OnePlus One review: When opportunity strikes

Synthetic benchmark performance

The OnePlus One boasts the name 2014 Flagship Killer on OnePlus' site and it has the hardware platform to show for it. For starters, it runs the current top-class Snapdragon 801 chipset with a quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 CPU and Adreno 330 GPU. It also has 3 GB of RAM to handle heavy tasks and GPU only needs to 1080p resolution to the screen (as opposed to 1440p or QHD).

It matches the likes of the Oppo Find 7 or Korean LG G3 blow for blow and surpasses the international LG G3, Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One (M8) by having more RAM. So the numbers should point to a winner but let's not forget that software plays an important role in benchmarks as well. Stock, or in this case modded pure Android, hasn't shown the best synthetic performance - we've seen the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4 before it sport class-leading hardware but fall behind in the tests - just keep an eye out for that.

GeekBench 3 and AnTuTu 4 are all-round benchmarks that test the entirety of the hardware build. In the first test - GeekBench 3 - the OnePlus One scores a middling result just between the LG G3's Korean version and International version and far from the top occupied by the Oppo Find 7.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  3178
• Oppo Find 7a
  3093
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2856
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  2687
• OnePlus One
  2663
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  2563
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• HTC One (M8)
  2367

AnTuTu 4 tests the CPU, GPU, RAM and storage - here the OnePlus One has the second highest score, ranking behind the Oppo Find 7 and a fraction in front of the HTC One (M8).

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  38484
• OnePlus One
  37469
• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  36018
• Oppo Find 7a
  33344
• Sony Xperia Z2
  33182
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  32780
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  30482
• LG Nexus 5
  25097

When it comes to CPU performance we use Basemark OS II to see what's what. It gives an overall score along with single-core, multi-core, and math performance, among others. We focus on the overall and CPU scores.

We didn't detect any difference between the scores posted in the original and anti-cheat versions of the benchmark.

The overall score shows the OnePlus One as very capable, again second only to the Oppo Find 7. The single-core breakdown isn't as favorable, though, placing the One in next to last place. Multi-core saves the day with a solid score and a third spot, behind the Oppo 7 and 7a.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  1212
• OnePlus One
  1196
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  1151
• HTC One (M8)
  1126
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1082
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1080
• Oppo Find 7a
  1057
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  945

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  2606
• Oppo Find 7a
  2580
• HTC One (M8)
  2428
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  2415
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2253
• OnePlus One
  2213
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  2137
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  1787

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  10391
• Oppo Find 7a
  10256
• OnePlus One
  10234
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  10063
• Sony Xperia Z2
  10044
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  9937
• HTC One (M8)
  9860
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  8337

Next up we'll be looking at the Adreno 330 performance. Since this is the MSM8974AC variant of the Snapdragon 801 (also found in the Samsung Galaxy S5, Oppo Find 7, etc.), and not the MSM8974AB (also found in the HTC One (M8), Sony Xperia Z2, Oppo Find 7a, etc.), the Adreno GPU has a clock speed up to 578 MHz (versus the up to 550 MHz of the AB chipset) and it should, potentially, score higher.

First off, we have the GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex test, which shows the framerate performance at 1080p off-screen and on-screen - read the smoothness of the playback, anything rendered below 30 fps will be stuttery.

Compared to its peers, the OnePlus One scores a good score on both and is very close to the constant 30 fps mark in the off-screen test.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Oppo Find 7a
  28.4
• OnePlus One
  28.3
• Oppo Find 7
  28
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  27.8
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  27.6
• Sony Xperia Z2
  27.2
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  27.2
• LG Nexus 5
  23

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• OnePlus One
  30
• Oppo Find 7a
  28.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  28.7
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  28.1
• LG Nexus 5
  24
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  20.6
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  20.5
• Oppo Find 7
  19.9

Manhattan also tests 1080p on and off-screen but has more intense graphics scene for rendering. Here the OnePlus One tops the charts with more than 12 fps but looking at the numbers will reveal that all current-gen smartphone flagships will output a rather similar performance.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.1
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  11.7
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  11.4
• HTC One (M8)
  11.1
• Oppo Find 7
  11.1

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.9
• Sony Xperia Z2
  12.2
• HTC One (M8)
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.7
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  7.4
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  7.2
• Oppo Find 7
  6.7

And finally, it's time to assess the browsing performance of the OnePlus One. To do so we're looking at Rightware's BrowserMark 2.1 and Mozilla's Kraken 1.1. The former looks at HTML 5 performance with the latter focusing on JavaScript. The OnePlus One doesn't win any titles here but proves it's a capable browsing machine.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  1474
• Oppo Find 7
  1452
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1398
• OnePlus One
  1339
• Oppo Find 7a
  1327
• LG Nexus 5
  1286
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  1254
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1224
• HTC One (M8)
  1069

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  6043
• Oppo Find 7
  6363
• Oppo Find 7a
  6660
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  6987
• OnePlus One
  7008
• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041
• LG Nexus 5
  7148
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  7610
• HTC One (M8)
  10296

The following has become more or less the standard disclaimer we feature in almost every high-end smartphone's performance review but it's correct nonetheless. The OnePlus One handles Android beautifully and runs without any hiccups. This can be attributed to two reasons - the excellent hardware platform of the smartphone and Google's superb job with Android optimizations. Since Android 4.1 Jelly Bean premiered Project Butter Google has been constantly improving the responsiveness of its OS and now that we're several releases into this process, the OnePlus feels and moves like a well-oiled machine.