OnePlus Offers Phone Sans Invitation

Much like the kid who gets picked last for kickball, many would-be customers of the snazzy OnePlus One smartphone have been left out of the cold without an invite. But, as of yesterday, anyone can purchase and order one of these rather exclusive devices without an invitation on every Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Who knows. I guess it just gives you something to look forward to on Monday. Now, since the OnePlus One phone hasn’t received all that much press (due to its exclusive availability no doubt), you’re probably wondering why you should even care. What is it about the OnePlus One that makes people willing to purchase invites off of Ebay or beg others to send invites on forums online? Well, basically, the phone is a hella good deal. Priced at $299 for the 16GB version or $349 for the 64GB variety, these phones have high-end specs (when first released, they were flagship specs) for moderate prices. Here’s what the hardware on the phone looks like:

• 5.5 inch LCD screen with Gorilla Glass 3
• 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density)
• Quad-core 2.5 GHz CPU
• Snapdragon 801 chipset
• Android 4.4 (Cyanogen mod)
• 3 GB RAM
• 16 or 64 GB internal storage
• 13 MP back camera
• 5 MP front camera

Of course, no phone is perfect and these devices aren’t without their downsides. The phone does not have a removable battery, unfortunately, and much like the iPhone, it does not have an expandable memory or allow for external storage. On the plus side, the phone does come unlocked. From what I can gather from OnePlus’ forums, the phone should be compatible with: AT&T, Consumer Cellular, Cricket Wireless, Net10, Red Pocket, Straight Talk, T-Mobile, Lycamobile, MetroPCS and Simple Mobile. I haven’t confirmed with all of those, so if you decide to invest in this phone, double check with your carrier. Now, for the bad news. If you’re looking at this device you should probably be aware that OnePlus has already announced the release of their new 2015 phone, creatively named the OnePlus Two. This device is expected to be released later this year (Q2 or Q3 at the latest) and will no doubt feature an OS similar to Lollipop and some other sweet specs, along with the agonizing invite-only system. You can read up on the rumor mill here.]]>