OnePlus One - The countdown begins. So does the excitement!!

While we patiently await the announcement of the One on April 23rd, OnePlus continues to fan the flames via visuals posted on their forums. A set number of camera samples along with a range of swappable back covers have come out of the shadows. The first rendered image of the device is revealed below.

Swappable Back Covers
Even though the One comes with a non-removable 3100mAh battery, OnePlus had given the user a choice to choose from a range of swappable back covers. The picture below shows the various types of back covers that will be made available once the phone is launched.

Camera Samples
The photographs were taken by Martin Mal who won the OnePlus PhotoMania Competition held in the beginning of April. From a price point of view the level of detail the phone is capable of capturing is nothing less than stunning. The One comes with a 6-piece 13 MP f/2.0 Sony Exmor IMX214 camera.

 

 

 

CyanogenMod 11s for the One
With the intention to offer the best experience possible, OnePlus and CyanogenMod have jointly developed a special version called CM 11S, based on Android 4.4.x KitKat. At first glance the OS might feel the same as CyanogenMod 11, however, the 11S will stand out with its unique ability to help users customize: the launcher, icons, Lock screen, the wallpaper, fonts, ringtones, boot animation, themes of interface, sound effects and more. (Pics below)

 
 

The full officially released phone specification is as follows:

• 5.5" JDI 1080p display
• Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AC - Quad-core at 2.5GHz)
• 3100+mAh battery (non-removable)
• Sony Exmor IMX214 6-Lens 13MP camera
• 5MP Front-Facing camera
• 3GB of RAM
• 16GB & 64GB Variants
• Stereo Speakers
• StyleSwap Covers - Multiple materials/textures
• Single-SIM card
• Global LTE
• GSM Only
• Something better than pre-orders
• No front branding
• 2 year CyanogenMod support

The One is said to launch in 16 countries after its official launch on April 23rd.

OnePlus One spec sheet gets an update

Founded in December 2013 by Peter Lau (Ex VP of OPPO), OnePlus has created quite a stir in the smartphone segment. The phone goes by the name One and it is the companies first official phone that is scheduled for its debut launch on April 23^rd. The reason for all the excitement is mainly because the company claims the One to be the first affordable Smartphone with all the bells and whistles (read: High End).

As far as the phone specifications are concerned, the One packs a punch as it sports not only a heavier Snapdragon 801 but comes with a whopping 3 GB of RAM; currently found on the Xepria Z2 and Find 7. The company had initially planned on settling with a Snapdragon 800 and 2 GB of RAM. We are more than happy that OnePlus has settled for a snappier processor.

The 801 is non-other than the MSM8974AC, which basically runs on a higher CPU clock speed of 2.5 GHz and an enhanced Adreno 330 GPU which is clocked at 578 MHz per core.

The full officially released phone specification is as follows:

• 5.5" JDI 1080p display
• Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AC - Quad-core at 2.5GHz)
• 3100+mAh battery (non-removable)
• Sony Exmor IMX214 6-Lens 13MP camera
• 5MP Front-Facing camera
• 3GB of RAM
• 16GB & 64GB Variants
• Stereo Speakers
• StyleSwap Covers - Multiple materials/textures
• Single-SIM card
• Global LTE
• GSM Only
• Something better than pre-orders
• No front branding
• 2 year CyanogenMod support

OnePlus releases an unboxing teaser for its One

With the launch date of the One nearing, it becomes inevitable for just about any company to build a hype over their flagship phones. However, the One is more than just a flagship, it is OnePlus's first smartphone due for launch on April 23rd.

Unlike other leaks which basically involve random users, the OnePlus One's unboxing was, however, carried out by Steve Kondik, founder of CyanogenMod. Unfortunately the video doesn't show the highly anticipated smartphone. Sigh!!

With that being said, creating certain amount of hype is good to a certain extent. But companies need to know, the more you promote and publicize a product, higher will be the expectation of the public. And if you fail to meet those expectations, well, you are risking falling flat on your face. And for a new product such as the One, it definitely isn't an option. Especially when the company is claiming it to be an affordable (under $400) high-end smartphone.

As for me, I have my fingers crossed till April 23rd and I hope OnePlus will be able to deliver the right PUNCH in the smartphone segment.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and 808 set for launch in 2015

If you thought 2014 was the year for upgrades, think again!! Come 2015, Qualcomm will be launching their Snapdragon 810 and 808, both tuned to make their way on flagship Android devices. Both processors come with 64-bit support. However they won’t be the first since the Snapdragon 610 and 615 will be the first to support 64-bit OSs; scheduled for launch sometime end 2014.

The company claims that both the 810 and 808 will be more power efficient and smaller in size. Powering up the 810 is an 8-core CPU which sports a more powerful Cortex-A57 core x4 and a low power Cortex-A53 core x4. The Snapdragon 810 will come with support for 4K video, low power LPDDR4 RAM, voice activation, a 2-stream 802.11ac transceiver for significantly faster Wi-Fi speeds and a dual Image Signal Processor for enhanced imaging. The GPU is said to be the Adreno 430 which is said to be at least 30 percent faster than the 420 (which we are expecting on the Snapdragon 805, slated to launch sometime this year).
On the other hand, the 808 will come with two A57s and four A53s, making up for a total of six CPU cores. The 808 won’t be as powerful as the 810 but will come with 2K video support, an LPDDR3 RAM and an Adreno 418 GPU, which the company claims to be 20 percent faster than the Adreno 330 (Nexus 5, Amazon Kindle HDX series tablets, Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet, Sony Xperia Z1, Sony Xperia Z2, Sony Xperia Z Ultra, and LG G2 smartphones).
On paper the Snapdragon 810 and 808 are the fastest and the most aggressive mobile chip but only time will tell if Qualcomm will be able to hold its number 1 spot in the mobile chip market.

The No 1 Android security app is a fake

Fraudulent apps have always been a concern across all mobile and tablet platforms. Such apps are best at making false promises over the notion that they are built to protect you, the user, from malware. Another worrying nature of such apps is their ability to sell your personal information.The Android Play Store has always been a target for scammers since they don't have to go through any security checks in comparison to Apple's App Store.However, no one ever thought that a top rated Antivirus App could be used to fool the general public. It so happens that Virus Shield, the No. 1 app on the Play Store, was a complete and utter scam which was priced at $3.99. The people at Androd Police managed to find out that the code the Fake Antivirus was built on wasn't actually doing anything. Plus, the deveoper had been banned from other websites on a number of occasions for trying to deceive users.The fake app has been taken down as of now. However, if you have installed the Fake Security App, it is highly advised to have it removed.

Free goodies with the Oppo Find 7a

Oppo seems to be feeling pretty generous with the launch of their Find 7a. For every pre-order the company will give away a free Easy Cover (Navy Blue), an extra 2,800 mAh battery and a free 32GB microSD card. The company will ship the first batch of phones sometime towards the end of this month.The Find 7a comes with 5.5" full HD display, a Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 chip with a quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400 CPU and 2GB of RAM. The rear of the phone features a 13MP camera with daul LED flash capable of recording video at 2160p.