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Meet the OnePlus One, the best cheap smartphone you’ve never heard of – Metro US

Meet the OnePlus One, the best cheap smartphone you’ve never heard of

You’ve likely never heard of the hyper-exclusive, and hyper-economical smartphone, the OnePlus One. That is unless you’re pretty cozy in the tech world or have a friend who has one.

What makes the OnePlus One so exclusive? It’s certainly not the price, which starts at $299 for their 16 GB model, but rather that for a long time one could only buy the phone with an invitation. The OnePlus One’s progenitor, a small smartphone manufacturing startup known as OnePlus, used this odd model of distribution for what we suspect had more to do with generating buzz then it did staying on top of production as TechRadar says.

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A close friend of mine spent months scavenging through forums, calling up distant social contacts, and waiting in agony trying to get an invite for the OnePlus One. I was admittedly skeptical about the hype, but after interacting with the phone I can say that her hunt was worth the effort.

Aside from it’s incredibly sleek and modern design, the device is top notch when it comes to technical specs. Boasting an Adreno 330, 578MHz processor, 3 GB of RAM, and a Gorilla Glass screen and 13 megapixel rear camera, the OnePlus One has all the organs of a top performing android phone.

Running a modified open source version of Android called Cyanogen 11s, the operating system allows a nearly infinite amount of options to customize, modify and enhance the One Plus One’s features, security and performance.

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If all of this sounds pretty spectacular to you, then we have good news: OnePlus announced that in addition to it’s invitation system, for 24 hours every tuesday the company would allow anyone to order the phone.

“Although we have an active and supportive fanbase, a lot of people have interest in the One but have told us that it’s just too difficult to buy,” OnePlus wrote in its blog. “We believe that great things should be shared. Thus, it’s been our goal from the beginning to put our products into the hands of as many people as possible.”

Is there anything wrong with the OnePlus One? Nothing is perfect and this phone is no exception. Some have complained about it’s screen size, it’s lack of fancy features, the inability to manually upgrade the phone’s storage and battery, and OnePlus’ spotty customer service.

These things aside though, the OnePlus One is an amazing product that can’t be beat, purely because of it’s extremely low cost. If you’re looking to upgrade and are willing to give a pretty unknown company and it’s super exclusive and elusive phone a chance, then maybe you should buy the OnePlus One. Just make sure it’s a Tuesday