The UK is a horrible place for buying a contract phone! 12 month contracts are hard to come by and when someone does offer them, there is usually a considerable mark-up on the overall cost.
So having gone now the sim-only rolling contract route, I got a great deal with Three.co.uk a while back which equals to: 200mins, 5000 SMS and Unlimited 4G* for about £13per month. You can't really argue with that and the price has since gone up. The only draw back is I can't tether other devices but I rarely do that to validate an extra £8 a month.
So being on this contract left me with my old faithful Samsung Galaxy S4. It still works but looks beaten and deserves a rest (or a £100 exchange with recycling firms).
Enter the OnePlus One. a high(ish) end phone that seems to have been priced as a mid-range phone. The excuse being they don't blow all their money on marketing. I went for the 64GB version as it doesn't have a micro SD slot. This comes in a £269 (not inc shipping). I also got the blue flip case for a little protection.
Impressions: It's big! Previously I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and it feels on par with that although not as wide and more comfortable in the hand as the buttons don't feel as low down on the bottom. Compared to the S4 it's huge! Thickness is what you'd expect from this size of phone and slips into pockets easily enough when combined with not being overly wide.
The Screen: It's 1080p, not 4k which is actually probably a good thing in terms of battery. The brightness is good and text looks clear and sharp.
Battery: This is my third day with it so I'm still unsure about this. I have been using the phone a lot while customising it and installing everything back onto it including videos and music. The specs suggest a nice large 3100 mAh battery which should mean a decent stint under normal use. I haven't messed with any battery saving features so I might not be used to length as I always had my S4 on power saving mode.
The camera: The camera is great and the flash is even better. I haven't tested the 4k video yet but this was another appealing factor about the phone. Also the fact that it uses multiple mic's for better sound recording!
I mentioned in a previous post I got some Samsung Level Over's. These and the Samsung app for them work beautifully.
Only issue I've hit so far is that I used to get cheap plastic bike holders for my Samsung phones. Ironically with this being a Chinese phone I would have thought there would have been a ton of cheap accessories flooding the market. I seem to only be able to find universal bike holders which I'm not overly keen on.
[Edit] - Actually, I don't like how they've integrated SwiftyKey. I changed over to Swype in stead and found that much better.
Anyway, to wrap up. I'm very impressed with this phone. Any questions? Leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.
https://oneplus.net/uk/one#specifications
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