Anyone used a one plus one that could give a yea or nay on them? My HTC one M7 is nearing the end of its life so finally going to upgrade in the next week or so.
As people here know, I tend to go through phones quickly, so hopefully I can shed a bit of insight into how you may feel about the OPO.
I've owned (and really liked) the M7, and felt that it was about the "right" size for a phone considering my usage. I personally don't mind a smaller screen, which I'd say is 5" or smaller. As you may have guessed, the OPO is outside that size range, but I had the opportunity to purchase one and jumped straight away considering the specs and assumed quick upgrades.
I made it through about 3 months using the OPO before deciding that it was a bit too large and opting to use my older N5 again. While having the capacitive buttons or on-screen was neat in theory, it suffered the same type of height problems that I felt about the M7.
It may be that I have smaller hands, but I never felt totally comfortable using the OPO with a single hand. The "Sandstone" feel of the device was second only to the newer all-metal phones that we see being produced, except it stayed put in my hand for the most part. Mine was out of the first batches of the devices, but I recall hearing something about the feel of the back plates having changed sometime around November.
In regards to performance, the OPO was a beast when it was released. Currently we're starting to see the next generation of devices being launched, but I would say the Snapdragon 805 is still an incredibly capable device, and will remain so for another 2+ years depending on what we see the mobile world do. I think it is a safe bet to believe we are seeing smaller iterations in performance, and it will be another 1.5-2 years before we really see 64-bit architecture become the norm for Android.
I was underwhelmed by the screen if I'm honest, and the capactive buttons at the bottom were turned off immediately, as the backlighting made them seem an afterthought instead of a design choice. Mine were hard to see in darker rooms. If you were looking to use them in the daytime? Good luck.
All of these things considered, I still don't think you can buy a new device for a better price right now. There were a few things that bugged me about the OPO, but they likely aren't deal-breakers for most other people. I did love the near-stock Android experience, and CM11S was a pleasure to use. For instance, I absolutely loved the stock lockscreen.
You could be way worse off spending the $350 or so on the OPO for a new device, or even check out Swappa, though it looks like they're hovering around $325-350, so you may be better off purchasing new.
