OnePlus Two – VR and all you need to know

The past few days were eventful for OnePlus One and Android fans: the OnePlus Two release date has finally been announced, alongside a few juicy details about the upcoming flagship killer. In this article, you will find out all you need to know about the OnePlus Two and why the Chinese company wants you to get hyped, apparently. But first! The OnePlus Two release date is set for July 27, through the invite system. We don’t know how many invites will be available when the sales go live, but we’re hoping to get our hands on one in August at least. The price for the device hasn’t been confirmed yet, either, but we only have a few weeks left until launch, so we’ll find out shortly.

OnePlus has a new marketing approach with the OnePlus Two this year and although sales are still based on invites, the OnePlus One can now be bought whenever, for a $250 price tag in the U.S. Meanwhile, the company is releasing bits and pieces of information about the OnePlus Two, like it being the first USB Type C smartphone with a unique cable. The company also revealed the presence of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset in the hardware list for the OnePlus Two, but that’s all that they’ve revealed.

With only a couple of weeks left until the OnePlus Two, it seemed like a great idea to take advantage of the hype and announce one more neat addition to the OnePlus family: virtual reality. Samsung did it, Sony is doing it, HTC is doing rather well with Valve so virtual reality accessories may seem like a flagship necessity. Although they’re not a necessity, they are certainly awesome and spread the technology across the world. Which is what the company’s mantra seems to be: sharing technology and helping it develop.

With that idea in mind, alongside the OnePlus Two release date, the team unveiled the new VR headset that will accompany the phone, based on Cardboard 2.0. But that isn’t even the interesting part of the entire launch! In fact, the entire event will take place in virtual reality, which has never been done before. OnePlus Cardboard is just a tool that the Chinese tech startup intends to distribute for the event, and afterward, completely free of charge to OnePlus fans.  Or at least that’s what most people think. In all fairness, the post announcing the VR show of the OnePlus Two and the one announcing the OnePlus Cardboard did not say anything about availability for the VR headset.

The important thing to take away from it is that the OnePlus Two launch will take place in a virtual environment, well you, the viewer, will be able to interact with the OnePlus Two, with the team, check out the auditorium from home and who knows what else the team at the startup has planned. The event sounds promising and impressive and many are wondering whether the company will be able to pull it off. Even if they botch it up and the OnePlus Two announcement doesn’t go smoothly, it will still have achieved the hype OnePlus wanted it to.

But official information is not all that’s new about the OnePlus Two at the moment. Leaks are trickling in the form of Bluetooth listings and leaked sketches popping up in dark corners of social media. The official information thus far includes the OnePlus Two release date on July 27, OnePlus Cardboard, VR launch, Snapdragon 810 CPU and USB Type-C port. People are already excited, so the rest of the specs will definitely make or break the new flagship killer – if it ends up being one, that is.

Impressive already, the OnePlus Two has people hoping for more and hoping that the company will keep the most important pull factor of their device: price. Most commenters in the OnePlus forums and in other smartphone enthusiast places you can find on the internet say that affordability is key for the OnePlus 2 and if that is exceeded, the device might fail. There is the omen of the invite system which is bothering many, but if the price is right – I would say below $450 – I suspect fans will be delighted no matter what the OnePlus Two turns out to be.

Let’s check out those sketches I told you about and see what they suggest about the new device. As you will be able to see a bit below, the sketches don’t offer much in terms of specs, but they do hint at certain features and, of course, give us an idea of the design of the OnePlus Two. Similar to the original flagship, the back panel stands out with its back buttons and camera, as they do make you think of the LG G4 design. There have been rumors going around about a fingerprint sensor being included in the OnePlus Two, and these sketches do seem to back that assumption up, but it depends on how you look at it, of course.

The sketches also reveal either a dual camera setup or a heart rate sensor on the rear, but the first assumptions might be closer to the truth than the latter. Apparently, some insiders do believe that the OnePlus Two camera will have the benefit of an added depth sensor on the rear of the device for some neat photos. They also think the rear camera will measure 16 MP while the front will be at 5 MP and endowed with a nice wide-angle lens. In my own opinion, the fingerprint sensor seems like a sensible choice; after all, most Chinese smartphones already have them anyway.

The OnePlus Two specs sheet does include the Snapdragon 810, which rumors say will be backed up by 3 and 4 GB RAM variants. Truth be told, three different OnePlus Two models have showed up in a Bluetooth certification listing, spotted by Droid Life. Unfortunately, the listings reveal very little aside from model numbers about the OnePlus Two. We do however realize that we should be expecting three different models to be launched. What those models will have in common is a mystery at this point. But there are some good assumptions out there.

Rob Triggs at Android Authority thinks that there’s a possibility that the model numbers stand for modem variations. That means that the OnePlus Two might become more widely available and compatible with more 4G networks across the world. At the same time, the model numbers could also stand for different storage variants. It would not be surprising if the OnePlus Two were launched in a 32, 64 and 128 GB internal storage variants. While display size or operating system might also set the models apart, there are few chances of the differences being too big.

With that in mind, we do expect the OnePlus Two to be impressive. As do most of the fans out there. One recurring theme among Android fans is the removable battery, which is also a rumored feature of the OnePlus Two. I wouldn’t bet on that however, seeing as most users were pretty happy with the OnePlus Two battery. Moreover, it seems to me that this Chinese tech startup does not want every OnePlus One user to upgrade to the new model. The VR headsets are designed for the OnePlus One as much as they are for the Two. Bundles for the One are on discount (mind you) and software is picking up speed.

Lack of official information aside, we can assume that the OnePlus Two display will measure 5.5 inch. The more recent spec leaks indicate that is correct, although resolution is still a soft spot at this time. While some people think the correct way to go this year would be QHD, others say FHD is quite enough. Keeping track of the new OnePlus Cardboard release, there are more chances of the OnePlus Two display resolution being 1440*2560 than anything else. Regardless, a new LED system has also been rumored, although it’s more of an aesthetic convenience than anything else.

According to various insiders who are presumably working closely with the company, a new LED notifications system will be used in the OnePlus Two and it will serve color-coded notifications in a 360 degree angle somehow. Many people out there are into LED notifications, myself included, so that’s an exciting little touch that design could use that would turn the OnePlus Two into a phone that’s gimmicky just the right amount, and powerful underneath.

No matter how the OnePlus Two turns out, the hype has been created and is being perpetuated on blogs, forums and social media. That’s very relevant, because it does prove that OnePlus’ business strategy does work and if it does work, we are expecting the OnePlus Two price to be satisfactory and beyond. If OnePlus Cardboard is free and the OP2 price is below $400, this company might just earn the trophy this year, for best smartphone and smart entrepreneurship as well. As you’ve noticed, we’re excited. How about you?