at’s better than a plastic phone? A phone you can buy without an invitation. But that’s not Oneus’s game. Instead, it’s launching the Oneus X, a phone that’s made of premium materials seems to exist solely as an attempt on Oneus’s part to distinguish itself among the dozens of other stylish Android devices.
There are two versions of the phone, each with its own design story. Unfortunately, neither of them include the tale of the user who could buy her phone without first requesting an invite.
A smaller phone with last year’s specs
The Oneus X is a compact, 5-inch Android phone. It comes in two flavors: Onyx black glass limited edition Ceramic, the latter of which has no U.S. launch date. Oneus said that the black glass variant is the company’s lightest, slimmest phone to date, while each individual unit of the Ceramic version takes about 25 days to make. Both phones feature a brushed metal frame a scratch resistant backplate, as well as an ert Slider like on the Oneus 2, which lets you easily switch between notification profiles.
Oneus opted to use last year’s flagship hardware rather than this year’s mid-range chips. Both versions of the Oneus X run on a 32-bit 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, which is what came stard with last year’s marquee devices—specifically, the HTC One (M8) Samsung Galaxy S5. That’s fine, though, because the chip is still pretty powerful, it should prove to be a solid performer. The phone comes equipped with 3GB of RAM a 5-inch, 1080p AMOD display.
The Oneus X features dual nano SIM slots an expansion slot, which can accept any MicroSD card up to 128GB, on top of the 16GB of included storage. There’s also a 2,525 mAh battery pack, support for Quick Charge 2.0, though there’s no mention of wireless charging. There’s no built-in NFC chip, either, so you won’t be able to take advantage of Android y.
Oneus’s “fastest camera yet”
Oneus said the Oneus X features its “fastest camera yet.” It’s a 13-megapixel rear-facing sensor with f/2.2 aperture 0.2-second autofocus with phase detection (AF), which is a trick most DSs a number of high-end smartphones use. The camera also supports HDR, while the front-facing 8-megapixel sensor features a Beauty Mode that buffs out your face’s imperfections. Hopefully it offers similar performance to the camera in the Oneus 2.
The Oneus X will be available with Oneus’s own Oxygen OS operating system on its official website by invite only beginning November 5. Europeans will get the first shot at it, while invites will open to the U.S. on November 19 for $250. The Ceramic edition will be available with a Ceramic-specific invite in Europe India beginning November 24 for €370.