OnePlus X Hands-on

Yesterday, at the Altitude Tower in London, OnePlus announced its third smartphone — the OnePlus X. The OnePlus X is a device very different from anything the company has manufactured in the past. This time around, the company has heavily emphasised on the device’s design, and it’s one of the most gorgeous and well-built smartphones I have ever laid my eyes on.
There are two variations of the OnePlus X: Onyx and Ceramic.

Let me explain the difference between the two. The Onyx edition is the baseline model of the X, it features a complete black glass construction on both the front and the back with an anodised metal frame in the middle, which is etched with 17 elegant micro-cuts; adding to the premium feel and enhancing the grip of the smartphone.

Whereas, the Ceramic version is a limited edition, there will only be 10,000 units produced, it replaces the Onyx’s black glass back with a highly-treated ceramic one. OnePlus says it takes 25 days to manufacture a single Ceramic OnePlus X. It all starts with a 0.5mm thick zirconia mold, the ceramic is then heated up to 2,700ºF for more than 28 hours and then it takes two days for it to cool down. The backplate undergoes three different methods of polishing before it’s ready to be assembled on the device. And, due to it being ceramic, it has a hardness of 8.6H on the Mohs scale, making it scratch-resistant. So, one thing’s for sure, you’re gonna have a tough time scratching that backplate.
Both models look fairly identical, with only a few very minor differences.

The backplate on the Ceramic edition has a more mirror-like finish, it’s more prone to fingerprints, has tapered edges, and adds a bit of heft, when compared with the Onyx variant. The tapered edges help provide a very seamless feel between the ceramic back, the metal frame in the middle, and the glass on the top.

The device features a 5-inch Full HD (1920x1080) AMOLED display with a pixel density of 441ppi, it’s the company’s first smartphone to boast an AMOLED panel — outsourced from Samsung. Just like any other AMOLED panel, it has outstanding black levels, however, I found the colours to be way oversaturated. And, I have been using Samsung’s Galaxy S series as my primary smartphones of choice, since the last 5 years now, when I say it’s way oversaturated, it really is. I hope OnePlus tones it down a bit with the colours on the retail units. The company has brought its Alert Slider from the OnePlus 2 to its OnePlus X, the slider allows you to switch between sound profiles.
In terms of raw performance, it’s packing a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC — yes, that’s not a typo — clocked at 2.3GHz, an Adreno 330 GPU, and 3GB of RAM. Yes, the Chinese manufacturer is shipping its latest device with a year old processor, but it’s not really a bad thing. If you try remembering, the Galaxy S5 shipped with an 801, and that was Samsung’s 2014 flagship device. If the company didn't went with the S801, which is still classified as a high-end chip, it would have to go with the Snapdragon 617, which is a chip design for mid-range devices. The company tested both silicons and found the 801 to be better. Also, in my hands on time with the device, I have found the overall performance to be actually quite good.
The smartphone comes with 16GB of built-in storage, which is expandable via a microSD card slot; I wouldn’t say it’s a microSD card slot, it’s a 2nd nano SIM card slot, as the device has dual-sim functionality, but OnePlus allows you to use it for a microSD card, if you only use a single SIM card.
The Chinese manufacturer has also changed camera sensor vendors as well. This time around, the company knocked Samsung’s doors for its 13 megapixel ISOCELL camera sensor. Even before you ask, no, it can’t shoot 4K videos, but it can shoot Full HD (1080p) videos at 60FPS, and HD (720p) videos at 120FPS. Also, I noticed that there was no shutter lag on the OnePlus X; the shutter lag was simply unbearable on the OnePlus 2. For the front-facing camera, company went with an 8 megapixel sensor, vendor is currently unknown.
Out of the box, the device ships with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Oxygen OS 2.1.2 running on top of it. Yes, there’s no Marshmallow yet, but it’s coming soon. It has all the usual Oxygen OS features you would expect: Dark mode, Shelf, Gestures, App Permissions, Accent colours, and custom buttons. Furthermore, two new features have been added to Oxygen, especially for the X, and they are called Ambient display and FM Radio. You’re probably already familiar with them from other devices.
Powering everything is a pretty large 2,525mAh LiPo battery. There’s no wireless charging, quick charging, or NFC — just like the OnePlus 2.
The Onyx model will launch in Europe and India on November 5, in the U.S. on November 19, and will retail for £199/€269/$249. On the other hand, the Ceramic model will launch in Europe and India on November 24, it won’t be coming to the U.S., and will cost £269/€369. Furthermore, just like previous OnePlus devices, you won’t actually be able to buy them straight away, you’ll need an invite. However, the company states that the invite-system will only be valid for a month, afterwards it would allow anyone to buy it.