Got my OnePlus 2 today. It's the US version purchased with an invite. I installed the OTA update right away and then performed a factory reset before I started setting everything up.
I'm very impressed so far. I wasn't a fan of the OnePlus One because the software was very buggy and the screen had a yellow tint across the bottom.
Fortunately, I have only encountered a few issues so far, which is about 20 issues less than I had with the OnePlus One. One is that the ProShot camera app won't launch on this phone, but that could be caused by a bug in the app.
The second issue, which might be my biggest issue with the phone so far, is that the hardware home button is very finicky. It was missing so many of my taps that I had to switch to on-screen navigation buttons. Some people have suggested pressing it like a physical button instead of just using a light tap, but even that didn't always work for me. This could be a grounding issue that isn't fixable with a software update as the home button seems to work better if you aren't touching the metal side or your hands are damp, but it's hard to say. I have seen quite a few others reporting the same thing.
The final issue is that the speaker just isn't very loud or full sounding. Definitely worse than the Galaxy S6 and G4, and far worse than the One M8 and Nexus 6. It's about on the level of the Nexus 5.
So those are my negatives, but there's definitely a lot more things to like about this phone than to dislike.
The build quality is great. Very premium feeling.
The side bezels are small and the back is rounded and grippy (if you use the sandstone back anyways) so the phone doesn't feel very big and is easy to hold despite having a 5.5 inch screen.
Speaking of the screen, it's phenomenal. I haven't been able to test sunlight visibility yet, but the contrast is good, the color temperature is somewhat cool, yet not too cool, and the color calibration is near perfect. I haven't seen colors this accurate on an Android phone before. Comparing side by side with an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the colors look identical, which is good as Apple displays are known for their color accuracy.
I've had no issues with heat. In fact, I haven't even felt the phone get warm, even when it was installing all of my apps.
The phone is very fast too. It boots and installs apps MUCH faster than my Nexus 6, and everything runs smoothly. Definitely smoother than the Galaxy S6 and G4, and about the same as the Nexus 5 and 6.
Oxygen OS doesn't have as many customization options and features as Cyanogen OS, but the features it does have feel more polished. I love the dark theme. I selected orange for the accent color and love the look. I think going away from Cyanogen and hiring members of the Paranoid Android team were both good moves.
I haven't don't much testing of the camera, but a couple indoor shots I took looked good, better than my Nexus 6 and probably better than my Galaxy S6. The only issue was that there was a small delay between pressing the shutter button and the photo being taken, but that will probably be improved with a software update. The good news is that the camera2 API is implemented. In the Manual Camera app, I could adjust ISO (up to 800), shutter speed (up to 1/2 sec), focus, and color temperature (precise K adjustments), but there is no RAW support.
Update 1 (August 27):
I took a few outdoor photos before work this morning. My initial impression is that the camera is pretty good, but definitely a step below the best smartphone cameras like the Galaxy S6. It's probably about on the level of the Nexus 6. Colors and white balance look pretty accurate in auto mode, dynamic range is good, and sharpness is very good at the center of the photo. However, sharpness trails off rapidly near the edges of photos, more so than other smartphones I've used recently, and HDR does a good job of brightening shadows, but it can make colors look oversaturated and fake, especially green plants.
I should probably mention that Wi-Fi, LTE, and Bluetooth all seem to be working as expected so far.
Finally, there is one feature I want to mention because it annoys me. When you swipe down on the top right side of the screen, the phone pulls down the quick toggles, skipping past the notifications. Swiping down on the top left side of the screen pulls down your notifications as normal. The problem is, when using the phone one handed, I am always pulling down the quick toggles when I'm just trying to see my notifications because my thumb can't really reach across to the top left of the screen easily. I really hope they add a toggle to turn this feature off.
Update 2 (August 27):
It's almost noon here and I just got my first chance to view the phone in bright sunlight. There isn't a cloud in the sky and the sun is almost directly overhead. I'm thrilled to report that the screen gets extremely bright and is easily readable in direct sunlight. I had the screen set to 100% brightness with adaptive brightness enabled. It was far easier to read in direct sunlight than my Nexus 6, my LG G4, and seemed about as bright as the Galaxy S6 in it's sunlight boost mode. Several reviews I read, including Android Central's, docked the screen for not being very bright or easily visible in sunlight. I'm wondering, did they not remove the screen protector that came on the phone (as I did), and did that cause some unruly reflections? Or did those reviewers get pre-final or defective hardware? I don't know, but my experience is completely different than what Android Central reported.
Update 3 (August 31):
After using the phone for a few more days, I've discovered a few more issues with apps that I use regularly. There's a chance that these issues are caused by bugs in the apps themselves, but I didn't experience any of these issues on my Nexus 6 so I think they're actually caused by some bugs in Oxygen OS. In Google Messenger, incoming messages are occasionally placed in a new thread instead of in an existing thread. Also in Google Messenger, threads occasionally come back after deleting them. In Pocket Casts, resuming a podcast after it's been paused for an extended period of time often results in the app losing it's place and restarting the podcast from the beginning. Finally, Google Maps Navigation simply won't rotate to a different orientation than it was launched in unless I leave the app, rotate the phone, and then return to the app.
Also, I can speak about battery life now. To put it simply, it's good, but not amazing. It easily beats the Galaxy S6, and is a little better than the Nexus 6 and G4, but it's still possible to kill it in a single day if you do a lot with it. I'm getting around 4 hours of screen on time in a 16 hour day with about 20% left to spare with everything syncing and a Moto 360 connected, but I'm on Wi-Fi most of the day.
Lastly, I had a chance to compare my OnePlus 2 to another OnePlus 2 and found a couple disappointing discoveries. First, the screen on the other OnePlus 2 had a noticeably warmer tint, and the color temperature was a little uneven too with the bottom of the screen being slightly warmer than the top. It was nowhere near as bad as the yellow tint across the bottom of my OnePlus One, but it's worth noting that there seems to be some variance between screens. Second, earlier in the review I mentioned that sharpness trails off rapidly near the edges of photos, meaning there is some blurring on the sides and corners of my photos. I'll attach a photo below so you can see what I'm talking about. Well, the second OnePlus 2 took photos that were sharp across nearly the entire frame, so apparently the blurring at the edges of my photos is just a defect with my OnePlus 2. Well, less like a defect and more like a high variance in quality. So one OnePlus 2 has a less than perfect screen with uneven color temperature, and the other has a less than perfect camera that blurs photos at the edges. I'm guessing the low cost of this phone means there is less quality control and more variance in quality between different units. That's unfortunate. If you get a perfect OnePlus 2, I think it's probably one of the best phones you can buy, but I wonder how hard it is to get a perfect OnePlus 2. Out of the two I've seen, each one had an issue with the hardware.
Photo showing blurring in the bottom right corner of the image:
I'm very impressed so far. I wasn't a fan of the OnePlus One because the software was very buggy and the screen had a yellow tint across the bottom.
Fortunately, I have only encountered a few issues so far, which is about 20 issues less than I had with the OnePlus One. One is that the ProShot camera app won't launch on this phone, but that could be caused by a bug in the app.
The second issue, which might be my biggest issue with the phone so far, is that the hardware home button is very finicky. It was missing so many of my taps that I had to switch to on-screen navigation buttons. Some people have suggested pressing it like a physical button instead of just using a light tap, but even that didn't always work for me. This could be a grounding issue that isn't fixable with a software update as the home button seems to work better if you aren't touching the metal side or your hands are damp, but it's hard to say. I have seen quite a few others reporting the same thing.
The final issue is that the speaker just isn't very loud or full sounding. Definitely worse than the Galaxy S6 and G4, and far worse than the One M8 and Nexus 6. It's about on the level of the Nexus 5.
So those are my negatives, but there's definitely a lot more things to like about this phone than to dislike.
The build quality is great. Very premium feeling.
The side bezels are small and the back is rounded and grippy (if you use the sandstone back anyways) so the phone doesn't feel very big and is easy to hold despite having a 5.5 inch screen.
Speaking of the screen, it's phenomenal. I haven't been able to test sunlight visibility yet, but the contrast is good, the color temperature is somewhat cool, yet not too cool, and the color calibration is near perfect. I haven't seen colors this accurate on an Android phone before. Comparing side by side with an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the colors look identical, which is good as Apple displays are known for their color accuracy.
I've had no issues with heat. In fact, I haven't even felt the phone get warm, even when it was installing all of my apps.
The phone is very fast too. It boots and installs apps MUCH faster than my Nexus 6, and everything runs smoothly. Definitely smoother than the Galaxy S6 and G4, and about the same as the Nexus 5 and 6.
Oxygen OS doesn't have as many customization options and features as Cyanogen OS, but the features it does have feel more polished. I love the dark theme. I selected orange for the accent color and love the look. I think going away from Cyanogen and hiring members of the Paranoid Android team were both good moves.
I haven't don't much testing of the camera, but a couple indoor shots I took looked good, better than my Nexus 6 and probably better than my Galaxy S6. The only issue was that there was a small delay between pressing the shutter button and the photo being taken, but that will probably be improved with a software update. The good news is that the camera2 API is implemented. In the Manual Camera app, I could adjust ISO (up to 800), shutter speed (up to 1/2 sec), focus, and color temperature (precise K adjustments), but there is no RAW support.
Update 1 (August 27):
I took a few outdoor photos before work this morning. My initial impression is that the camera is pretty good, but definitely a step below the best smartphone cameras like the Galaxy S6. It's probably about on the level of the Nexus 6. Colors and white balance look pretty accurate in auto mode, dynamic range is good, and sharpness is very good at the center of the photo. However, sharpness trails off rapidly near the edges of photos, more so than other smartphones I've used recently, and HDR does a good job of brightening shadows, but it can make colors look oversaturated and fake, especially green plants.
I should probably mention that Wi-Fi, LTE, and Bluetooth all seem to be working as expected so far.
Finally, there is one feature I want to mention because it annoys me. When you swipe down on the top right side of the screen, the phone pulls down the quick toggles, skipping past the notifications. Swiping down on the top left side of the screen pulls down your notifications as normal. The problem is, when using the phone one handed, I am always pulling down the quick toggles when I'm just trying to see my notifications because my thumb can't really reach across to the top left of the screen easily. I really hope they add a toggle to turn this feature off.
Update 2 (August 27):
It's almost noon here and I just got my first chance to view the phone in bright sunlight. There isn't a cloud in the sky and the sun is almost directly overhead. I'm thrilled to report that the screen gets extremely bright and is easily readable in direct sunlight. I had the screen set to 100% brightness with adaptive brightness enabled. It was far easier to read in direct sunlight than my Nexus 6, my LG G4, and seemed about as bright as the Galaxy S6 in it's sunlight boost mode. Several reviews I read, including Android Central's, docked the screen for not being very bright or easily visible in sunlight. I'm wondering, did they not remove the screen protector that came on the phone (as I did), and did that cause some unruly reflections? Or did those reviewers get pre-final or defective hardware? I don't know, but my experience is completely different than what Android Central reported.
Update 3 (August 31):
After using the phone for a few more days, I've discovered a few more issues with apps that I use regularly. There's a chance that these issues are caused by bugs in the apps themselves, but I didn't experience any of these issues on my Nexus 6 so I think they're actually caused by some bugs in Oxygen OS. In Google Messenger, incoming messages are occasionally placed in a new thread instead of in an existing thread. Also in Google Messenger, threads occasionally come back after deleting them. In Pocket Casts, resuming a podcast after it's been paused for an extended period of time often results in the app losing it's place and restarting the podcast from the beginning. Finally, Google Maps Navigation simply won't rotate to a different orientation than it was launched in unless I leave the app, rotate the phone, and then return to the app.
Also, I can speak about battery life now. To put it simply, it's good, but not amazing. It easily beats the Galaxy S6, and is a little better than the Nexus 6 and G4, but it's still possible to kill it in a single day if you do a lot with it. I'm getting around 4 hours of screen on time in a 16 hour day with about 20% left to spare with everything syncing and a Moto 360 connected, but I'm on Wi-Fi most of the day.
Lastly, I had a chance to compare my OnePlus 2 to another OnePlus 2 and found a couple disappointing discoveries. First, the screen on the other OnePlus 2 had a noticeably warmer tint, and the color temperature was a little uneven too with the bottom of the screen being slightly warmer than the top. It was nowhere near as bad as the yellow tint across the bottom of my OnePlus One, but it's worth noting that there seems to be some variance between screens. Second, earlier in the review I mentioned that sharpness trails off rapidly near the edges of photos, meaning there is some blurring on the sides and corners of my photos. I'll attach a photo below so you can see what I'm talking about. Well, the second OnePlus 2 took photos that were sharp across nearly the entire frame, so apparently the blurring at the edges of my photos is just a defect with my OnePlus 2. Well, less like a defect and more like a high variance in quality. So one OnePlus 2 has a less than perfect screen with uneven color temperature, and the other has a less than perfect camera that blurs photos at the edges. I'm guessing the low cost of this phone means there is less quality control and more variance in quality between different units. That's unfortunate. If you get a perfect OnePlus 2, I think it's probably one of the best phones you can buy, but I wonder how hard it is to get a perfect OnePlus 2. Out of the two I've seen, each one had an issue with the hardware.
Photo showing blurring in the bottom right corner of the image:
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. Pretty crazy for devices that were ordered and shipped on different days.
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