Along with all of these great phones I came across another phone from a Chinese Start-up - the OnePlus One. Although it had high specs, and was significantly cheaper than my other candidates, I didn't take it seriously at first as it was difficult to buy, and I didn't imagine I could get one here in New Zealand. Well I was wrong, there were some on-line retailers here (with obvious links back to Hong Kong and China) who offered the phone. So, being an adventurer when it comes to shopping, I ordered a top of the line 64GB White OnePlus One.
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| Love the OnePlus Company logo |
I received it just before Anzac day, after a small delay while it flew in from Hong Kong, . After charging it I switched it on and up came the OnePlus logo and Cyanogenmod logo (it's the variant of Android that it runs). So my first fears were removed - it wasn't running a Chinese language Operating System. The only booklet that came with it was all Chinese, so I did have a small fear there. But it was all as it should be and it even offered me the NZ English input option up front.
I have now had it for a decent period and it is everything it was advertised to be. Good build quality, excellent performance, and it looks cool (to me anyway). It did have one issue, the operating system was based on the older Android KitKat level and I wanted the newer Lollipop level. Well that too arrived, after several delays, this last weekend. The phone is now even better.
I took a risk with an online purchase like this - but there is a NZ-based retailer somewhere out there if it breaks. And I saved myself a reasonable amount of money, although not as much as the US prices would indicate.
Just goes to show that the world is getting smaller and more competitive. As a consumer I couldn't be happier.
