After the phenomenal success of OnePlus’ first phone, the OnePlus One, the Chinese smartphone company has unveiled the successor, the OnePlus Two. Although it is quite difficult to get your hands on the OnePlus phones in Nepal, it is still a big contender in the smartphone market today. OnePlus phones are known for their premium quality hardware at a very reasonable price point and the OnePlus Two stays true to the idea. In a bold statement, OnePlus has also called the second iteration of their phone a ‘2016 flagship killer’, which resonates with the fact that the OnePlus Two can easily compete with phones that will come out next year. Whether the OnePlus Two can stand up to next-gen phones is a different argument altogether, but we take a look at how well the OnePlus Two performs against current flagships in the market.

The OnePlus Two comes equipped with Quad-core 1.56 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 1.82 GHz Cortex-A57 processors depending on the phone. Paired up with an Adreno 430 GPU and 3 gigabytes of RAM for the 16 GB variant and 4 GB for the 64 GB variant. In terms of performance, the OnePlus One stands tall against other competitors in the market. It sports a big 5.5 inch IPS screen with 1080p resolution. The phone also comes with a massive 3300 mAh battery that can easily keep the OnePlus Two running through an entire day and more. The cameras on the phone are nothing to scoff at either, with the OnePlus Two

sporting a 13 MP back camera with advanced features like optical image stabilization, laser auto-focus and dual-LED flash and a 5 MP front facing camera. Considering all of the OnePlus Two’s specifications, the OnePlus flagship killer can easily compare to many of today’s top-tier smartphones. but still lags behind the Samsung Galaxy S6, in many aspects.

Since OnePlus is marketing the OnePlus Two as a phone that can compete with phones that aren’t even out yet, the phone sadly misses some key features that define phones today. Although not applicable in Nepal, the phone does not support NFC which almost all flagship phones come equipped with. Another feature that many OnePlus users will miss is support for fast-charging that comes in almost all flagship phones, as well as some mid-range phones. With a massive 3300 mAh battery, the absence of fast charging support will be felt. The OnePlus Two also doesn’t support microSD slots, so memory expandability is not an option on the phone.

In contrast to last year’s plastic design on the OnePlus One, the OnePlus Two is comes with a metallic body but a replaceable plastic back with a sandstone feel reminiscent of the OnePlus One. Many people loved the sandstone feel of the OnePlus One while others hated it, but with the OnePlus Two, the back-cover is fully replaceable with varied options offered by OnePlus. The volume and power buttons are on the right side of the phone and sit right under the thumb. The volume buttons are also placed above the power button which comes as a welcome design implementation because the power button is used more often than the volume rocker and this gives easy access to one of the most used buttons on any phone. The OnePlus Two also comes with a LED notification light and a state slider on the left side. Much like the sliders on iPhones, this slider quickly toggles the phone between three states, Normal, Priority and Silent. The state slider on the OnePlus Two is a welcome addition and it is bound to make the phone less intrusive in silent situations.

In terms of software, the OnePlus Two runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box but surprisingly does not come with the vanilla interface of CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod does not seem to be present on the phone and unlike the OnePlus One, the phone comes with OnePlus’ own version of Android called, ‘Oxygen OS’. The Oxygen OS won’t be as bare as CyanogenMod on the OnePlus One, but is still pretty sleek and doesn’t come with useless bloatware from the company. Its new OS might feel different but should not be difficult to navigate for users who’re familiar with the Android experience.

In terms of performance, the OnePlus Two outperforms all phones except the Samsung Galaxy S6, but is not far behind. The OnePlus Two averages around 4790 on the Geekbench 3 test only preceded by the Samsung Galaxy S6 with a score of 4850. The OnePlus Two also comes equipped with the new USB-C connector, which is reversible and compares to Apple’s lightning connector which has been reversible for quite some time now. With the reversibility of the USB-C type connector, charging the phone in the dark will be much simpler but will also means that since the OnePlus Two is one the first phones to implement the USB-C connector, many people won’t have the new connector and users of the OnePlus Two will need to carry the charger along with the phone.

Although the phone does have its flaws, the OnePlus Two is still a very good phone for the price range. The phone sells for around Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 in Nepal and comes with specifications that is only rivalled by the Samsung S6. Although the phone competes well with current flagships, OnePlus might be going

a overboard by calling it a ‘2016 flagship killer’ since it is missing features that most recent phones come equipped with and is preceded by Samsung’s flagship. The OnePlus Two might not be able to compete with phones of the future but it definitely performs well against the ones we have today.