OnePlus 2 vs iPhone 6

Camera

iPhone 6

The 13MP spec of the OnePlus 2's camera might sound a little lower than most flagship rivals, but it's coupled with optical image stabilisation, a dual-LED flash and a low-light sensor.

It can also record 4K video or slow motion 720p video and save images in RAW format. There's a 5MP camera on the front for fans of selfies and video calls, and in early tests overall performance seems strong.

The iPhone 6 has just an 8MP snapper but, as with its processor, on-paper specs can be deceptive here, as it really is a fantastic camera phone.

It's got point and click simplicity but still comes out with high quality photos. It can't shoot footage in 4K but it can manage slow motion in 720p at 240fps, while the OnePlus 2 does it at just 120fps.

Its front-facing camera is a little less impressive at just 1.2MP, but it gets the job done for basic snapshots and FaceTime.

OnePlus 2 vs iPhone 6: Battery

Battery life could be the OnePlus 2's Achilles heel. We say could because we haven't been able to properly test it yet, but with a big and very bright screen its 3300 mAh juice pack might not cut it.

Then again it's 200 mAh bigger than the battery in the OnePlus One and that phone had the same size screen and could easily get through a day of use, so we're cautiously optimistic.

The iPhone 6 has a far smaller 1810 mAh juice pack, but then it's a far smaller phone, with a lower resolution screen and just a dual-core processor, so it shouldn't need anywhere near as much battery power. In practice you should be able to get a day of life out of it, though nowhere near as comfortably as we found with the OnePlus One.

So if the OnePlus 2's display isn't too juice hungry it could have the iPhone 6 beaten, but it's too early to say.

Other features

OnePlus 2 fingerprint

The main feature of the OnePlus 2 is its fingerprint scanner. OnePlus talked it up as being faster than the iPhone 6's but in practice it doesn't seem especially speedy so far.

Other features include a USB Type-C charging port, which lets you plug a USB cable in either way up, a dual-SIM card slot which is a rarity in the UK and an alert slider, which lets you silence the device, show priority notifications, or show all notifications with a click.

The iPhone 6 has a fingerprint scanner too of course and it's a speedy one at that. It also benefits from Apple Pay, allowing you to use your fingerprint for more than just unlocking your device.

The other major feature on the iPhone 6 is its M8 motion co-processor, which tracks data from the various sensors in the device without using the main processor, to provide constant health and fitness stats without draining the battery too much.

Price & availability

iPhone 6

Price was always going to be a big thing in the OnePlus 2's favour and with a cost of just $389 (£289, about AU$535) for the 64GB handset or $329 (£239, about AU$452) for the 16GB option it sure is cheap for such a high power device.

The iPhone 6's starting RRP of £539/$649/AU$999 almost seems laughable in comparison, especially as that's just for a 16GB version, with 64GB costing £619/$749/AU$1,149 and 128GB costing even more.

Then again you can get it a little cheaper if you shop around and more importantly you can actually just go out and buy it. The 64GB OnePlus 2 won't land until August 11 with the 16GB version landing sometime later and both versions will require an invitation to buy, so while it might be cheap, it's not easy.

OnePlus 2 vs iPhone 6: Quick verdict

OnePlus 2

The OnePlus 2 has been labelled a flagship killer and like the OnePlus One before it in many ways it is. A combination of top tier specs, a premium design and innovative features undeniably make it a flagship while a relatively low price could help it kill off its rivals.

But can it kill the iPhone 6? That we're not so sure of. Apple's handset still manages to have a more premium appeal and price aside there's very little to dislike about it. They're also very different prospects, with different operating systems and very different screen sizes, so they're almost not even direct rivals, despite the debates many phone fans love to have on the subject.

It's obviously too early to say which phone is better but the OnePlus 2 is undoubtedly better value while the iPhone 6 is tried, tested and phenomenally popular.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.