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Phone calls sounded clear on the OnePlus X, and I didn't have any complaints from people I was talking to – the active noise cancellation within the mic probably helps here.
Like the OnePlus 2, the OnePlus X doesn't come with NFC, something that was included in the OnePlus One. This is unfortunate, as Android Pay is about to kick off in a big way, and if you have either of these phones you won't be able to use it.
OnePlus says it found that OnePlus One users weren't using the NFC feature, but I personally think it's a bad decision, as clearly people aren't going to start embracing a technology until it has a relevant purpose other than just connecting to speakers quickly.
Payments are going to do that for NFC, and it's a shame that OnePlus hasn't seen fit to include the technology here after the criticism it took for dropping it for the OnePlus 2.
Security-wise there's no fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus X. That's one feature you'd expect to be dropped at this price point though, and there are plenty of other security options on the OnePlus X to make up for it.
You've got the choice of a swipe, pattern, PIN or password lock for your phone. If you do feel the need for a fingerprint sensor though, then it's worth upgrading to the OnePlus 2 – it's a good, secure way of unlocking your phone.
OnePlus wants us to believe that it's embracing USB-C technology wholeheartedly after including it in the OnePlus 2, and I'd be very happy if it did. It's a much more efficient way of connecting a phone up to charge, and too few phone manufacturers are taking up the technology at the moment.
Sadly, with the OnePlus X OnePlus has reverted back to good old micro USB. While this makes it easier to get hold of a charger for the phone, it's not as efficient as USB-C technology, and it's a shame that OnePlus didn't take the opportunity to future-proof the X in this respect.
The speakers on the OnePlus X sit at the bottom of the phone, and they're pretty impressive.
It's easy to cover them up by putting the phone in the wrong position, but when they were upped to full volume I found the phone was giving out a good level of audio.
Wi-Fi and storage
The OnePlus X only includes Wi-Fi 801.11 b/g/n. In layman's terms that means you can't connect to faster 5GHz Wi-Fi networks – and that's something you don't think you'll miss until you lose it.
Trying to connect to our 2GHz network at home was quite difficult, and I think it's a misstep for OnePlus to miss out this ultimately vital feature.
Storage-wise OnePlus has upped its game with the X. There's only a 16GB version of the phone and I filled this up quite quickly, but this is expandable with a microSD card.
The OnePlus 2 didn't have microSD support, so it's good to see it here. You'll be able to use cards of up to 128GB, and I'd recommend making use of it, as I found that I'd filled the internal storage within a few hours of setting up the phone and downloading a few biggish apps.
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