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The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

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Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#31

Post by lyschoening »

wtbob wrote: post #4

I'm really sad that it won't have CyanogenMod; that was the biggest reason that I purchased a One. It's a real shame that there was that whole fight over exclusivity in India (IIRC, it sounds like CM's fault, but I'm not 100% certain). I'm interested to read details of how the fingerprint unlock works. Remember that a fingerprint reader is insufficient to be secure, as fingerprints are low-entropy and relatively publ…

I just switched from CM12 to OxygenOS. I don't see many advantages that CyanogenMod might have over this slightly modified stock Android. As with CM, it has a few extra settings and it can be rooted. Yes it comes with Google's Apps, but most of them are quite useful.

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#32

Post by userbinator »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #17

I'm completely disappointed with the way phone market evolves. I don't want a cheap phone, I want a phone that works. I want my phone to have enough memory and processing power to handle its operating system without hiccups. It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you. I want my phone to have it all - Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA, accelerometer, thermometer, barometer, SD card, double SIM, removabl…

It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you

IMHO the blame for that lies with the software, not the hardware. Android is basically the realisation of the original Java OS, but on hardware fast enough that its performance has become "acceptable" - most of the time.

As for the other features; Bluetooth, WiFi, accelerometer (and compass/magnetometer), SD, dual-SIM, and removable battery are pretty much standard on every generic Chinese phone now since they're based on reference designs that have all those components (they cost almost nothing - it would probably take more work to remove them and customise the HW/SW - and it's yet another feature point they can list.)

I'd consider such a "full-featured" phone "flagship", but what the term appears to mean today is just a fast CPU, big screen, and pretty looks, with the other features appearing and disappearing seemingly randomly.

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#33

Post by TeMPOraL »

hellweaver666 wrote: post #29
TeMPOraL wrote: post #17

I'm completely disappointed with the way phone market evolves. I don't want a cheap phone, I want a phone that works. I want my phone to have enough memory and processing power to handle its operating system without hiccups. It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you. I want my phone to have it all - Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA, accelerometer, thermometer, barometer, SD card, double SIM, removabl…

Keep dreaming. The sad fact is, the majority of consumers do not even know what half of those features are for let alone need them. We, the techies of the world do not define these products any more - our mothers, uncles and children do (and all they want to do is take acceptable looking selfies, share them and send the odd text message.

I don't have high hopes. Just had to vent out.

What also irks me is that all that consumer-defined hardware is pushing human ability to weather stress and annoyances. I sometimes really wonder if the proliferation of underpowered, laggy phones isn't turning into public health problem. I sometimes get to fix my mother's laptop (also used by my sister). It came with Windows 8, but it runs it so slow that personally, I'd kill myself if I had to do any work on such equipment. And yes, my mother is incredibly annoyed as well, but she doesn't really expect any better, she gave up on it some time ago.

Yes, I am dreaming about good technology. I know we have the means, there just isn't will. The only place when you can see technology working without problems is sci-fi movies. Just try and imagine that scene from Star Trek - an away team tries to scan derelict starship with a tricorder, only to have it hang up, reboot and then complain that it won't work because it can't connect to the cloud. Ridiculous, isn't it?

But hey, not all is lost yet. People are attempting to make their own phones outside of big phone vendors. They do that mostly to push against erosion of privacy and user's ability to control their own device. I'm hoping someone will try to make a smartphone equivalent of a tricorder. I think there are enough geeks like me to fund a decent Kickstarter.

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#34

Post by kijin »

zphds wrote: post #16
kijin wrote: post #12

Give me a 4.5-inch phone with slightly lower specs (a battery-saving 720p screen would be enough at that size) for less than $300, and I'm sold. For the time being, though, I'm going to wait out the "my phone is bigger than your dick" game that everyone and their dog seems to be engaged in. 175 grams is way too heavy to carry around in a pocket, let alone hold with one hand for more than a few minutes. And yet everyo…

You could pick up the Nexus 5. I switched to OPO from Nexus 5 and it had the perfect dimensions. Lightweight and great for one-hand usage. The battery is a bummer though.

The maximum screen size I'm looking for is 4.5 inches, maybe 4.7 if the bezel is very thin. Maximum weight: around 120 grams.

The Nexus 5 is bigger and heavier than that, but I'm keeping it near the edge of my radar in case I have no other choice.

LG recently began to market the Gram, a series of high-end ultrabooks that weigh less than 1000 grams. Why on Earth is nobody trying to market medium-to-high-end phones that weigh less than 100 grams?

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#35

Post by KhalilK »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #17

I'm completely disappointed with the way phone market evolves. I don't want a cheap phone, I want a phone that works. I want my phone to have enough memory and processing power to handle its operating system without hiccups. It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you. I want my phone to have it all - Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA, accelerometer, thermometer, barometer, SD card, double SIM, removabl…

Relevant video: https://vimeo.com/134128443

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#36

Post by TeMPOraL »

userbinator wrote: post #32
TeMPOraL wrote: post #17

I'm completely disappointed with the way phone market evolves. I don't want a cheap phone, I want a phone that works. I want my phone to have enough memory and processing power to handle its operating system without hiccups. It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you. I want my phone to have it all - Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA, accelerometer, thermometer, barometer, SD card, double SIM, removabl…

It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you IMHO the blame for that lies with the software, not the hardware. Android is basically the realisation of the original Java OS, but on hardware fast enough that its performance has become "acceptable" - most of the time. As for the other features; Bluetooth, WiFi, accelerometer (and compass/magnetometer), SD, dual-SIM, and removable battery are pre…

> with the other features appearing and disappearing seemingly randomly

This is what bothers me. I suspect it's not random, it's market segmentation. So ok, a vendor may think that some consumers value feature X, Y, and Z, while others value featues X, Q and V. But one thing that is missing from all offerings is a phone that has them all. This is the phone that I would like to buy, even if it was significantly more expensive than the rest. But I can't, because it's not there.

(Or I haven't found it yet. If anyone knows of such device, I'd be grateful for a pointer.)

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#38

Post by tomjen3 »

tudborg wrote: post #22
sergiotapia wrote: post #10

Disappointed with the invite system again. Did the first version no sell well enough?

The opposite. To little supply for the demand. They used the invites to "throttle" the purchase rate to be able to keep up. They probably thought an invite system was a better aproach than a weekly free-for-all aka. SuiciDDOS against the webshop. Hopefully, this time supply will be significantly higher, meaning the invite system will be removed as soon as they know they can keep up with demand.

Even if that only takes six months the phones isn't going to be interesting by the time you can actively purchase it.

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#39

Post by userbinator »

kijin wrote: post #13
microtonal wrote: post #7

I think Asus deserves some credit here as well for selling a 4GB RAM Intel Atom phone with dual SIM and SD card slot for comparable prices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_ZenFone#ZenFone_2 Of course, as usual, their own skin and who knows how long you get updates.

Forget updates, you can even run full-blown Windows 10 and Office on that beast. If only it came with Windows apps and drivers to use the phone-related features... http://www.greenbot.com/article/2946255/windows-7-running-on...

That's being done with KVM, so it's not really booting and running Win7 natively on the phone (the hardware is probably not close enough to a PC to be able to do this) but inside a VM.

You can find people running various other versions of Windows (and even MS-DOS) on an Android phone, again as a VM.

Re: The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be

#40

Post by TeMPOraL »

KhalilK wrote: post #35
TeMPOraL wrote: post #17

I'm completely disappointed with the way phone market evolves. I don't want a cheap phone, I want a phone that works. I want my phone to have enough memory and processing power to handle its operating system without hiccups. It is ridiculous that even a $700 phone can just start lagging on you. I want my phone to have it all - Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA, accelerometer, thermometer, barometer, SD card, double SIM, removabl…

Relevant video: https://vimeo.com/134128443

A very interesting video, thanks! So the question is, how can I get my hands on something from Shenzhen that works? I've seen people importing Chinese smartphones that are equivalent to high-end products on Western market but for half a price. But could anyone share some tips on finding and getting a device that may be more functional than what you can buy in Europe/US?
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