OnePlus has hyped up its latest handset to almost ludicrous levels, from its brand slogan of ‘Never Settle’, to its OnePlus 2 slogan of the ‘2016 flagship killer’ it’s reasonable for buyers to expect a lot, but can it live up to the hype?
Well the easiest way to find out is to put it up against the most popular phone on the planet, namely the iPhone 6, and see how they compare.
OnePlus 2 (151.8 x 74.9 x 9.9mm 175g metal frame) vs iPhone 6 (138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm 129g metal unibody)
Neither phone skimps on design. The OnePlus 2 has an aluminium-magnesium alloy frame and out of the box comes with an easily gripped Sandstone Black back cover. It looks and feels good, but it can get even better if you pay a little extra for a different cover, especially as there are exotic options like bamboo and Kevlar.
However these don’t come as standard and the phone is a little bit chunky compared to most flagships at 9.9mm, so there’s some room for improvement.
The iPhone 6 shows that by being a better looking phone out of the box. It’s super slim at just 6.9mm thick and it has a stylish metal unibody. Unlike the OnePlus 2 you can’t change the back cover, but when it looks this good you probably won’t want to.
OnePlus 2 (5.5-inch 1080*1920 401ppi) vs iPhone 6 (4.7-inch 750*1334 326ppi)
The OnePlus 2 has a sizeable 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 screen for a pixel density of 401 pixels per inch, while the iPhone 6 has a more compact 4.7-inch 750 x 1334 display, yet despite being smaller it has a lower pixel density of 326 pixels per inch.
It’s still sharp but the OnePlus 2 has it slightly beat. However there’s more to a phone than pixels and Apple’s screens are among the best around, thanks to natural colours and good contrast, but the OnePlus 2’s display doesn’t fare badly for those things either and it’s brighter than the iPhone 6’s, helping improve its outdoor visibility.
The biggest difference though is obviously the size. With the OnePlus2 you get something approaching a phablet, while the iPhone 6 is far more pocket friendly.
OnePlus 2 (1.8GHz octa-core 3/4GB RAM) vs iPhone 6 (1.4GHz dual-core 1GB RAM)
The OnePlus One was one of the most powerful smartphones around when it launched and now the OnePlus 2 is as well, thanks to a 1.8GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor and either 3GB or 4GB of RAM.
While the Snapdragon 810 has suffered overheating issues in some phones it’s undeniably one of the most powerful chips around and 4GB of RAM is still almost unheard of in handsets.
The iPhone 6 on the other hand has far more modest specs on paper, with just a 1.4GHz dual-core Apple A8 processor and 1GB of RAM. Despite that though it still manages slick performance, even when dealing with demanding tasks. We’d give the OnePlus 2 the edge, but it’s a closer contest than you might expect.
OnePlus 2 (13MP rear 5MP front-facing) vs iPhone 6 (8MP rear 1.2MP front-facing)
The OnePlus 2 has a 13 megapixel camera on the back, complete with a dual-LED flash, laser autofocus and optical image stabilisation, so it can focus fast, recreate colours well when using flash and keep images stable and blur free. There’s also a decent 5 megapixel snapper on the front.
It doesn’t quite have the best camera we’ve seen on a phone, with both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G4 arguably having it beat, but it stands up well to the iPhone 6 with its 8 megapixel rear camera and 1.2 megapixel front-facing one.
Those specs might not sound like much but the iPhone 6 can take sharp images with accurate colours in almost any lighting.
OnePlus 2 (3,300 mAh 16/64GB 4G) vs iPhone 6 (1,810 mAh 16/64/128GB 4G)
One area that the OnePlus 2 has many competitors beat is the size of its battery, as it’s fairly large at 3,300 mAh and certainly dwarfs the iPhone 6’s 1,810 mAh juice pack. Then again the OnePlus 2 is also a bigger, more powerful phone, so it needs more juice.
You’ll get around a day of moderate use out of the iPhone 6, which is about the least we’d hope for and the OnePlus 2 is likely to at least match it and it may well have the iPhone 6 beat.
Neither phone has a microSD card slot so you’re limited to built-in storage. The good news is that both handsets can come with a lot. The OnePlus 2 has a choice of 16GB or 64GB, while the iPhone 6 can come with 16GB, 64GB or 128GB, giving it the edge at the upper end.
Connectivity options for both phones include Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G and Bluetooth (4.1 in the OnePlus 2 and 4.0 in the iPhone 6), however the OnePlus 2 doesn’t have NFC while the iPhone 6 does. You can only use it for Apple Pay, but that’s still better than not having it at all.
The OnePlus 2 and iPhone 6 are both clearly top tier handsets, so OnePlus is right to call its phone a flagship, but a flagship killer is harder to justify.
It has a bigger, sharper screen than the iPhone 6, more power, a larger battery and a similarly accomplished camera. But while it’s stylish it doesn’t look quite as good as Apple’s phone and it also has less available storage and fewer connectivity options.
It stands up well to the iPhone 6 then but isn’t the clear victor, though of course with a starting price of just £239 it’s far, far cheaper than the iPhone 6’s £539+ price.
