<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 04/20/2015 05:24 PM, Evan Leibovitch
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMguqh2sL2hH7cy0hXzT8ud5DF=k4bLbT7-Nvo0kk4rhY9ZwJA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet
ms,sans-serif">
<div>I've been intensely phone shopping for a little while,
and have been as unimpressed with the company as I have been
impressed with the phone. Despite a really good piece of
launch hardware, there are some substantial flaws in the
phone but even more -- and far worse -- with the company.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>GTALUGgers (and others) trying to buy the phone in 2015
may have noticed that OnePlus, without warning or
explanation, stopped shipping to Canada, and only started
again last week. The company was not at all forthcoming in
any rationale and offered nothing but cheery weeks-long
promises of Real Soon Now.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>After researching on the forums, it appears to me that
the company had lied about the phone's value (declaring them
at $99) which eventually got shipments red-flagged by Canada
customs.</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
I paid HST on the full price of the phone when I got it in January.<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMguqh2sL2hH7cy0hXzT8ud5DF=k4bLbT7-Nvo0kk4rhY9ZwJA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet
ms,sans-serif">
<div>This, in combination with the historically miserable
service and extra fees of DHL (the only Canadian shipping
option) led to indefinite suspension of Canadian shipping of
the OnePlus. Things re-opened this week, with UPS as the
courier and taxes pre-collected at purchase time.</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
Canada Post was another option but I didn't take it because there
didn't seem to be any way of tracking the shipment and I didn't want
to take the chance of the shipment getting "lost" along the way.
Even with the DHL fees, this phone was still great value for money.<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMguqh2sL2hH7cy0hXzT8ud5DF=k4bLbT7-Nvo0kk4rhY9ZwJA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet
ms,sans-serif">
<div>But that's not the worst of it IMO. The company was
caught completely flat-footed when Cyanogen went commercial,
pulled the rug out from OnePlus, and signed an exclusive
deal in India with a competing handset maker. This has
thrown software efforts into a panic as OnePlus now
unexpectedly finds itself having to rush-release its own
Android mutation, OxygenOS. So now the the OnePlus software
support, once thought of as super stable, is not. Those who
have lots of time on their hands researching and installing
ROMs should be OK, the mainstream will suffer through this
transition as we witness one more Android fragmentation.
Whoever is in charge of OnePlus's corporate partnerships
should be long fired by now, yet no such penance is in hand.</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
This has been a non-issue for me. I don't see any compelling reason
for me to move away from the installed Cyanogen to OxygenOS. The
phone does everything I expect of it and more so I'm blissfully
ignorant of what I might be missing.<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMguqh2sL2hH7cy0hXzT8ud5DF=k4bLbT7-Nvo0kk4rhY9ZwJA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet
ms,sans-serif">
<div>And then you have a number of production and marketing
choices that seem just insane. The OnePlus is the only phone
in its field that claims to be a "global" phone, yet lacks
LTE Band 20 which is critical for Europe. Its wifi doesn't
do 802.11ac.</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Both non-issues for me, though it would be if I travelled to Europe.<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMguqh2sL2hH7cy0hXzT8ud5DF=k4bLbT7-Nvo0kk4rhY9ZwJA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet
ms,sans-serif">
<div>The invite system has longer overstayed its novelty.</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
This was the reason that kept me from buying one for months until I
finally gave up resisting it and jumped through the hoops to get an
invite. As much as the invite system was touted as "innovative", it
wasn't. It was just an annoyance and added friction to the
purchasing process, neither of which are great things if you want to
maximize sales.<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMguqh2sL2hH7cy0hXzT8ud5DF=k4bLbT7-Nvo0kk4rhY9ZwJA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet
ms,sans-serif">
<div>And you can't buy one in Australia or Switzerland or
Brazil at any price. Their e-commerce capabilities are
weaker than those of hawkers of dollar gadgets on eBay.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Add to this the fact that the field of
"near-flagship-features-at-midrange-prices" smartphones is
about to get very crowded, and some of the other vendors
have the benefit of retail access (instant availability) and
local warranty support. Within the next month or two, don't
consider the OnePlus without also having a look at the Asus
Zenfone 2 with 4GB RAM, the Huawei P8 and the 2nd-generation
Moto G. More intrepid shoppers will find even greater choice
from domestic Chinese vendors such as Xiaomi and LeTV.</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Being a WIND Mobile customer has its challenges, the biggest being
that I can't buy any phone and expect it to work on their network.
It's very time-consuming to dig up information on whether a given
phone will work on that network or not, especially for phones from
the myriad of domestic Chinese vendors.<br>
<br>
This has been an amazing phone but I don't have much to compare it
to. I let a friend who was interested in it play with it and he was
amazed at how responsive it is. The only concern I have about it is
how repairable it would be in the event of screen breakage or other
damage. My son put his HTC One M7 through the wash in his jeans and
took it in to get it repaired. Three repair shops told him the same
thing, "Those phones are not repairable because of the way they're
assembled." I just read that the M9 received the lowest rating
possible for repairability. I'd rather not treat these as disposable
devices, though that seems to be the direction all smart phones are
going. I have no idea how repairable the OPO is so that is something
I will be looking for the next time I buy a phone.<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Regards,
Clifford Ilkay
+1 647-778-8696</pre>
</body>
</html>