back to article OnePlus One cut-price Android phone on sale to all... for 1 HOUR

Word-of-mouth sensation the OnePlus One smartphone finally goes on general sale to the public next week – six months after the phone was launched, and after a number of not-always successful promotional gimmicks. But only in 16 territories. And you only have an hour on Monday to check out. OnePlus One Android smartphone Like …

  1. Semtex451
    WTF?

    Confused

    Why the games?

    A high-end phone sold at cost is always going to sell in large quantities, its counter-productive to limit these sales, they enable the economies of scale.

    1. Frankee Llonnygog

      Re: Confused

      Good point. Can you please clarify how many times you have to reinvest the £0 profit before you can afford the economies of scale?

    2. dotdavid

      Re: Confused

      OnePlus One refers to the total number of handsets they aimed to produce.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      At cost?

      iphone 6 costs £150 in componants costs, with labour and marketing £200, the rest being profit.

      So this new one is more expensive at cost?

      Maybe there is still a little profit to be had.

      1. Bronek Kozicki

        Re: At cost?

        Add labour cost - you have to pay for assembly. And manager wages. And director's salary. And pension contributions. And there is still this marketing guy who needs his salary.

    4. jobst

      Re: Confused -> to make a brand?

      Maybe they are trying to steer up some hype - aka Apple - so they are making up a brand through hype?

    5. Gordan

      Re: Confused

      It's a marketing hype scam. It's not 2x better than the Moto-G; Moto-G is a pretty high end device at a budget price, and it is not being sold at cost. Unless this thing is made of solid gold there is no justification for it's price tag.

  2. Bloodbeastterror

    Too late

    Frankly I'm so fed up with their messing around that I've lost interest in this phone. It may be great, but so are lots of others, and even at this price I can't be bothered with this company any more.

    1. Dr Dan Holdsworth

      Re: Too late

      Yes, I agree. Then there's the fact that the Nexus 6 is coming out, and though it costs a lot more, you do get a much better product for the money. Waterproofing, for a start, and then there's the fact that Google will not permit anything to sully their good name.

      OnePlus One, on the other hand, have kept on with the invite nonsense entirely too long. A little chase to try get an invite, yes, OK. Pratting me about for weeks with seemingly no chance of getting a phone; sod the lot of 'em!

      Then there's the fact that they are using the known-vulnerable CyanogenMod image on the phone. We know there is one vulnerability on there, oh and this is a Chinese-made phone with a Chinese-modified OS on it as well. Feeling scared yet? The thing almost certainly has some sort of spyware on it, even if this is not activated by default or even at all. To add to the risk, the units are too cheap.

  3. chriswakey

    Does it receive the full 4G spectrum yet?

    If not, I'll pass...shame really, as I'd like one, but it won't have 4G on 3.

    1. Tom Richardson

      Re: Does it receive the full 4G spectrum yet?

      Actually it does work on Three currently, as they own a couple of LTE bands, and the one the OnePlus One doesn't support, is the one they dont' currently use for anything. Admittedly though that may change in future.

    2. Sir Gaz of Laz

      Re: Does it receive the full 4G spectrum yet?

      I have said OnePlus One (64GB, Sandstone Black, lovely bit of kit) and can confirm it does support 4G on 3 in the UK - it switches between H+ at home and work and 4G when I'm in Glasgow.

  4. NightFox

    Here's predicting the site gets overloaded and crashes within the first 10 seconds of the 1 hour slot and comes back up about 60 minutes later

  5. psychonaut

    how fucking stupid is this

    id quite like to buy this phone.

    id like to buy it now.

    i dont want to piss about.

    if they are going to mess people about who are just trying to buy the phone, imagine what the scenario would be if it goes wrong under warranty?

    1. dotdavid

      Re: how fucking stupid is this

      Actually there are quite a few horror stories about the warranty process.

    2. Captain Boing

      Re: how fucking stupid is this

      This is the problem. They are pissing about so much that people are gonna get bored of their gimmicks and instead of being quirky and humorous they begin alienating potential customers.

  6. Alistair
    Windows

    [Are we at Peak Stupid yet? - Ed]

    Sadly, no matter how bad it looks now, it WILL get worse.

    (grumpy old fart)

    1. tony2heads
      Unhappy

      to quote Einstein

      'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.'

    2. Trigonoceps occipitalis

      Isn't stupidity like entropy?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Isn't stupidity like entropy

        Law 0: Stupidity cannot be destroyed, only deflected.

        Law 1: Stupidity expands to fill the space available.

        Law 2: Stupidity flows from the more stupid to the less stupid.*

        Law 3: Too many laws for the stupid to count.

        *Because there is more of it, and it is armed with more clubs.

        1. king of foo

          run forest, run

          Law 5: stupid is as stupid does

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    people are suckers

    they can be fed the same marketing tricks, and they will line up for more, again, and again.

  8. Gareth79

    I managed to pick up one of these in the "20,000 invite warm-up" thing after randomly spotting it on Twitter, and it is a nice bit of kit really, nicely made for the money, and Cyanogen is an excellent version of Android of course.

    One *major* problem - they shipped it with a Shucko-type charger and one of the nasty-cheap UK adapters that you (or a child) can do all sorts of dangerous things with:

    http://i.imgur.com/KFifbfs.jpg

    1. Captain Boing

      Holy crap! Your voltage is way down!

  9. goldcd

    They're not doing this so you can get a phone

    They're doing this to build a brand.

    They've made, what by all accounts is a lovely phone.

    They've priced it so wonderfully cheap, it has no competition near this price.

    They're now wanting you to talk about it. We are. Again.

    1. Frankee Llonnygog

      Re: They're not doing this so you can get a phone

      Well, it's good news for Google at any rate

      1. Darren Coleman

        Re: They're not doing this so you can get a phone

        For Android market penetration, perhaps.

        I've had two invites for this phone, the first I passed on because I was waiting for the Nexus 6 announcement, and the other I received passively. It's really not that difficult to get an invite, you just have to do a little bit of legwork. There are numerous forums with community spirited "you get an invite, you give your invites to the next on the list" schemes going.

        It's an exceptional phone, and whether or not it's being sold at cost, and what "cost" even means, is moot really. The nearest competitors are double the price. I think Google in particular have shot themselves in the foot making the Nexus 6 so large (my thumb is stretched just using this OPO 5.5" screen) and so expensive. Carriers 1 Consumers 0.

        If you can, get one. I've had no issues whatsoever. The build quality is excellent, even the packaging was nothing like I expected it to be. Phones like this are a reminder of how much profit is usually being made on them.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cost is below $100

    Yes, quad core chipsets are below $4, similar with 4G around $14.

    There is low cost in all China made smartphones.

  11. Rob Thorley

    Invites?

    There was a glut of invites on the forum towards the end of last week - if anyone still wants one, I'd suggest getting over there.

  12. SimonSplat

    A great phone but...

    I have the pleasure (and that's not sarcastically) of owning one of these phones after being gifted an invite - screw buying an invite on eBay! I don't like the fact that it will not work on 4G with O2 but seeming that with 3G I am getting ~7Mbps down ~1.5Mbps up this is fine for my day to day use. I rarely tether and when I do only need web and emails otherwise this would irritate me.

    The charger really could have done with more thought as Gareth79 highlighted - it's shocking (pun?). The other thing is that due to the battery capacity to have it charge at a decent rate the charging cable is of a high quality but short. You try and use most other MicroUSB cables and it takes an age to charge, all to do with the gauge of the USB cable (https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/oneplus-one-charging-cable-alternative.68517/). So am trying, in vain so far, to find a decent cable so I can have one at work, home, car etc...

    A great phone, version 2 will be better. Here's hoping that they sort out the issues (4G too) and do a better job of releasing the phone to the general public!

    Good luck!

  13. Lallabalalla

    Nothing on earth would induce me to buy from this company

    They are utter, utter Hoxtons. I thought Apple were bad enough.

  14. imanidiot Silver badge

    "Sold at cost"

    Yeah right. So how is it they are running so much marketing, servers, shipping, (probably) a complains/service department, etc, etc. They are probably making a tidy profit on this thing. With some clever bookkeeping (even legally) the outside world does not need to know this.

    1. MR J

      Re: "Sold at cost"

      Cost per unit = Total Cost / Units

      Total Cost = Staff, Development, Insurance, Licencing, Packaging, Public Relations, Loans (Including Fees and Interest), Component cost, Assembly Cost, Shipping Cost, and no doubt there are a lot of other things I have not included.

      This is how "At Cost" Generally works. For example, In Europe if your child smashes something in a store and your asked to pay for it, you pay the "Cost" value, not the stores "Price" for it. So if they got said item for €86 and charge €385 for it, you pay €86.. Even if said item cost £2 in china.

      Charities tend to run off of the same system, they make no "Profit", but they can have a lot of hidden "Cost".

      If they say they are selling at cost then what you likely have here is a "company" that will make 0 (+/- some random value), but some staff and directors who will possibly pocket a huge wad of cash.

      Now, here is the upside.

      Say they put the phone out, and 30,000 of us get one for that price ($349, that's about 46% of what apples first Iphone cost with inflation, or about 46% of a 64 gig iphone 6).... There will be court battles, followed by some random "luck" where the US finds spyware on there that China has inserted, and soon we'll not be able to buy them at all. The company will close doors and everyone will walk away happy.

      Us (having the phones)

      Them (Having paid themselves good money probably!)

      Apple (Competition is bad)

      Us Politicians (We stopped them there China folk from stealing our American Jobs)..

  15. Arachnoid

    Anybody say "FIRE SALE"

    Sounds like dodgy goods under dodgy marketting to me ,go look around Blackpool if you want that senerio.

  16. Emo

    Awesome phone, even if I had to wait a week to get an invite :)

  17. pabc

    i got mine from the far east

    http://en.comebuy.com/searchindex/result/index/?q=oneplus

    delivery was longer than expected - should have been 10 day DHL, but they took 2 days to process the order and ship - and then it took 15 days to appear - so almost 3 weeks.

    Still, absolutely worth it. 30 hours battery life and stunning piece of kit.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder...

    if I've made a mistake in buying one.

    I just got so sickened at the thought of paying wads for a new phone, that when I read the great reviews for this from some very well known and respected sites and publications, it seemed like a no-brainer.

    Yes, some folk had issues, but then, some folk always have issues.

    I'm expecting it tomorrow. I may just keep it sealed and Ebay it off for £10 more than I paid.

  19. PunkTiger

    I dunno. Priced at over $430, I can't really call it an "inexpensive" phone.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Created by the same marketing droids that think "affordable" doesn't mean "still overpriced" to the rest of us peons

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      $370 US including shipping, that is cheap. Sure you can get a "free" phone from your carrier, but it really isn't free. That free phone, see how many updates are released for it in a year and then compare that to year two.

      Android L will come to the OnePlus, can you say that about a phone you bought 6 months ago?

      1. PunkTiger

        Meh. I'm still using a 10-year-old Motorola V600 that suits my needs just fine, thank you. Will you be using your current smartphone in 10 years? Will your phone even last 10 years?

        1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

          My phone is less than a year old, but it cost me less than $100 - unsubsidized. (I'm on an MVNO PAYG subscription. I've had contracts with Sprint and AT&T in the past, and I don't see any reason why I'd ever want another.)

          No, it's not a "top of the line" phone. And I can't see any reason why I'd need one. The model I have does calls and SMS just fine. It keeps my contact list. It has GPS and the navigation software is adequate. Those are the only things I really need my phone to do. As a bonus, it also does pretty well at things like keeping a calendar, keeping little to-do notes and shopping lists, playing music (on the rare occasions I want that), and displaying e-books (handy if I'm stuck waiting somewhere with nothing better to do).

          I'm sure some people need a pocket equivalent of an '80s supercomputer for, um, some reason. I don't. I could certainly afford to spend $400 every year on a new shiny, but I'm much happier sticking with my perfectly-adequate phone and putting that money toward something else.

          (My phone's battery is also good for 2-3 days of regular use. And it has a physical qwerty keyboard, which this "steal", like most whizzbang phones, seems to lack.)

  20. ecofeco Silver badge

    Peak Stupid?

    "Some gleefully destroyed their current, only to find they hadn't won the replacement.

    Oh we went WAY past peak stupid a long, long time ago. It was sometime around the Thatcher/Reagan era, I believe.

  21. BonezOz
    Unhappy

    Not available in Oz!!!

    Just went in to pre-order, as I wouldn't mind this phone as a spare and the reviews have all been good. BUT, it's not available here in Australia. What a shame :(

  22. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
    Headmaster

    What I really want...

    ...is for people to say invitation when they mean invitation.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anyone managed to get on to complete pre-order yet? Keeps timing out for me.

    [edit]

    Now 15:30 and 'Webserver is down' - aargh

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