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OnePlus reveals how many phones it's sold
Ever since OnePlus first unveiled the One, Android fans have been clamoring for the limited invites needed to buy their own. It's been an infuriating wait for many, but it seems the company is slowly starting to meet demand. Co-founder Carl Pei told Forbes that OnePlus has now sold 500,000 smartphones and is aiming for one million by 2015. So why hasn't OnePlus just opened the floodgates already? Well, the company argues that to sell the device at such a low price-point, it can't risk having excess inventory lying around. The company is slowly opening its doors though, after holding a (albeit botched) pre-order window that meant anyone could at least get in line. The firm says it racked up "tens of thousands" of sales and is offering fans a second chance to pre-order on November 17th, assuming they haven't given up already and OnePlus has fixed its problems from last time.
IRL: The OnePlus One is everything my iPhone wasn't
After last month's iPhone event, I was disappointed -- I realized the iPhone 6 and its "Plus" sibling were still catching up to Android in a lot of ways. Regardless, the devoted iPhone fan in me still pre-ordered an iPhone 6 a few days later, in the wee hours of September 12th. The next morning, I awoke to the alarm on my iPhone 5s and went to silence it, only to discover a small spot of water damage had worsened overnight, rendering the phone unusable. With less than 24 hours before jetting off on a work trip, I had no choice but to force myself into using another phone sitting on my desk: the OnePlus One. Now, you might be thinking that this was unusually convenient. The truth is, I decided to get a second phone a couple of weeks earlier and wanted one of the unlocked Android variety. Might as well ensure it's a good phone too, so with an Engadget score of 90, the One made sense.
Nextbit is bringing iOS-like app continuity and 'limitless' storage to Android
You may just about recall that Nextbit, a startup formed by ex-Googlers, has been collaborating with Cyanogen on a "really cool" secret project. As it turns out, this is all about the continuity experience across Android devices -- very timely given the recent launch of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1, which boast a set of continuity features. Nextbit's offering is dubbed Baton, and as the name suggests, it lets you quickly pass an app's state from one Android device to another, meaning you can continue playing on the same level in a game, editing the same document in an app or browsing the same web page right away; with the precondition being the second device must also have Baton and the same app installed. Better yet, app developers don't have to do anything at all; existing apps should just work.
OnePlus One to open up pre-orders soon, but there's a catch
The OnePlus One has been sort of an underground hit, namely due to the fact you could only purchase the handset with an invite. Thankfully, if you've had your eyes on it for a while, OnePlus just revealed that its $300 Android smartphone is, more or less, ready to go mainstream next week, on October 27th. Pre-orders for the newly announced general availability are set to go live that day at 11AM ET, which is great news to people who haven't had a chance to jump on the invite-only wave. The bad news, however, is that this is going to be limited to a one-hour window. For now, OnePlus is continuing to take invites, so that's still an option to those with access to one. "While the pre-order system won't completely replace the current invites method, it is certainly a huge step towards expanding the reach of OnePlus," the company said in a blog post.
More to expect at our free Engadget Expand event in NYC!
If you're keeping score, we've announced a bunch of great speakers heading to this year's Engadget Expand (such as RJD2 and the head of DARPA, Arati Prabhakar). Of course there's plenty more where that came from and we're excited to announce what else you'll see at the Javits Center on November 7-8 in New York City!
Feedback Loop: obscure TV channels, what's in your bag and more!
Happy Saturday! Welcome to another edition of Feedback Loop! This week we're exploring obscure TV channels, the gadgets you travel with and just how much space is too much on your phone. So sit back, get comfy and get ready to talk with fellow readers.
OnePlus pulls sexist selfie contest (update: regrets 'misguided effort' to involve more women)
When you're looking to celebrate a milestone for your company's forums, what's the best way to do so? How about a sexist photo contest where the entrant that nabs the most likes gets a the chance to buy a phone? Sounds like a terrible idea. Well, that's just what OnePlus did to commemorate 200K registered message board users. In order to be eligible, ladies (no boys allowed) had to draw the outfit's logo on a piece of paper or on their body, take a picture of themselves and post it in the contest thread. The top 50 "most well-liked" women would earn a t-shirt, and if there were at least 500 entries, OnePlus promised an invite to purchase it's One smartphones to "our favorite photo." So yes, the winner still had to pay for the device they "won." As you might've guessed, folks around the internet expressed their rage almost immediately and links to the contest thread are dead several hours later. We've reached out to see if the promotion has officially been pulled and what OnePlus has to say about it, but it looks like the masses have prevailed. Update: OnePlus has provided a statement in response to our query, and is apologetic about a "misguided" effort to reach out to women. The company says it's "thrilled to have a small but growing number of women active in our online community," and deeply regrets any offense caused. You can read the statement in full after the break.
OnePlus One camera update helps you take sharper, noise-free photos
The 13-megapixel camera on the OnePlus One is fine for the money, but not spectacular; it frequently captures soft, noisy snapshots if the lighting conditions aren't ideal. Don't worry, though, as the fledgling phone maker has rolled out a camera update that can (sometimes) give you the photo quality you've been missing. Much like what you saw in the Oppo Find 7, the One's new Clear Image feature takes a burst of 10 photos and stitches them together into a cleaner, higher-resolution picture. You can see the results for yourself below -- a muddy, grainy photo of a wall clock (shown on the left) suddenly becomes clear. OnePlus is even promising reasonable file sizes, so you won't immediately regret buying the 16GB One instead of its 64GB counterpart.
Give your OnePlus One a bamboo back for $49
The OnePlus One's a handsome little devil as is, but there's always room to accessorize. Though you're probably still waiting on the actual handset to turn up, OnePlus has announced the phone's first "SwapStyle" cover will arrive at the end of August, and it's made from bamboo (the material's all the rage, you know). The standard white and black polycarbonate shells that come with different variants of the phone will also be available online soon for $29, €25 or around £20, while the flashier bamboo version will retail for $49, €39 or £32. Other SwapStyle covers should cost about the same, though we could be persuaded to pay a little more for the one that makes double-denim acceptable again. We wouldn't say a bamboo phone cover needs its own two-minute promo video, but who are we to kill OnePlus' buzz?
iFixit: OnePlus One equals five for repairability
Like the proverbial internet pony of lore, you may want the OnePlus One smartphone's highly desirable specs and cheap $300 price, but you can't have it -- yet. Somehow the iFixit screwdriver brigade got one though, and recently disemboweled it for your pleasure (see the video below). Sure enough, all the bits are there: 3GB of Samsung-based RAM, 5.5-inch 1080p screen, Snapdragon 801 CPU and a goodly 3,100mAH battery, all inside an 8.9mm thick body. That's pretty slim for a phablet, and therein lies the problem: squeezing all that in required a hard-to-budge (and pricey to replace) fused screen, hidden connectors and adhesives. All that adds up to a repairability score of five out of ten -- far from the worst we've seen, but if you ever manage to nab one, you may want to insure it.
OnePlus One gets delayed over 'security issues'
OnePlus One equals more than the number of units of this $300 smartphone that have so far been shipped to paying customers. The high-spec, low-cost Android handset was meant to launch back in May, but the manufacturer has now admitted that it's "perfecting some final issues," which means it can no longer be certain when the phone will be ready. In terms of what these problems are, some helpful clarification has been posted to Reddit by OnePlus's software partner, Cyanogen.
OnePlus One review: a $300 smartphone has never looked so good
Look at your phone. If you can honestly admit that you love every single thing about it, I have good news: You can stop reading this review, since it won't have an impact on your happiness. But if there's even one thing you wish your smartphone could do better, it means you had to make compromises when you bought it. Everybody wants a perfect phone, but such a thing simply doesn't exist. So, we settle on a phone that has only 95 percent of the features we want, and that... kinda sucks. OnePlus believes it doesn't have to be this way. Its motto, "Never Settle," represents the fledgling Chinese company's mission to build and sell the perfect smartphone. Its first attempt is the One, a premium-looking device that has customizable firmware and top-shelf specs. Oh, and it'll sell for $299 unlocked and free of contract, which is even less expensive than Google's Nexus 5. Seems a little over-ambitious for a small startup with no official track record, doesn't it? Let's find out if the One is too good to be true.
Meet the One, OnePlus' $299 Nexus killer
Rarely do we see a tech startup spending five months actively hyping up an unborn product; and when we do, most of them end up being vaporware. Luckily, that's not the case with OnePlus. Today, the Shenzhen-based company has finally unveiled its first smartphone, the One (not to be confused with the HTC One). While the device's impressive specs have already been listed in detail beforehand, OnePlus had remained tight-lipped about the actual prices (unsubsidized) until today: $299/£229/€269 for the 16GB model, and $349/£269/€299 for the 64GB flavor; both due mid to late May. This aggressive pricing is obviously going right after the Nexus 5 ($349 for 16GB, $399 for 32GB), but is this too good to be true?
OnePlus One phone and its swappable covers leak out in new pictures
Former Oppo exec Pete Lau announced his plans to make "the perfect smartphone" a few months ago, and now the OnePlus One is almost here. Its launch is scheduled for April 23rd, but Android Authority points out these pictures posted on a forum that claim to show press renders of the device itself and "StyleSwap" covers that will let owners customize its looks. Not-so-shockingly, what we're seeing looks a lot like the Oppo Find 5, although the only question left is whether they're authentic or just a fan's creation. We've already gotten a sneak peek at the CyanogenMod software it will run, and we know how much it costs, but official word on everything else will have to wait until Wednesday.
OnePlus One will cost under $400, £290 / €350 in US, UK and Europe (updated)
It's just seven days until OnePlus launches its first Android flagship, but that hasn't stopped the company drip-feeding news about the device. Surprisingly, the outfit promises that the unit will cost under £290 in the UK, €350 in Europe and $3,000 HKD in Hong Kong -- which we're taking to mean £289, €349 and $2,999, respectively. By way of comparison, that's £10 less than you'd pay for a Nexus 5 and £20 more than you'd need for a Lumia 1320. Now, given that the handset is shipping with a Snapdragon 801, 3GB RAM, 5.5-inch 1080p display and a 3,100mAh battery, what is OnePlus likely to scrimp on in order to get it down to that price? Why not dive in over at the forums and speculate with us. Update: No sooner had we begun to shoot the breeze concerning the rest-of-the-world pricing when the company announces that the OnePlus One will also land in the US, where it'll retail for "under" $400.
OnePlus dripfeeds more specs for its 'perfect' One smartphone
Let's face it: "One" isn't the most creative name for a smartphone, even if OnePlus couldn't resist the wordplay. We wouldn't call the company headed by ex-Oppo exec Pete Lau unoriginal though, as we can't claim to have seen another smartphone developed with such transparency. OnePlus has been systematically posting info about "the perfect smartphone" to its announcement forum, seemingly as it's decided upon. We still don't have any clue as to what it'll look like, other than its dimensions are smaller than those of Sony's Xperia Z1, but we do know it'll sport a 5.5-inch 1080p display on the outside, with a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 and 3,100mAh battery within. The company's also been working with partner CyanogenMod on "mystery tech" to optimize battery performance, and most recently, has teased an always-on voice recognition feature, while also polling suggestions on what phrase should trigger it. Probably the most interesting number thus far is the One's sub-$400 price tag, however, and although there's much left to learn about the device, we're most certainly listening.
