What is the One Plus One?
The One Plus One is a phone which has the highest specification of any phone currently on sale, at a mid range price point. However the catch is you need an invite to purchase one. Its been two months since invites started to be handed out, and so far only a few 1000 have been. Chances are you already know this if you happen to be reading this post and know that you can walk in to shops in China and purchase a One Plus One.
So what if you were to skip this ridiculous invite system and just purchase the phone from China? will it work in your home country? The short answer is unless you live in North / South America or Canada most likely, however I will explain how you can work it out for yourself.
The main difference between the international One Plus One and the Chinese one are the LTE / WDCMA band's the phones support.
Comparison of the One Plus One GSM frequencies and WCDMA / LTE bands for the International version and Chinese version:
As you can see above the Chinese One Plus One does not support LTE bands 4 and 17, along with WCDMA band 4. So basically you want to know what bands your mobile network operates on before importing a One Plus One.
The Wikipedia article: List of LTE networks is a great resource for this.
As im from the UK we will use the United Kingdom as an example:
Above we can see that the mobile operators EE and 3 use LTE bands 3 and 7 which are supported by the One Plus One, however o2 and Vodafone use band 20 which neither version of the One Plus One supports.
So if you are from the UK you could purchase either the international of Chinese One Plus One and get 4G here in the UK on the 3 or EE. Of course the One Plus One will work on any other network here as it supports all the GSM bands used here in the UK, so you can use 2g /3g fine. Given that 4g is only really in major citys here at the moment that's not a total deal breaker.
Show me some 4G proof:
Here are some 4G speedtests taken here in the UK with my Chinese One Plus One on the Three network.
This test was taken on a moving bus:
This test was taken stood outside my workplace:
So as you can see if your network supports the LTE bands you have nothing to loose by importing a Chineese One Plus One.
You have convinced me, where can I import a One Plus One from?
Aliexpress is the place i imported my One Plus One from, think of it as the Amazon / Ebay of China, except with sellers that are focused on selling outside China. You are probably a bit concerned about purchasing from a seller on Aliexpress, however if you read up on the website you will find out like with Ebay the site really does favour the seller. When you purchase something the money is held in escrow by Aliexpress. The seller then has x amount of days to ship your item with a tracking number, otherwise you are automatically refunded. Once you receive the item you have to mark it as received on Aliexpress to complete the transaction. If you dont receive the item you can open a dispute, just like on Ebay. Like Ebay / Amazon market sellers have feedback scores and reviews, so i would say in general buying from Aliexpress is as safe as buying from Amazon Marketplace or Ebay, if not maybe even more so.
This is the seller i purchased my One Plus One from, i was very happy with the communication and service offered. This seller / company shipped the item to Europe somewhere, then on to the UK so i did not have an import duty to pay. I was provided with a FedEx tracking number to track the progress of my shipment. Once my order was despatched it arrived exactly a week later, which I thought was very fast considering the distance it had to come.
English Software:
The Chinese One Plus One ships with "Colour OS", basically a Chinese version of Android, however you can flash Cyanogenmod 11s, which is the English version of Android the international version of the One Plus One ships with. This is very easy to do and you will find a lot of the Chinese sellers will have done this anyway for you, the seller i purchased form had. I will have a guide up soon shwoing you how to flash Cyanogenmod 11s anyway.
Final words:
If your mobile network uses LTE bands which the Chinese One Plus One supports i see no reason not to import one. The total cost for myself was actually cheaper than what i would have been if i had an invite to purchase the international version. In total i paid £268 for the 64gb version, this was the cost delivered to my door. To purchase one directly would cost you £269 which does not include shipping, and possible customs charges from what various people have said.
Personally I am very happy with my decision to import a One Plus One, the phone is the best you can basically get at present, sold at mid range prices.
The 64gb iPhone 5s is £709, for that price you could purchase 2x One Plus One's and still have £173 left over. Likewise Google's flagship device the Nexus 5 is £339 for the 32gb version making it £71 more expensive than the One Plus One. Neither the iPhone 5s or Nexus 5 are in the same league as the One Plus One either. I really am very impressed with the quality of the device.
If you have any question's i will do my best to answer them, stay tuned as i plan to have a guide on how to flash Cyanogenmod 11s on a Chinese One Plus One and a review of the device too.
The One Plus One is a phone which has the highest specification of any phone currently on sale, at a mid range price point. However the catch is you need an invite to purchase one. Its been two months since invites started to be handed out, and so far only a few 1000 have been. Chances are you already know this if you happen to be reading this post and know that you can walk in to shops in China and purchase a One Plus One.
So what if you were to skip this ridiculous invite system and just purchase the phone from China? will it work in your home country? The short answer is unless you live in North / South America or Canada most likely, however I will explain how you can work it out for yourself.
The main difference between the international One Plus One and the Chinese one are the LTE / WDCMA band's the phones support.
Comparison of the One Plus One GSM frequencies and WCDMA / LTE bands for the International version and Chinese version:
As you can see above the Chinese One Plus One does not support LTE bands 4 and 17, along with WCDMA band 4. So basically you want to know what bands your mobile network operates on before importing a One Plus One.
The Wikipedia article: List of LTE networks is a great resource for this.
As im from the UK we will use the United Kingdom as an example:
Above we can see that the mobile operators EE and 3 use LTE bands 3 and 7 which are supported by the One Plus One, however o2 and Vodafone use band 20 which neither version of the One Plus One supports.
So if you are from the UK you could purchase either the international of Chinese One Plus One and get 4G here in the UK on the 3 or EE. Of course the One Plus One will work on any other network here as it supports all the GSM bands used here in the UK, so you can use 2g /3g fine. Given that 4g is only really in major citys here at the moment that's not a total deal breaker.
Show me some 4G proof:
Here are some 4G speedtests taken here in the UK with my Chinese One Plus One on the Three network.
This test was taken on a moving bus:
This test was taken stood outside my workplace:
So as you can see if your network supports the LTE bands you have nothing to loose by importing a Chineese One Plus One.
You have convinced me, where can I import a One Plus One from?
Aliexpress is the place i imported my One Plus One from, think of it as the Amazon / Ebay of China, except with sellers that are focused on selling outside China. You are probably a bit concerned about purchasing from a seller on Aliexpress, however if you read up on the website you will find out like with Ebay the site really does favour the seller. When you purchase something the money is held in escrow by Aliexpress. The seller then has x amount of days to ship your item with a tracking number, otherwise you are automatically refunded. Once you receive the item you have to mark it as received on Aliexpress to complete the transaction. If you dont receive the item you can open a dispute, just like on Ebay. Like Ebay / Amazon market sellers have feedback scores and reviews, so i would say in general buying from Aliexpress is as safe as buying from Amazon Marketplace or Ebay, if not maybe even more so.
This is the seller i purchased my One Plus One from, i was very happy with the communication and service offered. This seller / company shipped the item to Europe somewhere, then on to the UK so i did not have an import duty to pay. I was provided with a FedEx tracking number to track the progress of my shipment. Once my order was despatched it arrived exactly a week later, which I thought was very fast considering the distance it had to come.
English Software:
The Chinese One Plus One ships with "Colour OS", basically a Chinese version of Android, however you can flash Cyanogenmod 11s, which is the English version of Android the international version of the One Plus One ships with. This is very easy to do and you will find a lot of the Chinese sellers will have done this anyway for you, the seller i purchased form had. I will have a guide up soon shwoing you how to flash Cyanogenmod 11s anyway.
Final words:
If your mobile network uses LTE bands which the Chinese One Plus One supports i see no reason not to import one. The total cost for myself was actually cheaper than what i would have been if i had an invite to purchase the international version. In total i paid £268 for the 64gb version, this was the cost delivered to my door. To purchase one directly would cost you £269 which does not include shipping, and possible customs charges from what various people have said.
Personally I am very happy with my decision to import a One Plus One, the phone is the best you can basically get at present, sold at mid range prices.
The 64gb iPhone 5s is £709, for that price you could purchase 2x One Plus One's and still have £173 left over. Likewise Google's flagship device the Nexus 5 is £339 for the 32gb version making it £71 more expensive than the One Plus One. Neither the iPhone 5s or Nexus 5 are in the same league as the One Plus One either. I really am very impressed with the quality of the device.
If you have any question's i will do my best to answer them, stay tuned as i plan to have a guide on how to flash Cyanogenmod 11s on a Chinese One Plus One and a review of the device too.
However, have you received the phone yet? If so I might buy it from the website mentioned. Finally I've heard that there is a Chinese regional version of the phone and an international version, if I were to buy it from Aliexpress which one would it be?
