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When Google unveiled Nexus 5 with excellent specs but a considerably affordable price tag, it was a huge win for the company. But here’s a new handset, the OnePlus One, which threatens to beat Nexus 5 at its own turf. Read a quick comparison of the two below.

Physical features:
When compared to Nexus 5, OnePlus One is a larger handset or a true phablet. It is 153mm tall, 8.9mm thick and 76mm wide. Nexus 5 is 138mm tall, 8.6mm thick and 69mm wide. This means that the display size of OnePlus One is significantly larger than that of Nexus 5. In fact, OnePlus One packs a 5.5-inch display while Nexus 5 arrived with a 4.95-inch display.

Given its larger size, OnePlus One also weighs more than Nexus 5. It packs 162g while Nexus 5 weighs 130g. So although it may not tax on your wallet, it may tax a tad bit on your pocket with its additional weight.

Looks:
There’s a trend in the tech industry of shipping top-end smartphones with a plastic finish. Some, such as Google and Samsung, have evolved plastic finishing so that it looks premium now. But OnePlus One beats Nexus 5 at this. Nexus 5 comes with a plastic chassis but OnePlus One packs a premium magnesium chassis. The choice of material is rather unusual but in terms of looks, magnesium certainly beats the plastic.

Although Nexus 5 is available in three colors, namely black, white and red, OnePlus One will arrive only in two shades: white and black. The good part is that there will be many unconventional replacement back covers for the handset, made from unusual materials such as denim, bamboo and kevlar.

Hardware and specs:
This is where the prowess of the two handsets is truly pitted against each other. One comes with Snapdragon 801 quad-core 2.5GHz, the same chip that is in Galaxy S5. Nexus 5 packs Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.3GHz which is nearly as good but is still a notch low. In terms of RAM, OnePlus One is a hands-down winner, packing 3GB. Nexus 5, on the other hand, packs 2GB of RAM.

The display of Nexus 5 is 1920 x 1800 with a pixel density of 445 ppi. One’s display is also 1920 x 1800 but because of a 5.5-inch screen, the pixel density is 401 ppi. This means that Nexus 5 has a sharped display but only marginally in comparison.

Another remarkable feature of OnePlus One is its cameras. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera together with a 5-megapixel front cam. Nexus 5 packs an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front cam. One also packs a dual-LED flash, a feature which is missing in Nexus 5 and allows the capturing of slow-motion videos.

Battery is yet another aspect where One is superior to Nexus 5. Nexus 5 comes with a 2300mAh battery while OnePlus One includes a 3100mAh which certainly has a greater capacity. But we can’t be sure if One will outlast Nexus 5 in terms of battery usage because it packs hardware which may consume battery quicker.

Software:
To begin with, Nexus 5 comes with Android which is a brilliant mobile OS. But OnePlus One comes with one of the most popular and acclaimed custom mod, namely Cyanogenmod.

Its user interface looks very similar to Android but thanks to Cyanogenmod, you can customize countless aspects of the software on OnePlus One, a luxury Nexus 5’s simple Android platform doesn’t offer.

Storage space and pricing:
Taking a rather unconventional approach, OnePlus One is available in two versions: one with 16GB internal space, priced at $300 and another with 64GB internal storage, priced at $350. Nexus 5, in comparison, starts with a $350 price tag for the 16GB version and its only other version packs 32GB storage. This certainly makes out One to be a better handset with more options and a very affordable price tag, not just compared to Nexus 5 but when compared to other top-end handsets such as iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S5.

Verdict:
Although it will still be a few months before OnePlus One becomes actually available, the smartphone is truly a beauty. To top that, it has the most lucrative price tag when viewed in context of its specifications. It is expected that when it’ll be available, most of us would certainly go for it.

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