The OnePlus 2 and Moto X Style are now officially announced. Both devices come with beefy specs, powerful features, great design and a remarkable price point. Consumers who are in the market for a new phone will want to consider both devices. We’ve put together everything you need to know about the specs, features, design and price of the device.
OnePlus 2vs. Moto X Style Design
The OnePlus 2 has dimensions of 151.8 x 74.9 x 9.85 mm with a weight of 175g. On the back it looks like the OnePlus One, with the rear-facing camera moved down a bit, below the LED flash. The OnePlus 2 has a laser autofocus and StyleSwap covers that currently include Sandstone Black, Bamboo, Rosewood, Black Apricot and Kevlar.
Along the sides the OnePlus 2 is bound by an aluminum and magnesium frame with stainless steel accents. Aside from the usual power and volume button, bottom facing speakers and headphone jack the OnePlus 2 boasts the unique Alert Slider. The switch allows the OnePlus 2 to be changed between 3 profiles—All Notifications, Priority Interruptions and No Interruptions.
On the front the OnePlus 2 has a fingerprint scanner in the form of a home button. The home button isn’t mechanical or capacitive, it doesn’t respond physically when pressed though it can be used to unlock the phone.
The Moto X Style has the design and premium build to take on the OnePlus 2 head on. At dimensions of 153.9 x 76.2 x 6.1 to 11.06 mm (due to the curve) and a weight of 179g the Moto X Style is bigger and heavier than the OnePlus 2 but not by that much. The phone itself has a lot in common with the Nexus 6 and Moto X (2nd Gen). The device has a longer display, with the same width as the 2nd Gen Moto X.
The backplate is customizable, with MotoMaker support, allowing consumers to choose between backs and accents of different colors and materials including leather, wood, silicone and Kevlar. The overall build of the Moto X Style resembles the Nexus 6 and Moto X 2nd gen with the metal frame along the edge and the distinctive curve of the device.
OnePlus 2 vs. Moto X Style Specs/Features
Covered in Gorilla Glass 4, the OnePlus 2 features a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080p LCD display with 401ppi. Under the hood it boasts an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor with an Adreno 430 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 16GB and 64GB internal storage options. There’s no microSD card slot to expand the memory, which is a bit of a downside compared to the Moto X Style. On the other hand it has dual SIM slots, which may be useful for travelers and users who’d like to use the device for personal use and work.
The OnePlus 2 camera is particularly impressive. It is a 13-megapixel rear-facing shooter with optical image stabilization and laser autofocus. It has a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The sensor is reported to have improved low-light performance due to the larger 1.3 micro pixels.
The OnePlus 2 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, with OxygenOS, a highly customizable ROM of stock Android that allows enhancements like off-screen gestures and movable buttons.
While the OnePlus 2 has a non-removable 3,300mAh battery, the device does have a USB Type-C charger which lacks the fast-charging capability on the Moto X Style. Another strange omission is the fact that the OnePlus 2 has no NFC, thought it does have Alipay support. The intention seems to be to cut out Android Pay.
The Moto X Style has beefy specs. The device has a 5.7-inch 1440p 2560 x 1440 Quad HD display with 520ppi and Gorilla Glass 3, instead of 4. This is not a TFT LCD display, not AMOLED so this may be an area where Motorola has sought to cut costs. The OnePlus 2 also uses an LCD display, but only 1080p, so the Moto X Style has the advantage there and with pixel density.
Under the hood the Moto X Style has a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor with an Adreno 418 GPU and 3GB of RAM. The device comes with 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB storage options and a microSD card slot that allows for a further expansion of 128GB.
When it comes down to it, the Snapdragon 810 processor and 4GB of RAM on the OnePlus 2 should be more powerful than the Snapdragon 808 and 3GB of RAM on the Moto X Style, especially since the Style has to push more pixels with its Quad HD display. We’ll have to wait for the side-by-side benchmark comparisons to come out, but when it comes to gaming we expect the OnePlus 2 to outstrip the Moto X Style.
The camera on the Moto X Style is a 21-megapixel f/2.0 aperture rear-facing camera and a 5-megapixel f.2.0 aperture wide angle lens with an LED flash. That’s unique, we haven’t seen a front-facing LED flash on a phone before. According to most of the early reports, the Moto X Style’s camera is supposed to be excellent and it outstrips the OnePlus 2 in raw megapixels. Of course, raw megapixels rarely ever mean much when it comes to camera quality, so only a camera shootout between the two devices will really tell us for sure.
With software the Moto X Style runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with very little customization or bloatware aside from Moto Assist, Moto Display and Moto Actions which are all actually useful features. The Moto X Style has a 3000mAh battery with turbo charging, providing 10 hours of battery life from a 15 minute charge. It doesn’t have USB Type-C, but given that MKBHD says that it takes 3 hours for the OnePlus 2 to charge up, that seems less important.
When it comes down to it, the OnePlus 2 may outperform the Moto X Style, but the Moto X Style has a better display, expandable memory and faster charging battery.
OnePlus 2vs. Moto X Style Price, Release Date
The OnePlus 2 will begin to release on August 11, with an invite system. The invite system was heavily criticized for the OnePlus One and OnePlus has promised that the new system is better and there will be more stock of the device. Currently there are over half a million people on the reservation list for the device.
The OnePlus 2 will be available at a price of $329 for the 16GB version and $389 for the 64 GB version. We don’t think there’s any reason for you to buy the 16GB version when the 64GB version offers so much more internal storage for $60.
The Moto X Style will be available at a price point of $399.99 starting in fall of 2015, putting it in direct competition with the OnePlus 2. We are looking at two powerful flagships with a price point under $400. We’ve rarely encountered something like this before when it comes to having a combination of specs, features, premium design and price.
Neither phone is perfect, each one has something that the other lacks. We recommend that you wait till more through reviews come out specifically comparing the display, camera and battery lives of the two devices. Those three elements are going to be key in making or breaking both devices.
