Coveted OnePlus One Android phone to go on pre-sale 27 October

21 Oct 2014

The OnePlus One Android phone

The much coveted and rare Android phone, the OnePlus One, will soon be available for pre-orders online starting 27 October.

The company that makes the smartphone, OnePlus, first announced the phone in April this year and promised a device that would be just as capable as other mass-produced flagship Android phones on the market but at half the price: US$299 (€233) for the 16GB version and US$349 (€272) for the 64GB version.

Now, the Hong Kong-based company is finally offering consumers the chance to pre-order the phone online from 27 October, but the catch is pre-orders will only be taken for one hour, beginning at 3pm UTC.

According to OnePlus’ official blog, however, this new pre-order hour will not be the end of the invite system the company has had in place.

For its price, the phone’s spec is exceptionally good, with its 4,128 x 3,096p 5.5-inch screen, Quad-core 2.5 GHz processor, 3GB RAM and 3,100 mAh battery.

For Android lovers in Ireland looking to get in on the pre-order, things get tricky. The phone, when released, will not be shipped directly to Ireland, leaving the UK as the closest delivery destination.

As for a release date, the company had previously cited the end of this year’s third quarter. That has now been pushed out to a later date, yet to be confirmed, but OnePlus promises the first orders will begin materialising ‘soon’.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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