OnePlus X Hands-on & First Impressions – Should you buy the X?

Oneplus the Smartest Smartphone brand of this decade, had announced about a mini version of their OnePlus 2 few months back, that’s launched today all over the world. The brand had teased a few leaks with the X-Symbol, that many expected to be the OnePlus Mini while they actually launched a Smartphone dubbed as the X. The initial launch of the device is in few countries while that would be made available to many other countries in the later stage. You can read the Price & Release dates story for all the information on the same.

Weeks before the Launch we did expect some #HYPE around the new launch but as tweeted earlier, we were surprised that the new Launch was silently done. Guess the #OVERHYPE could hit the brand image because the brand is already having difficulties in delivering devices to the current demand for the OnePlus 2. Again surprisingly there were no Taglines also attached to this device like we had seen the “Flagship Killer of 2016” on the earlier event. This phone was launched simultaneously in 6 different cities with the pricing announcement that are pretty close to each other even though there are factors like shipping & customs that make a huge pricing gap.

#OnePlusX to Launch today, but there's no Buzz around it compared to #OnePlus2 Feels like a Soft Launch @oneplus https://t.co/PZQVcSp6A4

— Amit Bhawani (@amitbhawani) October 29, 2015

Talking about the Smartphone, it comes in two different variants i.e.. the Onyx & the Ceramic. Both of these device variants are completely the same, except the fact that they feature a different back panel while everything else internally is the exactly the same. Again there is a huge price difference on both of the models because according to OnePlus, out of every 100 Ceramic cases, only 20 are usable that also hints that’s they could be fragile.

The First generation model from the brand came with a unique sandstone back panel that gave a very different look & feel, while the second generation device also came with the same. Now the X features a complete Glass Back panel that’s heavily polished giving it a look like a mirror. The Ceramic model is completely special since it’s crafted in zirconia, fire baked at 2700 degrees for 28 hours, cooled & then again put into fire making it very strong. The total process takes 25 days of time which is the reason OnePlus is planning to sell only 10000 units of the ceramic model at the moment.

Photo Gallery:

Our First Impressions Video:

Talking about the display, both the variants feature a 1080p AMOLED display on the 5″ panel protected with Gorilla Glass 3. The phone features an ambient display that offers you with quick notifications which has been a feature we had initially seen on the Motorola Moto X phone. It also features the “Alert Slider” a three option setup initially seen on the OnePlus 2, giving you a quick control on the sound notifications.

Talking about the Camera, the device comes with a 13 MP Isocell sensor on the back, while a 8 MP camera on the front for selfies. Following are few of the Camera Samples, shared by the brand itself on their official website.

Overall when you compare the OnePlus X with the Xiaomi Mi4, that features the same Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, you may not find the newly launched device a value for money. Again that verdict does not change when you compare the device with their own earlier launched models. This is said because the device is priced at Rs 16,999 and not below 15k or around 10k that could make it a budget-centric Smartphone. Along with this, the fact also remains that the brand that pushed the USB Type-C connectivity a lot in the last few month’s, has now switched back to the Micro USB option. Carl Pei, the Founder of the brand had also hosted an AMA on Reddit, where asked him about the decision of skipping the Type-C & Fingerprint scanner & followed is his answer on the same.

The device would be again available under the Invite System which is a practice the brand has been following from their debut & looks like this could again make the consumers wait. That said, overall this is the newest device from the brand, that comes with Stock like UI, 5″ Display that’s comfortable to hold, decent hardware for the price paid but what we hate most at the moment is the fact that there’s no fingerprint scanner in it.

Note: With Inputs from Shimon Das.