnePlus forums. A couple reviews of the external micro-USB ones say it works okay with the OPO, but I'm worried that I might have some difficulty finding a case that protects the ribbon cable connector enough.

The OPO really does seem like a great value, though, so if I can find something that works and isn't too bulky, it's probably the way to go.

Given that it can go 2-4 days on a charge, and charging from a cable is 4x faster than "wireless" charging.. I'm just sayin' ya know.

Now if only they were more readily available to actually purchase!

Yeah, I guess since I missed the window on invites I'd be at the mercy of the pre-order system, which probably means a lengthy shipping delay. I may try to do that and see how long the shipping estimate is, and cancel my order if it's crazy long and go with a Nexus 5 instead.

I went ahead and put in my pre-order info for tomorrow. I don't like flip cases, so I went with the clear case, since it's a pretty sweet looking phone. It won't be quite as sweet looking with one of those Qi things tucked in, but oh well.

And, as expected, the OnePlus website is shitting the bed as people frantically try to pre-order. Even their homepage won't load at this point.

Finally got through the twisted maze of server errors to get a pre-order in. Shipping estimate was 2 weeks, but given how much of a dog's breakfast the pre-order experience was, who knows.

They've been really good about fulfilling orders to date -- usually in a week or less, quoting two weeks for safety margin.

Cheers

Cool. Finally got a pre-order confirmation email later in the day, so I'm a bit more sanguine about actually getting one in the foreseeable future.

If anyone comes into a spare invite code, I could use one to skip the queue and get my preorder shipped.

There's another preorder window coming up next week, and I hope for the sake of anyone who decides to get one that OnePlus irons out the kinks in their order fulfillment process. The first pre-order window was a total disaster as I pointed out above, and even once my pre-order was confirmed, every step of the process has been a total mess.

First they had authorization problems with PayPal because their order processing system was passing on orders with empty shipping addresses. Then they fixed that, charged my credit card, and sent me a tracking number. Except the tracking number's been in "shipping label created" status since last Thursday. What's the point of doing two-day shipping if you're going to sit on it for three or four days before you actually ship the thing?

Anyway, really looking forward to getting the phone, but the company really needs to learn some things about how to run a retail business.

Yeah, Newegg does the "shipping label printed" period thing too, as do a number of other etailers I deal with. Better than no update at all, I suppose.

Cheers

Yes, I wanted mine quite quickly as it was originally for my mums birthday. The express option still took 10+ days, which is pretty useless.

If anyone wants an invite to skip the preorder queue please pm me within the next 24 hours with your email address.

Oooh - nice spot. Thanks for that!

Status finally updated with an estimated delivery tomorrow. Considering the original estimate was 1-2 weeks, I guess that's not horrible.

Like I said, the entire process usually takes about a week, but they estimate 2 weeks just to control expectations.

New software/firmware update out for it today, fixes a number of radio issues and other stuff. Good to see them still rolling along.

Cheers

Got the phone yesterday. The immediate disappointment was a rather noticeable scuff on the glass that I saw after pulling the plastic off. It's not a deep scratch or anything, but runs about 2/3 the width of the phone and is about the thickness of a nickel, so it shows up enough that it bothers me. I thought the glass was supposed to be among the best out there, so I'm kind of surprised. Anyone know what sort of coatings (if any) are applied to the OPO's screen?

My understanding is that the RMA process is kind of a nightmare right now since they're still ramping up their production / support capabilities, so I'm hesitant to send it back and be without a phone for a long time. I've ordered screen protectors from Amazon that can hopefully mask it and prevent any further damage.

The phone itself is great so far. I did root it so I could run a few XPosed framework mods, but decided to use the OTA updates rather than switch to pre-rooted CM11. The device isn't nearly as cumbersome as some reviews have suggested, and honestly, it doesn't feel that much larger than the Nexus 5 even though it is. This makes me think that if the Nexus 6 form factor becomes the norm, maybe things won't be so bad. The OPO even fits in a car mount that I originally bought for my Nexus 4, though just barely.

The Cyanogenmod 11S-specific features are mostly sort of meh. I guess they took out the voice unlock, which I don't think I'd use anyway. The "flashlight on" gesture is way too easy to trigger manually so I disabled it, but the other gestures for opening the camera and changing music tracks are really nice. The custom lock screen is pretty, but I make enough use of the slider shortcuts that I've switched back to the normal CM11 lock screen.

Haven't gotten a sense of battery life yet. I did order a Qi receiver since they're now making ones that purport to put out a full amp of charge.

Overall, this is certainly the right phone for me now specs wise, but I'm kind of bummed about the manufacturing defect and the fact that the company's getting a reputation for not being very responsive to support/warranty problems.

Well, bummed to hear about the scuff in the screen coating -- I wonder if it will just disappear when a glass screen protector is applied over top?

As someone from the other side - let them know about the issue ASAP. Telling them several days/weeks later will make them (reasonably) suspicious that it was not a pre-existing issue.

Then work out a plan to handle it (possibly including a screen protector and deferred replacement). Small ops have real people doing customer service. They won't want to *have* to send you a new phone right away and are very aware of costs; being reasonable and flexible is appreciated in my experience.

Like Mark I have three "invites" for the OnePlus One 64GB Sandstone black - just PM me if you want one. The invites must be redeemed within 6 days from now.

Alex

Well this sucks. No immediate effect, but the CyanogenMod relationship was a big part of my decision to get an OPO. It'd be a shame if it went kaput over typical business pissing contest BS.

Wow! That's a really boneheaded move on Cyanogen's part. The OnePlus One was the first time they were getting decent publicity.