For $299, the OnePlus One smartphone should be on your smartphone purchasing radar

OnePlus has just launched its first smartphone, the OnePlus One. It is constructed from magnesium, weighing in at just 162g, has a recessed bezel round the edges, and some very powerful hardware baked inside.

We're looking at Qualcomm's super-new Snapdragon 801 - a quad-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 3GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch Full HD display, 16-64GB of on-board storage, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera backed up by a 5-megapixel up front, a 3100mAh battery and LTE connectivity. The 16GB version will cost just $299, but more surprisingly, the 64GB is just $349.

The OnePlus One will be available in black or white, but there are some very interesting customizable textures to choose from. The OnePlus One also has bottom-facing stereo speakers, something the company is proud to boast is a first in the smartphone world. JBL helped OnePlus out with the speakers, which should impress audiophiles.

The smartphone runs Cyanogenmod, with a very flat user interface - but, it's open, as there are customizable themes available. We should expect the OnePlus One to launch in the following countries in Q2: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, UK and the USA.

64 for less than $400? i'm down. gonna have to wait till Q2 though. Time to replace the old S3