The OnePlus One is all the rage at the moment, being called the flagship killer of the year. Even if the device is pretty hard to get, the OnePlus One is one hell of an example of how to make a high-end smartphone and sell it for the lowest price possible. Naturally, the OnePlus One sacrifices some things in order to get a cheap retail price for the phone, but those can be overlooked with such a nice price. The Motorola Nexus 6, on the other hand, comes with a much higher price tag. Even so, the Nexus 6 is a powerful and worthwhile device which would impress any one of you.
The OnePlus One is hyped about because of two things: bang for buck and the invite system. The OnePlus One invite system is a controversial subject, but the main idea behind it is that OnePlus, the company making the One, cannot afford to mass produce the phone to cater to on-demand orders. With that in mind, OnePlus decided to let go of marketing strategies and spread the phone through word of mouth, and it actually worked. Now, people are fighting for invites to be able to buy the OnePlus One. We did benefit of two pre-order windows which didn’t go as well as planned, but you could still get your hands on the device without having to beg somebody for an invite.
The Nexus 6 is even more popular and famous than the OnePlus One, because it’s the newest iteration of stock Android 5.0 Lollipop combined with high-end Motorola design and hardware and Google services and software. The Nexus 6 became one of the most anticipated and talked about devices of the year, and it didn’t disappoint once Google and Motorola launched it. Android 5.0 Lollipop is the newest version of the mobile operating system from Google. Since it has launched, bug reports have been piling up, but that’s not surprising since that’s the case with most new software launches. Just like iOS 8 (well, maybe not that bad), Android 5.0 Lollipop was launched to not so favorable first impressions. Nonetheless, Google is working on fixes and improvements which should turn the new OS into something beautiful by the end of the year.
You might ask yourself why I would choose to compare two devices that are actually very different. Well, the answer to that is simple: to help an undecided individual make a choice and to find out which phone has better bang for buck. We all probably know that the 16 GB OnePlus One price is $300 and the 64 GB version is $350, while the Nexus 6 price is $650, which is double that of the OnePlus One. Our purpose is to find out whether the Nexus 6 is worth as much compared to the OnePlus One.
The Nexus 6 is advertised by Google as the go-to device when it comes to performance, design and software, and aim to set the device as a model for future smartphones. I would personally set Project Ara as the model of future smartphones, but hey, each to its own. The OnePlus One, on the other hand, aims to prove that high-end flagships can be made and bought for less than advertised by major OEMs. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Nexus 6 isn’t worth its money, and I’m not trying to imply that in any way. My point is that the Nexus 6 hardware upgrade might not be worth the $300 difference compared to the OnePlus One. Let’s find out.
The Nexus 6 display is a considerably larger AMOLED than the OnePlus One one, measuring 5.95 inches. The display touts a 1440*2560 resolution with a 493 ppi pixel density, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The OnePlus One display is a 5.5 inch LTPS LCD display with a 1080*1920 resolution and 401 ppi pixel density. While the difference between displays seems to be pretty big, keep in mind that you won’t notice a decreased brightness and sharpness on the OnePlus One unless you put it next to the Nexus 6. Nonetheless, the OnePlus One displa does have its issues with the touchscreen not working occasionally and some weird coloration appearing every once in a while, but that was supposedly fixed for most users with the latest firmware update from OnePlus. The Nexus 6 display is vibrant and flawless, according to most user reports, which merits the win in this case.
Even though the Nexus 6 is a bulky, hefty phone, it makes up for its size with the great screen and pretty awesome specs, not to mention Android 5.0 Lollipop, its Material Design and 64 bit support. That being said, we can’t deny that many smartphone users will find the phone too big. But those of you who like the iPhone 6 Plus or the Galaxy Note 4, let me give you a hint: the Nexus 6 is a pretty good rival to those phablets. The design of the Nexus 6 resembles that of the Motorola Moto X, which is a good thing in my opinion.
Nexus 6 specs reveal a quad core Snapdragon 805 (the latest and greatest) CPU, backed by an Adreno 420 GPU, 3 GB RAM and either 32 or 64 GB internal storage. The OnePlus One isn’t far behind with its quad core Snapdragon 801 CPU, backed by an Adreno 330 GPU and either 16 or 64 GB internal storage. In this category, the Nexus 6 overpowers the OnePlus One with a superior CPU and GPU, which can run anything you throw at it. CyanogenMod on the OnePlus One’s Android 4.4 KitKat handles things pretty well, too, but we do encounter the occasional lag when switching to the home screen and in certain apps. That being said, we can safely say that the Nexus 6 merits a clap or two for performance.
The disappointing feature on both of these flagships is the absence of a microSD card slot so that one can add extra memory if needed. The increasing pressure on users to turn to cloud storage might be the cause of this absence, but we do think that 64 GB is mostly enough for a smartphone, unless you plan to shoot a lot of 4K videos with one. Otherwise, when it comes to disappointments, the absence of an IR blaster on both the OnePlus One and Nexus 6, which might be annoying for some. Nonetheless, both of them make up for that by adding NFC to the package, which is a welcome feature by many smartphone enthusiasts.
The Nexus 6 camera does not disappoint, that’s for sure, even though it could have been made better. The Nexus 6 rear camera is a 13 MP sensor with ring LED flash and optical image stabilization. The front camera is just a 2 MP sensor, which should be enough for most selfies. The OnePlus One has a similar 13 MP camera on the rear with a dual LED flash, but it lacks the optical image stabilization we love on the Nexus 6. The front camera on the OnePlus One beats the one on the Nexus 6, being a 5 MP sensor. Even though the camera setup on the Nexus 6 isn’t bad, we think Google and Motorola could have done better and could have put a 16 MP sensor on the rear. Even so, the phone still takes great photos and shoots great videos, so we can’t complain too much. The OnePlus One camera isn’t bad either, taking detailed and high quality photos and videos, too. We miss the optical image stabilization, but we can’t complain about this feature either.
One of the most important aspects to consider when trying to buy a new smartphone is battery life. I don’t know if that is as important to you guys as it is to me, but one can’t deny that battery life should be as long as possible for a phone. Nowadays, we rarely pass the one and a half day mark with smartphone battery lives, the Galaxy Note 4 and Sony Xperia Z3 being great examples of a two day battery life. Even so, OEMs are struggling to get the best out of the battery with software. Android 5.0 Lollipop is designed to manage battery life as well as possible, but CyanogenMod doesn’t do a bad job either. The Nexus 6 has a massive 3220 mAH battery, and the OnePlus One has an equally impressive 3100 mAH battery built-in. The Nexus 6 battery life suffers because of the large QHD display, but Android 5.0 Lollipop combined with the newest in Snapdragon CPUs manages pretty well. The OnePlus One, even though it has a battery almost as big, performs just as well. That being said, we are going to tie the deal when it comes to battery life.
We should be arriving at a conclusion at this moment. We’ve considered the most important differences between the OnePlus One and the Nexus 6 and I hope we ended up with a pretty comprehensive understanding of the Google flagship and the flagship killer. Even though the Nexus 6 screen and CPU are better and work smoother, the OnePlus One still offers better bang for buck, in my opinion. The Nexus 6 is an excellent phone to buy, with in my opinion, it’s more worth paying half the price for a phone that is pretty top-notch itself, like the OnePlus One. Not to say that the Nexus 6 is not worth the money, though. Those specs are surely worth every penny, and the spotless performance of the handset is admirable, to say the least. Even so, the cons of the Nexus 6 (size, camera and the absence of a microSD slot and Qi wireless charging) bother me more than the resolvable issues of the OnePlus One. What do you guys think? Would you also pay less for the OnePlus One or would you rather get the newest, most powerful smartphone out there?