OnePlus X Review: Not bad for $249, assuming you can actually buy one

The OnePlus X.

Ron Amadeo

The OnePlus X. Ron Amadeo

The whole back of the X is glass.

The whole back of the X is glass.

The 13MP camera is decent for a $249 phone.

The 13MP camera is decent for a $249 phone.

The whole back of the X is glass.

The 13MP camera is decent for a $249 phone.

There are capacitive hardware buttons, but they don’t light up and don’t have useful labels.

There is also an option for on-screen buttons, if you prefer.

The phone is wrapped in a flat metal band.

One side has this crazy three-position notification mode switch.

Along the bottom are speaker holes and a MicroUSB 2.0 port.

The other side has a set of very well-made power and volume buttons.

Reviewing a device from OnePlus is always a strange proposition. We get the devices at Ars because we’re privileged journalists, but most people can’t just go out and buy a OnePlus device. The company insists on selling its devices through an “invite” system, which makes buying OnePlus devices a huge hassle. You can show up to OnePlus’ website cash-in-hand (metaphorically), and you’ll be turned away if you don’t have a golden ticket.

The reason is that OnePlus just can’t afford to sell a ton of phones at the listed MSRP. The upstart company freely admits it has “No plan to make any money for two years,” and along with the limited release strategy, we’re guessing it loses money (or, at best, breaks even) on every device it sells. OnePlus’ current business strategy is unsustainable, so it feels a little dishonest to compare the company’s devices to products from actual functioning businesses trying to make a profit. OnePlus seems to be more focused on generating hype than generating sales.

Still, the business model is not really the consumer’s problem, so if you’re interested in taking advantage of OnePlus’ generosity, let us present to you the “OnePlus X,” the company’s latest bang-for-your-buck smartphone. The “X” takes what is basically a late-2013 or early-2014 flagship and sells it two years later for $249. Imagine a Nexus 5 or Galaxy S5 and you’re in the right ballpark. You’re getting a 5-inch, 1080p display powered by a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 SoC.

Design and Build quality

It’s the build quality that makes the OnePlus X stand out. The body is a finely crafted glass and metal sandwich that would be right at home on a $600 flagship. The glass front and back make the OnePlus X feel like a high-quality, solid object that’s worth way more than the $250 asking price.

The extra glass panel will make it more fragile than your average smartphone, so this device isn’t for people who drop their devices often. The glass back also has a tendency to “creep” off of a table, thanks to the perfectly smooth, slippery surface. You might think your table is perfectly flat, but if it isn’t, the OnePlus will start slowly sliding away.

A flat, aluminum band wraps around the perimeter of the OnePlus X, and along with the front and back glass, it’s very reminiscent of an iPhone 4 or 4S. OnePlus has tried to separate itself by darkening the band to a gunmetal color and engraving tiny ridges into it, but there is no hiding the X’s ancestry. The ridges do give the side a very grippy texture, which is great since dropping an all-glass smartphone is probably a bad idea.

The excellent build quality continues all along the sides of the OnePlus X. The power and volume buttons are also metal and don’t have an ounce of wiggle to them. The buttons have firm, clicky mechanisms that feel like they will last a while. Along the bottom of the metal band are milled speaker holes that form a pair of speaker ports, but only one actually has a speaker behind it. The good news is that the single speaker is quite loud and will work just fine for the usual ringtones, notifications, and the occasional YouTube video.

There are even a few extras on the device. The oddest addition, just like the OnePlus 2, is the notification priority switch on the side of the device. The three-position hardware switch changes Android’s do-not-disturb mode between “No Interruptions,” “Priority Interruptions Only,” and “All Notifications.” Unlike the OnePlus 2 implementation, the switch overrides all the other software and hardware buttons on the device. Put it in the “No Interruptions” position and there is no way to exit that mode unless you move the switch—volume buttons won’t do it.

Also in the extras department: you get dual SIM cards or a single SIM card and a MicroSD slot. The SIM tray on the OnePlus has a crazy design that lets the second card slot fit either a second nano SIM or an SD card, and somehow the electronics work out internally to let this happen.

The price comes with some compromises

There’s no getting around it; the OnePlus X looks like a big iPhone 4.

There’s no getting around it; the OnePlus X looks like a big iPhone 4.

Both backs are glass…

Both backs are glass…

And the glass sandwich is wrapped in a metal band.

And the glass sandwich is wrapped in a metal band.

Both backs are glass…

And the glass sandwich is wrapped in a metal band.

We’re cheating a bit and switching to an iPhone 5s, but it’s obvious where the bottom came from, too.

At least the metal bands are different colors.

Getting down to that $250 price point did mean cutting a few corners. The specs line up with a flagship phone from late 2013 or early 2014, but given how little Qualcomm chips have improved in the last year, that’s not a huge deal. The biggest deal for many (in the US, at least) will be the lack of LTE bands 12 and 17. Band 12 is T-Mobile’s slice of the 700 MHz spectrum, which it plans to quickly expand to, while Band 17 is the primary transport for AT&T’s LTE network. Depending on where you are, you might be able to pick up some AT&T LTE, but a big chunk of it will be unavailable to the OnePlus X. OnePlus sells a North American and EU version of the device, but even the NA version lacks these bands.

The other oddity—which we have to assume is a cost-cutting measure—is in the capacitive navigation buttons. They don’t have a backlight. They are unlit all the time, which makes them difficult to see in a lot of lighting conditions. Like the OnePlus 2, the capacitive buttons on the OnePlus X can be customized and flipped around, and since you can’t change the symbols on the buttons, OnePlus chose to again go with generic dash symbols.

We sort of get OnePlus’ line of thinking. The buttons aren’t usefully labeled, so why bother lighting them up? It’s definitely strange to see them in action, though. We have the same complaints here that we had with the OnePlus 2: we really like our buttons to be clearly, accurately labeled, and now we’ll add that we also like to see where exactly the touch targets are and have them light up. We could never get used to the odd button labels, and as a result it slowed down our use of the phone. The good news is that if you’re like us and can’t stand the dark, unlabeled buttons, there’s also an option to enable the on-screen button bar with the standard Android navigation layout.

The OnePlus X also lacks NFC, so there will be no Android Pay shenanigans here. There also isn’t USB Type-C—the OnePlus X sticks with the tried-and-true Micro USB 2.0 port. We’re not at the point where we’re demanding a Type C port on every new phone, it’s just surprising given that the OnePlus 2 has a Type-C port.

The Wi-Fi support won’t be what you’re used to on a high-end phone, either. The X is missing both 5GHz support and 802.11ac—the fastest Wi-Fi is 2.4GHz 802.11n. Of course, on a person-by-person basis this only matters if you have a high-end router that pumps out the appropriate signals. 2.4GHz 802.11n is perfectly fine for browsing the Internet, provided your airwaves aren’t too crowded.

Software

The OnePlus X runs OnePlus’ “Oxygen OS,” an Android 5.1.1-based ROM that stays pretty close to stock Android. The idea is a lot like CyanogenMod: Stock Android plus extra features. We already covered the 5.1 build of Oxygen OS when we reviewed the OnePlus 2, so we have almost nothing new to say about the OS. If you’re interested in the details, check out that review.

The short version is that it’s great to have an OS that sticks close to stock Android, and some of the extras and customizability are genuine improvements. There’s a dark mode with a selectable color accent, which will re-theme most of the OS. You can pick from on-screen or capacitive buttons. The device has double-tap-to-wake, and despite it only being Android 5.1.1, OnePlus has implemented its own permissions system. The best part is that if you don’t like one of the new additions, chances are you can shut it off and have a very close-to-stock experience.

The biggest downside to the software is OnePlus’ update schedule: it’s not very fast. In an announcement on the company’s forums, OnePlus said the OnePlus 2 (not this device) would be upgraded to Marshmallow in Q1 2016. As for the OnePlus X, the company only said “We are working hard to bring Marshmallow as soon as possible to the OnePlus X, and will update you on a time frame at a later time.” That sounds to us like the OnePlus X is less of a priority than the OnePlus 2, and a Marshmallow update for this device will come out later than Q1 2016. For the record, OnePlus took five months to bring Android 5.1 to the original OnePlus One.

Camera

We can’t expect much from the camera on a $249 phone, but given the price, the OnePlus X camera is pretty good. Calling the camera “13 Megapixels” feels like a bit of a stretch, as we got way more detail out of the 12.2MP Nexus 5X camera. At full size, the images are blurry and lack detail, but it’s rare that anyone actually needs a 4000×3000 photo.

Here’s a sunny outdoor shot. The OnePlus X camera makes the forest a little too pink for our liking. We’re not sure where it got that idea.

Here’s a sunny outdoor shot. The OnePlus X camera makes the forest a little too pink for our liking. We’re not sure where it got that idea.

The 12.3MP Nexus 5X camera manages to pull out way more detail at full size than the 13MP OnePlus camera. It also colors the forest a proper brown color.

The 12.3MP Nexus 5X camera manages to pull out way more detail at full size than the 13MP OnePlus camera. It also colors the forest a proper brown color.

Here’s a sunny outdoor shot. The OnePlus X camera makes the forest a little too pink for our liking. We’re not sure where it got that idea.

The 12.3MP Nexus 5X camera manages to pull out way more detail at full size than the 13MP OnePlus camera. It also colors the forest a proper brown color.

The Moto X suffers from the same “muddy” image quality as the OnePlus X, but it gets the colors right.

The Moto X suffers from the same “muddy” image quality as the OnePlus X, but it gets the colors right.

It’s unfair to compare the OnePlus X to the Note 5, but it’s here for reference. Good all around, like the Nexus 5.

It’s unfair to compare the OnePlus X to the Note 5, but it’s here for reference. Good all around, like the Nexus 5.

The Moto X suffers from the same “muddy” image quality as the OnePlus X, but it gets the colors right.

It’s unfair to compare the OnePlus X to the Note 5, but it’s here for reference. Good all around, like the Nexus 5.

This is a poorly lit image, but here the OnePlus X brightness is off the charts! The picture is very blurry, though.

This is a poorly lit image, but here the OnePlus X brightness is off the charts! The picture is very blurry, though.

The Nexus 5 is darker, but much clearer.

The Nexus 5 is darker, but much clearer.

This is a poorly lit image, but here the OnePlus X brightness is off the charts! The picture is very blurry, though.

The Nexus 5 is darker, but much clearer.

The Moto X takes the halfway point—a little brighter, but also blurry.

The Moto X takes the halfway point—a little brighter, but also blurry.

The Note 5 brings a good combo of brightness and clarity.

The Note 5 brings a good combo of brightness and clarity.

The Moto X takes the halfway point—a little brighter, but also blurry.

The Note 5 brings a good combo of brightness and clarity.

The low-light test. The OnePlus X does well here, beating the Moto X (which you’ll see later).

The low-light test. The OnePlus X does well here, beating the Moto X (which you’ll see later).

Nothing can stand up to the Nexus 5X, though.

Nothing can stand up to the Nexus 5X, though.

The low-light test. The OnePlus X does well here, beating the Moto X (which you’ll see later).

Nothing can stand up to the Nexus 5X, though.

Here’s that Moto X picture. The OnePlus X is brighter.

Here’s that Moto X picture. The OnePlus X is brighter.

The Note 5 falls behind the Nexus 5X but beats the OnePlus X.

The Note 5 falls behind the Nexus 5X but beats the OnePlus X.

Here’s that Moto X picture. The OnePlus X is brighter.

The Note 5 falls behind the Nexus 5X but beats the OnePlus X.

Performance

Welcome to 2014! The OnePlus X uses a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 SoC with 3GB of RAM. You won’t win any benchmark wars with this device, but the older SoC really isn’t a big deal. We found it to be plenty fast for browsing around Android and loading Web pages. We never really had any complaints about the speed of the 801 back when it was top-of-the-line, and the same holds true today.

Battery life could definitely be better. Like most phones today, we’re really disappointed with manufacturers’ bizarre obsession with “thin” devices. The OnePlus X is a mere 6.9mm thick. We would have gladly traded thinness for a bigger battery.

Last-gen phones can still be good

You probably won’t be able to buy the OnePlus X, but if you can, it’s a good deal. For $249 you’d get a very well-made, capable smartphone that feels like it’s worth way more than the sticker price. We appreciate that OnePlus’ software sticks pretty close to stock Android, adding only extra functionality, but the company’s (historically) five-month update time is tough to swallow.

Limited LTE support will be a deal breaker for many people in the US. Combine that with the older Wi-Fi chipset and lack of NFC, and the OnePlus X is all-around lacking in the connectivity department. We would recommend a buy-and-return strategy to see what the cell reception is like in your area, but OnePlus’ invite system makes that very difficult. We suspect the majority of people will not want to put up with the hassle.