The OnePlus One appears to be a great phone at an amazing price, which has made it one of the most sought-after phones of the moment. Want one? There’s a couple of catches. Firstly, it’s not released to the public yet. Secondly, when it does become available, it will be invite-only for at least the first few weeks.
Impatient? Good news! The folks over at Phandroid have found out that you can install the CyanogenMod 11S rom – originally meant for the OnePlus One – onto Oppo‘s Find 7a.
The hardware similarities between the two devices have been noted before, but many were considering buying the One due to its custom Cyanogen ROM. Now you can have that ROM on a very similar device.
| OnePlus One | Oppo Find7a | |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9 mm | 152.6 × 75 × 9.2 mm |
| CPU | 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801(MSM8974AC) | 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801(MSM8974AB) |
| GPU | Adreno 330 | Adreno 330 |
| RAM | 3GB | 2GB |
| Storage | 16/64 GB Storage | 16 GB (expandable up to 128GB microSD card) |
| Battery | 3100 mAh LiPo battery | 2800 mAh Li-Po battery with Rapid Charge |
| Screen | 5.5in JDL 920 x 1080 pixels | 5.5in JDL 920 x 1080 pixels |
| Rear Camera | 13MP -Sony Exmor IMX 214 | 13MP -Sony Exmor IMX 214 |
The advantages of the Find 7a from what I can see are that it has fast charging, an SD card, a removable battery, and most of all it is available now, without the need for an invite (I think you meant “stupid invite” — Jason). The OnePlus One however has a slightly higher battery capacity, more RAM and a faster CPU than the Find 7a.
The Find 7a can be shipped directly here to Australia, unlike the OnePlus One and so it works out to be around the same price (taking into account mail forwarders, etc). Oppostyle sell the Find 7a for $499US with free shipping. The OnePlus One is $350US plus shipping (64GB) and by the time you add on around ~$50 for mail forwarding the prices are similar. Oppo offers a student discount, as well.
There’s a few caveats, though. At this stage it seems that only 3GB storage is reported (whoops), and NFC, the rear camera and voice wake don’t work. Word around the developer community is that all except the voice wake should be easy fixes – voice controls are a bit more difficult, and things like this usually entail proprietary code that’s not open source.
Personally, I’ll probably still wait for the OnePlus One – there’s nothing like the real thing – but for those of you who like to tinker, this could be a great way to get a great phone with excellent specs at a decent price.
What will you wait for the real OnePlus One, or go for the Find 7a?
typo on the screen resolution?