Why I'm not a fan of the OnePlus 2

Photo credit from GSMArena

To those that Follow me on twitter it's no surprise to you that I was very underwhelmed with the OnePlus 2, but it's hard to explain why in 140 Characters, so here I'm going to expand a bit more on the things I’m not a fan of and why.

First up is the USB-C Port. Now as we already know, USB-C the Port isn’t the same as USB-C W/USB3.1, the

Damn USB-C, it's there,but not quite there.

latter is the all singing all dancing version of USB-C, nothing has this yet (the closest we have so far is the new MacBook and Chromebook Pixel, that use most of this, except at USB3 speeds, or what has retroactively been called, USB3.1 Gen1). The OnePlus 2 though, like the Nokia N1 before it, isn't doing any of this, it hasn't got support for up to 100w, it doesn’t transfer data at the blisteringly fast 10gbps (USB 3.1 Gen2) or 5gbps (USB3.0/3.1 Gen1), no the USB-C port on the OnePlus 2 is USB2 based, that’s right 480mbps, same as microUSB in phones currently. It doesn’t do any of the fancy DisplayPort AltModes stuff either, this is just what you have no, without a flappable connector.

Next up is the Fingerprint Scanner. Am I impressed there is a fingerprint scanner on a device this price? Yes,

Goddamn ugly Fingerprint reader, at least it's fast?

am I impressed at its speed and accuracy? also yes. My problem with the OnePlus 2's fingerprint scanner is in its location, Under the screen. Like the iPhone, Galaxy S series, the One M9+ and countless Chinese devices thee OnePlus 2 houses the scanner under the screen, the problem with that? that's a lot of space under the display taken up, so they decide to take on-screen buttons way (yes you can turn them on in settings, I’ll get to that in a minute) and use the scanner, and 2 capacitive buttons instead for navigation. The OP2 has 2 miniature white slits of light that signify back and recent apps, they're not marked with anything but a small slit of light, one either side of the scanner, in software you can swap what these do, and the scanner, when the device is on, acts as a capacitive home button. This is just nasty, I understand that on some devices having the scanner at the bottom front makes sense, with the 5s and 6, they're small phones, that’s fine, but with the 6+ and OP2, they're 5.5" phones, having such a vital piece of tech at the bottom, meaning most people are going to grip it near the bottom, this huge hunkering piece of metal and glass could come crashing to the floor if you smartphone acrobatics aren’t good, on larger devices, having the scanner on the rear, under the camera sensor, slightly recessed so you can feel it, is a much more elegant solution IMO. Having the scanner on the back also allows you to have less space on the front dedicated to things that could be placed elsewhere, and could help make a 5.5" phone seem smaller than it actually is by removing the bezels where they aren't needed, just like Motorola has recently done with the Moto X Style.

Next up is a little thing but I feel like it's going to annoy me more and more as the months go on, no NFC or Qi, now Qi I can kind of understand why it isn’t in there, the excess heat could degrade the battery faster and OP doesn’t want the RMA of a phone someone left of a Qi pad too long and their battery starts to swell, whatever, but NFC is something else entirely, it's a menial addition in cost, and was actually in their previous phone, and OP stated that they removed it because not a lot of people where using it, great, but what was there really to use it with before? now we have Android Pay coming (which benefits from their fingerprint scanner as well) more and more BT peripherals are coming with NFC tags in them to start the BT handshake so  you just tap your phone to your Android Wear watch and it pairs, or your Bluetooth earbuds, in this last year more things are coming with NFC support, and mobile payments are becoming a thing, whether people like them or not, and again, *Their last phone had it* Goddamnit OnePlus.

Lastly for me is just the bland design, I’m not a fan of the front for reasons stated above, and the back

what even is this?

just looks like a shit show to me, that camera module looks to be far too far down the back of the phone, add to that the LED Flash and Laser autofocus modules are in opposing orientations, making it look weird as well, so once more, Goddamnit OnePlus. Are the style swap covers cool? Yes they are, especially the wooden ones.

There is one Feature of the phone I am a fan of (I’m trying to

The singular cool feature.

keep at least a little positive here), it's the [profile switcher, on the left side of the phone there is a switch that has 3 positions, and in software that equates to Android Lollipop's sound profiles, "all notifications" "priority notifications" and "no notifications" . do I wish it was changed? ever so slight, I wish the "priority" mode was actually just a "vibrate" system wide, but its the singular feature of the OP2 I like.

The price is commendable, £239 for the 16gb model, that’s pretty great, though I can’t find a UK price for the 64GB model, but I’m guessing its about £279 or so. so at that price would I buy the Moto X Play or the OnePlus 2?

The X Play of course, because it doesn’t look like crap and compromise in the places that matter to me. OnePlus keep calling the OnePlus 2 a "2016 Flagship Killer" but it doesn’t have some things that matter in 2015, not just in flagships either, it has no quick charging, and no NFC, or Wireless charging. and whilst I couldn't give less of a crap about them, there will be people that moan about the fact it doesn’t have a removable battery of a MicroSD slot. In 2016 flagships we'll most likely see USB-C, but USB-C done right, in 2016 we might even see flagships use that Qualcomm fingerprint tech that is embedded in the digitizer, so we don’t even need to waste space on the front *or* the back.

If this is a 2016 flagship killer, 2016 is going to be a year of boring flagships

*Photo Credit goes to GSMArena from their hands on of the OnePlus 2 at http://www.gsmarena.com/one_plus_2_hands_on-review-1277.php *