OnePlus teased way back in April that it was working on a second phone besides the OnePlus 2 for release in 2015, and today that device was finally revealed.
The OnePlus X is now official, and before you ask, you will need an invite to buy one, at least initially. The OnePlus X will launch on November 5, and during the month of November, it’ll be available only through invites. OnePlus says that it’ll distribute those invites “much faster” to its customers, folks that sign up for a reservation list, and shareable invites. After November, the OnePlus X will be available through open sales every week. And once OnePlus decides that its production can keep up with demand, the OnePlus X will be available without invites forever.
On to the phone itself. The OnePlus X Onyx, the black version of the phone, features two slabs of black glass with a metal frame sandwiched in-between. There’s also a Ceramic model that OnePlus says takes 25 days to make because they must bake the ceramic, cool it, polish it, and so on. Meanwhile, that metal frame has “17 elegant microcuts” as well as an Alert Slider like the one found on the OnePlus 2.
Turning to the X’s raw specs, the phone features a 5-inch 1920x1080 AMOLED display and an 8-megapixel camera on its face, as well as a 13-megapixel shooter on its backside. Inside the X is a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 2525mAh battery working to power the whole package. Software-wise, the OnePlus X packs Android 5.1.1 running beneath OnePlus’s custom OxygenOS user interface.
Also included is 16GB of storage as well as a microSD slot for adding more, and LTE bands 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 in North America. It’s worth noting that OnePlus appears to have skipped NFC on the X like it did on the OnePlus 2, which means that the X won’t support Google’s Android Pay.
The OnePlus X Onyx will be available starting November 5 in Europe at a price of €269, with a US launch to follow on November 19 for $249. The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available in Europe and India starting November 24 for €369, but you’ll need a Ceramic-specific invite to get one. OnePlus also notes that it only plans to sell 10,000 Ceramic models.
On paper, the OnePlus X looks like it could be a solid small phone. Typically, Android devices with a screen size of 5 inches or less are lacking in the specs department, leaving folks that prioritize one-handed use out in the cold. The OnePlus X seems respectable, though, even if its Snapdragon 801 is getting a little long in the tooth. And at $249 unlocked, the OnePlus X is an interesting option for folks that are in the market for an affordable phone, too.
