OnePlus 2 vs. OnePlus One: What's The Difference Between These Flagship Killers?

OnePlus has unveiled the OnePlus 2, the Chinese smartphone maker's latest flagship killer designed to take on the hottest smartphones from the likes of Samsung, LG and HTC.

But since OnePlus is prioritizing its early supporters who purchased the original OnePlus One, it only makes sense for us to point out the differences between both smartphones. OnePlus has pegged them both as the flagship killers of their launch years, and the OnePlus 2 has also been named the flagship breaker of next year, but can the new smartphone convince OnePlus One owners to upgrade? Let's take a quick look.

First, let's take a look at the similarities, as OnePlus has decided to keep some of the same features on its new handset as was found on its predecessor. Both the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 have the same 5.5-inch display with a 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD display. On the back, both phones have a 13 MP rear camera paired with a 5 MP shooter in front.

While OnePlus could have bumped up its display to Quad HD as is typically found in most flagships, many have argued that there is visually no significantly noticeable difference between Full HD and higher resolutions. Additionally, keeping the display Full HD allows the OnePlus 2 to retain longer battery life, as a higher resolution means more pixels to power.

On the battery side, we're not seeing a major boost either, as the OnePlus 2 is powered by a 3,300 mAh battery, while its older brother has a 3,100 mAh battery that isn't so bad.

Design-wise, the OnePlus 2 keeps many of the aesthetics of the OnePlus One, but there are also a number of big differences. For one thing, OnePlus has added a physical home button to the new smartphone, underneath which is a fingerprint sensor that the company claims is better and faster than Apple's Touch ID. This takes up some space, which is why the newer device is slightly thicker at 9.85mm compared to the OnePlus One's 8.9mm. It is also heavier at 175g compared to the 162g of the older phone.

And yet, the OnePlus 2 maintains the same sleek but durable feel of the OnePlus One with the aluminum-magnesium frame and the return of the sandstone black finish, while adding more options for Kevlar, black apricot, bamboo and rosewood. This time, the silk white finish won't be available. On the side is a new Alert Slider to let users slide to priority mode and silent mode without touching the screen, and at the bottom is a USB Type-C port, the latest USB standard.

Under the hood, we find the biggest differences between the two. While the OnePlus One is running on an aging Snapdragon 801 processor clocking in at 2.5 GHz, the newer device has a 1.8 GHz Snapdragon 810 chip inside. Storage is still the same, with a 16 GB and 64 GB version available for both smartphones, while RAM is 3 GB for the low-end model and 4 GB for the high end.

This time, the new OnePlus flagship killer will have dual-SIM support, which is popular in emerging markets, and will run on OxygenOS based on Android 5.1. While many people might be disappointed by OnePlus' breakaway from CyanogenMod, which runs on the original OnePlus phone, OxygenOS is a "vanilla" Android skin enhanced features such as off-screen gestures and dark mode.

Finally, both smartphones undercut the competition by a wide margin when it comes to price, but the OnePlus 2, which will be sold initially in India before expanding to the North American and European markets, is slightly more expensive at $329 for the 16 GB version and $389 for 64 GB. Its predecessor debuted at $299 for the 16 GB version and $349 for the 64 GB version.

Here's a quick look at how the OnePlus 2 compares to the OnePlus One.