The Oneplus 2 has been announced and now everyone has the official specifications. After watching the announcement and perusing the specs we are a little disappointed with the lack of 3 key features. We’ve listed the our three missing features that we feel are the biggest missing features from the phone. Have a read through and see if these are features that would discourage you from buying the Oneplus 2.
CHARGING – No Qi, Turbo Charge, USB 3.1
Oneplus was very happy to announce their new phone’s features and among the announcements was their new charging and data port in the form on USB Type-C connector. We have since found that the connector housing itself is actually USB 2.0 camouflaged as a USB Type-C connector. From the Oneplus One, to the Oneplus 2, we still don’t have Quick Charge 2.0. The LG G Flex 2, Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet, and HTC One M9 all have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SOC that supports the standard, so why not the Oneplus 2 with the same 810 chip?
WIRELESS – No NFC or Band 28
The Oneplus One, which came just over a year before the Oneplus 2, had a full set of features, including NFC and Qi Standard Wireless Charging. With the Oneplus 2, these features have since been lost.
Beta testers and day one reviewers have mentioned that they found contacts that seem to line up with a NFC coil sticker that may be able to be added later. We’ll have to wait for this to be confirmed or denied later on. As the phone ships, these features are not offered.
Another issue is the band support. In Australia we use Bands 3/5/28/40 and not all of those are supported by all carriers (See the Band support post). The Oneplus 2 comes out in two variants (US and EU). These phones only support the 5 and 3/5 in the US and EU (respectively). This will mean that you can either have support for Vodafone 850MHz (Band 5) or Optus and Telstra on Band 3 and Vodafone on Band 3/5 – but with no Band 28 700MHz support on Optus/Telstra, this is a big downer for Aussie LTE fans.
SCREEN – No UHD Display
Both the Oneplus One and the Oneplus 2 have 5.5″ 1080p screens, when most other flagship phones have 2k and 4k screens. This isn’t a deal breaker for most as 1080p is fine at a normal distance, but using the Google Cardboard and the Oneplus One for the Oneplus 2 Launch was very pixelated and hard to fine focus on specifics.
Positives
With all this negative talk, we just have to recap some of the good things included in the Oneplus 2. The fingerprint scanner, the new notification slider (new for Android), the metal frame, the styleswap covers, the Laser Autofocus and the 3300mAh battery. Combined with a starting price of US$329, this all still seems to be a good option for those looking for a new phone. If you already have a flagship or the Oneplus One, you might want to hold off for the Oneplus 3?
There’s just one question left:
The contact points at the back are for the style covers, it’s used to detect which cover you have to change themes.
I saw the back of the styleswap covers, they did not have contacts on the cover, they are not Skylanders figurines that give your phone special abilities or themes. That would be expensive and can be done more easily through software only.
“The Oneplus One, which came just over a year before the Oneplus 2, had a full set of features, including NFC and Qi Standard Wireless Charging.”
I’m pretty sure the Oneplus One doesn’t have wireless charging – at least not out of the box.
As a One owner, it doesn’t support wireless charging and I’m not aware of any modifications. It does have NFC though and I use it with my banking app for making cardless purchases using PayPass.
I’m alright with this. I’ve never used NFC or wireless charging on my Nexus 5, so if leaving them out helps keep the price down I’m all for it. And 1080p at 5.5″ is still a decent DPI, even if it isn’t the absolute best any more, especially if it helps improve the battery life.
Of course, if the Moto X Style is going to be priced to compete with this, I’m not sure there’s much of a contest.
…… Moto….
I’m feeling ya
Personally: I’m ok with a 1080p screen
I’m OK with no NFC or Qi (contacts are there I believe, much like the Galaxy Note phones) as long as it can be added later by a case add on etc.
I’m even OK with no Turbo Charge…
But spending a lot of time indoors, particularly in sheds means that the band 28 is a must for me. I was ready to buy, but will be looking at other options now.
No Band 28, 700MHz, is a deal breaker for me. For my next phone this is a must !
No NFC = no sale.
It’s as simple as that, I have the 1+1 as do many friends, it’s astounding as to why 1+ would go backwards in spec. Very disappointing for a brand with so much potential..
Sony is heavily invested in NFC and if you have any of their speakers and cameras then you really don’t want a phone without nfc. I love NFC. We’ll try and add an NFC sticker as soon as we get our hands on the OP2.
Very disappointing tbh. I was all set to purchase it based on the specs and leaked photos that had shown up… Never in my wildest nightmare did I think for even a second that they would leave out such basic things as quick charge and nfc. I was willing to forego qi but not both qi and quick charge. From what I read the screen on time is a lot Less than the opo and it takes a lot longer to charge. And as for nfc I use it a lot. I have nfc tags placed at a heap of… Read more »
I’m with you Scott, Moto X Play for me providing it has dual front facing stereo speakers.
@Montalbert_Scott:disqus I have the same feeling. I was hoping to upgrade my OPO, but now I’m keen on holding onto it.
The MotoX Style, and even Play, looks amazing… can’t wait for their release and we’ll see how they compare in real life usage.
@Jimmy I’m not sure if FF speakers are such a big deal for me. If I’m listening to my phone’s audio, my headphones or car aux cable is almost always plugged in.
2 things i’m looking forward to 1) Android Audio; 2) the Next Nexus (and tablet)
do u think android pay with work on Oxigen OS? though its is a custom android…not sure if it will work