OnePlus One Revealed: a CyanogenMod Smartphone

An anonymous reader writes "Spec-wise, OnePlus One will go toe-to-toe with the latest flagship phones like the Galaxy S5, HTC One (M8), and Sony Xperia Z2. In some areas, it even surpasses them, and at a price point of $300. The One has the same 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC SoC as the Samsung Galaxy S5, build quality similar to the HTC One (M8), and the large 3000+ mAh battery and Sony camera of the Xperia Z2. It also runs CyanogenMod 11S, which is based on Android 4.4."

Comments

One plus One revealed?

[Anonymous Coward]

42 I guess?

Re:One plus One revealed?

[Defenestrar]

I see you've dealt with Verizon billing before too.

Too good to be true?

[schnell]

$300 for the 16 GB model and $350 for a 64 GB model? Knowing what Samsung charges for comparable devices, and knowing how much better economies of scale it has, this sounds exciting but just a little too good to be true.

Re:Too good to be true?

[ArcadeMan]

If we can buy a single 32GB Micro SDHC card for under 20$USD and 64GB for 40$USD at Amazon.com, I'd say that almost all companies are totally ripping us off when it comes to built-in device storage.

I'm guessing it costs them around 6$USD for 32GB and 12$USD for 64GB flash storage ICs since they buy millions of them.

Re:Too good to be true?

[EmagGeek]

It's being sold direct by the Chinese manufacturer:

OnePlus
Unit B 9/F. Lockhart Centre
301-307 Lockhart Road Wanchai
Hong Kong Central
Hong Kong

Cutting out markups by US retailers can only lower the final consumer price. Units will ship directly from China most likely, and most US consumers will be surprised when they receive bills from the shipper for US Customs clearance. It's unlikely they will be able to get away with checking the "Gift" box on the customs forms for 10 million phones.

Re:Too good to be true?

[EmagGeek]

MicroSD uses a cheap n-wire serial interface. Embedded FLASH, especially that which is used for XIF, is parallel and much much faster, and more expensive owing to the larger packages with higher numbers of pins for parallel interfaces.

Re:Too good to be true?

[ArcadeMan]

Maybe that's a problem waiting to be fixed? Not everything needs extremely fast storage and I'm guessing the biggest storage capacities demanded by some people are caused by audio, video and photos. Since digital cameras can now record full HD video and use Micro SDXC cards, I'd say that one way to lower the cost and increase the capacity at the same time would be to include both "slow" and "fast" storage.

Something like Project ARA could give the choice to users. Add a cheaper unit that contains 256GB of slow storage and 16GB of fast storage or add a more expensive unit with 64GB of fast storage only. The OS would be able to decide for itself if a storage is fast enough for a given task (JPEGs and AACs go to the slow storage, the apps go in the fast storage, etc).

Re:Too good to be true?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I certainly wouldn't doubt the use of non-upgradable internal storage as an effective price discrimination and margin padding tactic; but there is the issue of flash and controller quality.

If you are running something nearly the weight of a full OS (and a RAM constrained one that spends a lot of time killing processes and trying to reload them before anybody notices), you want good performance from your flash and controller (consider the user happiness that the first gen Nexus 7 created before it gained TRIM support and the flash was fragmenting and I/O going to hell). That costs more per gigabyte, more in line with what a decent SSD would (which still isn't all that much, these days; but it's a bit steeper than a basic SD/SDHC card).

If you just want bulk mostly-read storage, lousy flash doesn't matter nearly as much.

Unfortunately, there really isn't a terribly elegant way, and mobile OSes tend to adopt the 'the filesystem doesn't exist if we don't show it to you' theory of UI design, in any case (unless you have onboard/SD to serve as an obvious boundary) to present multiple flash subsystems of nonuniform performance to the user, even if some of them really would be better off with 16GB of bat-out-of-hell flash and 128 or 256 of cheap as chips stuff for their media storage and playback.

Maybe we'll see some of the stuff designed for server and SAN use, with the assorted designs for using faster devices to increase the overall performance of a larger pool of cheaper storage, make it down to phones at some point; but until that happens, non-uniformity is unlikely to be a crowd pleaser.

Re:Too good to be true?

[ArcadeMan]

As I said in another of my comments, I think "slow storage / fast storage" would be simple enough, with the OS able to know that it must store apps in fast storage and media in the slow storage.

Call it "Apps storage capacity" and "Media storage capacity" if it helps, the typical user doesn't need to know or even care why there's two kinds of capacities if the end result is more media storage for a lower price tag.

Re:Too good to be true?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's being sold direct by the Chinese manufacturer:

OnePlus
Unit B 9/F. Lockhart Centre
301-307 Lockhart Road Wanchai
Hong Kong Central
Hong Kong

Cutting out markups by US retailers can only lower the final consumer price. Units will ship directly from China most likely, and most US consumers will be surprised when they receive bills from the shipper for US Customs clearance. It's unlikely they will be able to get away with checking the "Gift" box on the customs forms for 10 million phones.

I've bought plenty of merchandise from Chinese manufacturers ($1000+ per shipment) and never had to pay any unexpected customs charges, everything was paid in the shipping/handling fees.

Re:Too good to be true?

[Andy Dodd]

The Nexus 5 is subsidized by Google so that it's sold nearly at cost or possibly even below it.

Google's business model here is that it gets people into the Play Store ecosystem, which is where Google really makes their money on Android.

OnePlus has no such business model, which is why they're limiting access to the device via their invite system.

One additional worry bead about this price point is that it means they're likely not funneling much money to Cyngn (Cyanogen, Inc) to support this device. For various reasons (mainly, the Cyngn guys being notoriously difficult to work with), Cyngn-backed devices get little to no community input on CyanogenMod builds.

As an example of what happens when you don't pay Cyngn much for a device, see the Oppo N1. Once Cyngn got what they wanted (experience with taking a device through the GMS certification process), they deallocated most engineering resources for the N1, which has since then received minimal level of support effort from Cyngn. The end result is stuff like location services being broken for 2 months straight in CM11 nightlies. Nearly everyone who bought the CM edition of the N1 switched to Omni, which is maintained on that particular device by three guys (disclaimer: I'm one of them) in their spare time. That's how badly Cyngn deprioritized the device - three guys in their spare time are investing more into suppporting the device than cyngn is. (Admittedly, we're making better use of our time too - see below.)

I expect users of the OnePlus One will see the same with the next Android version beyond 4.4 on the OnePlus - the team at Cyngn take the "no bug reports against nightlies" rule VERY seriously, and the results of that show in the quality of nightly builds that are maintained by them. (Many of the community-supported devices are supported by maintainers who have a thread on XDA, where they'll hear if a device has a major issue. The end result is that most people have a high expectation of quality even from nightlies due to the "community maintainer pays attention to what's going on" workaround, but you won't see that from Cyngn-backed devices.)

Re:Too good to be true?

[emag]

Doubtful, according to the FAQ. At least, I'm hoping the warehouses mentioned are, based on the initial countries of availability, in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Re:Too good to be true?

[msauve]

"MicroSD uses a cheap n-wire serial interface."

Uh, no. While it's true that SD cards offer backwards compatibility with MMC, modern cards transfer using a 4 bit wide parallel bus, and it's not nearly as simple as the SPI mode. With regard to your argument, have you ever looked at the flash chips in an SD card? Last I checked, they use the same memory dies as the "embedded" packages, and add the cost of an SD controller and more complex packaging. On the host side, there's the cost of an SD controller (although that's probably "free" with the SoC) and socket.

More specific to the original point, if a phone already has 16G of flash, the cost of upping it to 64G is minor - the parallel interface you mention is already there, and the difference in packaging costs between 16G and 64G chips is likely zero.

Re:Too good to be true?

[richtopia]

Keep in mind that teardowns of the S5 put the manufacturing cost ~256USD. While this does not take into account a lot of costs like design, if the OnePlus One is selling at zero profit to gain market share they could with similar specs to the S5.

http://www.gadgetcluster.com/2014/04/it-takes-only-256-for-samsung-to-produce-a-galaxy-s5-handset/

Re:Too good to be true?

[drachensun]

In the USA customs on phones and similar mobile computing devices is 0%. Unless they come from Japan and have a 16 bit or larger CPU, then its something outrageous like 200% which I assume is some ancient 1980s calculator tariff thats still hanging around. If you do not require a formal entry, typically there are no customs duties or charges at all. Formal entry is not required for packages sent by mail carrier with a value $1500, unless they are in a special category like munitions, produce, etc, etc. Even with a formal entry this category doesn't have any duty but your customs agent will typically charge a % for handling the paperwork. DHL used to charge me 0.25% I think, its been more than I year though so I can't remember exactly. This isn't true for most western countries, the EU has VAT and local sales tax, Canada has a national sales tax, many other countries have crippling duties. In short, drop shipping to the USA is not a problem and won't add duties. I used to do a formal entries of this kind of merchandise about once a month when I had this going www.pengpod.com .

Re:Too good to be true?

[TubeSteak]

and the difference in packaging costs between 16G and 64G chips is likely zero.

I never would have pegged the price difference between 16GB and 64GB as $50.
That means every other phone out there is practicing enormous and arbitrary price discrimination by jacking up the cost of storage.

Re:Too good to be true?

[Carewolf]

I never would have pegged the price difference between 16GB and 64GB as $50.
That means every other phone out there is practicing enormous and arbitrary price discrimination by jacking up the cost of storage.

Well Duh! Why do you think Apple for instance doesn't allow SD cards in their phones?

Re:Too good to be true?

[Carewolf]

MicroSD exists in many different speeds. They use the same microcontroller as the embedded flash, and can be just as fast if using similar chips (can in fact be faster if your phone has cheap internal flash).

Re:Too good to be true?

[TubeSteak]

Well Duh! Why do you think Apple for instance doesn't allow SD cards in their phones?

I assumed it was because they didn't want to compromise on their museum quality designs.

Re:Too good to be true?

[Chibi Merrow]

A truly "free" OS would not have a "monopoly" market place for apps

Well good thing I can install alternative app stores on my Android phone, then.

Give me a physical keyboard, and I'm sold

[barlevg]

Hell, considering no flagship phone has sported a physical keyboard in years, I'm likely sold anyway. I was seriously debating getting a Nexus 5, but I actually prefer Cyanogenmod over stock Android.

Re:Nice toy

[nitehawk214]

What kind of "work" do you do on a phone?

Re:Nice toy

[Kjella]

Astroturfing Microsoft on websites, duh...

4-inches to freedom

[nowsharing]

After having owned a Galaxy S3 for a year, I'm ready for the return of smaller phones. I've been waiting for prices to come down on used GS4 Minis. However, if they released a OnePlus with a 4" screen, I'd order it immediately.

A phone configured specifically for CyanogenMod is a killer feature in my book. My next phone will have to be much smaller, lighter, and thinner than 5.5" unfortunately. Any suggestions?

Critical work.

[mmell]

But only when I'm not at home or at work, and only when I've forgotten to bring both my laptop and my tablet (with bluetooth keyboard) with me. In short - times when I've cracked a duh-lithium crystal by exceeding duh-factor eight.

Incidentally, my phone and tablet both run Android - and the tablet is only marginally better than the phone at actually doing anything productive. Even with BusyBox and a decent SSH client, the OS and interface just aren't optimized for much beyond gaming, entertainment and basic connectivity (at least, to me).

No SD slot == No thanks.

[JustNiz]

No SD slot == No Thanks.

I'm frankly surprised not many other people here seem to be all over the lack of an SD slot.

I like having my entire music collection, my entire photo library and 1 or 2 movies with me just in case. I also like being able to use my phone as a USB stick if I need to. ...and in case anyone suggests it, storing it all in the cloud just doesn't cut it.

Re:No SD slot == No thanks.

[vux984]

I'm frankly surprised not many other people here seem to be all over the lack of an SD slot.

For $50 bucks more you get the 64GB model, and forget about it.
What do you need an SD slot for exactly? Do you routinely SWAP cards? Maybe you do.. but I NEVER have. If it had an SD slot, I'd buy a 32GB or 64GB card and then forget about it.

So buying a 64GB phone... amounts to the same difference for me.

I like having my entire music collection, my entire photo library and 1 or 2 movies with me just in case

This seems contrived to be an amount of data designed to fit precisely more than the 64GB built in yet be less than the 128GB you can add to, for example, and S5.

I mean, why only 1 or 2 movies? Why not all of them? And just your photos, not your hundreds of hours hi def home movies?

Is it because if you wanted your 500 DVD rips, then even a 128GB sd card won't meet your needs?

Or is it just that you need precisely 128GB of storage; and if a phone came with 128GB of storage but no SD slot, what then? Would it meet your needs or not?

Re:No SD slot == No thanks.

[BradleyUffner]

What do you need an SD slot for exactly?

For getting my data off the phone when I drop it and it no longer turns on.

Re:And As Usual...

[Anne Thwacks]

Is there a real need for an SD slot when you have 64GB of storage available?

Yes - it is about exchangeable/removable storage. Fill a card with stuff somewhere else and put it in your phone. Fill a card with stuff on your phone and take it out - perhaps you don't want your home photos at work or your client's photos at your other client (or your porn ...). Some people have been known to leave mum's basement.

As for you iPhone suckers - you can keep your damn fool metal cases. We like removeable backs and don't give a toss if they are plastic - no one sees them cos the phone is never out of its case - and the phone might get hit by a baseball bat/yacht boom/dropped down the fire escape/shut in the lift/train/car door - yes its true some people actually move about physically in their lives! Really! Its true! And we want to come home and change the battery before going out again. The only advantage of a metal back is that the phone signal can't penetrate it (???)

Re:impressive specs

[Blaskowicz]

It's not even that, who will pay for the certification of it with every FCC-like agency, and how can you possibly go through that process every time you build it or change a single line of code?
And even if that were possible : no, they won't let you have a user-modifiable SDR that operates (receive/transceive) on the GSM/LTE/3G frequencies.

To the original AC : get a HAM radio license and play on your alloted or unlicensed frequency slots. (what does HAM mean by the way?, I'm thinking of the stuff that's a bite like bacon)

Re:It's shown with Google Apps, no thank you.

[Archangel Michael]

You obviously do not understand Google "Android" certification process. To be called "Android", officially, you must be certified by Google and have the Play store (and other apps) installed.

From http://source.android.com/faqs...

Google Play is a service operated by Google. Achieving compatibility is a prerequisite for obtaining access to the Google Play software and branding. Device manufacturers should contact Google to obtain access to Google Play.

Other companies have other "stores" (Amazon Kindle is Android, Nook is Android) and do not necessarily use Google Play. And of course you could side load all your apps from your list of "trusted" sites like Nickolai's Android Marketplace if you want. These phones are not "rooted" but are likely to be very easy to root. And I'm sure there will be an ASOP branch you can have, without Google Play services in short order. But chances are, you're already putting Google Play on your ASOP Roms anyways, so ... what is your point again? Oh right, "privacy" ....