It’s no surprise that the OnePlus One has been a big hit on social networks and tech blogs, and is quickly becoming the biggest buzz of the Spring tech release list. After all how often do we get a phone that’s not only decked out with the absolute latest cutting edge specs, but also features a price point under $400. In fact the last time we saw a phone that has as much sheer value as the OnePlus One does was the Nexus 5, and that was 6 months ago. Seems like consumers aren’t the only ones noticing, however, and a few other Chinese manufacturers are looking to cash in on that magic April 23rd date when the OnePlus One is scheduled to be announced and subsequently launched in its home territory of Beijing.
Looking to sway some buyers away ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi have all scheduled product releases on the same day, and competition is looking to get seriously fierce within the next week in China. First up is ZTE with a new Nubia phone, and while it’s not clear which device is being announced or launched all things point to the Nubia X6 flagship phone being the winner, and it competes with the OnePlus One on nearly every spec level possible. Huawei’s Honor X1 will be launching on April 22nd, a day earlier than the OnePlus One, and is shooting for the super budget line at 1799 Yuan, which is somewhere around $290 USD. That’s a 1.6GHz in-house quad-core processor with a 4G LTE modem for quite a steal. Lastly is a mystery Xiaomi device that looks like it might actually be a tablet judging on the very Apple keyboard-esque look from the flyer.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the OnePlus One you need to know a few things about the device. First off the company OnePlus is made up of executives that left Oppo and started their own tech company to make high quality phones at budget prices. They’ve partnered with CyanogenMod Inc. to bring the first ever truly custom-built version of CyanogenMod specifically for a brand new device, and it’s not the same old CM ROM that you’re used to either. We’re talking serious changes in user interface, brand new features and a killer new camera to name a few bullet points. It also features the latest Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor that all the leading flagships are packing right now, as well as 3GB of RAM and a 13 megapixel rear camera with a unique 6-element lens for high quality image capturing. Did we mention all this is available for under $400? That’s probably the biggest selling point of all.
