THE STORY OF HOW I GOT MY HANDS ON THE 'FLAGSHIP KILLER' ONEPLUS ONE!

One's SandStone back: Unseen before material in a unseen before phone!

Of late many have been asking me repeatedly for INVITES of OnePlus One and repeatedly am answering them with lame answer, “I will, once I get my INVITES TO SHARE.” But how many? I will get only three and there are many who are requesting for One! All are my friends, family members, acquaintances, with whom I have spent moments at some point of my life. Who should I listen to and who should I ignore? Dear OnePlus, can you help me out? Till then, I thought of writing my story so that my friends will know how to get their hands on One.

Before I begin let me tell you why I'm devoting my time, energy and this blog just to reveal a story of a smartphone. To put it straight and simple, this isn't any ordinary cellphone that you can get your hands on in some local shop or that e-commerce site, this is the OnePlus One. A phone that packs 3GB of RAM (yes, you heard it right, 3GB of RAM), 64GB of internal storage (no typing error again!by the way there's 16GB version too) coupled with Snapdragon™ 801 processor with global 4G LTE and an immersive 5.5" 1080p display. Behold all those who lust of a great camera in their phone for it comes with 13MP of primary and 5MP of secondary camera for great selfies. And believe me, very few could match its capabilities. And to get your day going without any breaks the One packs under the hood a 3100mAh battery that hardly drains over the day. And all this and much more for just $349 ($299 for 16GB)!

Have I forgotten to mention it runs on CyanogenMod 11S(S is exclusively developed for the One) which is based on Android but offers tweaks and features not found in the official Android based firmwares of vendors. Cyanogen requires a special mention for features where you could mould your One to your heart's content wherever, whatever, everything from simple theme to boot animations can be changed to your wish and desire. Yes, on nexus devices you could tweak it but not as simple and with ease which Cyanogen offers. It's all as simple as cutting a cake!

There's more to it but I believe google will serve that purpose. Let me tell you my story. A story of how I got my hands on the superb One which a friend of mine who introduced me to the phone termed IMPOSSIBLE TO GET HANDS ON!

This friend of mine has not got any invite but I must thank him for introducing me to the One and yes, the first invite-to-share is his! Other two? I'm yet to decide on them! By the way let me get them first! OnePlus, are you hearing?

It all began with him.

He sent me a link as usual through office communicator. I opened all as usual but rest was not-that-sort-of-history but believe me was not as usual too. I have always believed phones are for making calls and even a simple Nokia does that better than the rest. Reading between the line? Yes, I was that-die-hard-fan of Nokia till Microsoft brought it over!

I googled and landed at last on to their website oneplus.net. After going through what the phone has to offer and at the price they were offering, I was perplexed. The first doubt was if I was made some fool for how can some startup born in mid December, 2014 term its debut device 'flagship killer'? Is it some fun, someone kidding the cruel way? How can they price a device packed with so powerful components at so low a price? There were many questions, many obvious doubts which were put to rest only when I googled more, dropped myself into reading their forum posts; another first for me! I had made my mind. I wanted this device at all means. And then my good friend woke me up from my delusion to introduce me to the hurdles that lay before getting a One in hand. You all may already be aware of this system they have wherein they send you 'invites to purchase' their phone but to me it was some news then. However stupid this idea may seem but that was it. Cost-cutting at its best where one gets his phone through a invite and then word-of-mouth does the rest! For this plan to work you must build a phone that reallly really must stand the test of time – it must be a killer in looks, feel, specs, in short all and, exactly this phone was all that it was supposed to be – a true flagship killer. And I wanted it, badly. That was it.

The more I read, the more I heard, the more I wanted to own One. That was pathetic of a friend to introduce to a dish so good, give it a build up and then slowly slip in the why-can't-you-have detail. The detail here was their 'invite system' plus long que of forum members who were already in que long before me and the obvious shipping blues; it didn't had shipping facilities in India. All in all 'impossible' he named it then. I must say, that was the trigger! I like things that are ''imposible to own, the things that are hard to get. I believe strongly in that Adidas tag line – Impossible is Nothing.

I started sailing into the impossible ocean which took me from their site to forums to following them on every social media platform and, getting active there. This was tough, gargantuan I must christen it. I had made it a habit to be active on their forum everyday, most of the day in fact. I shared, tweeted, retweeted, posted, clicked on 'like', did almost everything which I could think of. Did I got any invite doing the same? Nope. There were many already who were active for much longer hours than me and were senior in arriving aboard. I was lost. My friends words did started making sense. It was impossible indeed for almost more than a month has gone doing same but without any hope. Like this friend of mine who recently after requesting for an invite from me said, “I tried continuously for two days but didn't got any invite. I'm giving up, will purchase some other!”

NEVER SETTLE is the philosophy they believe in and 'Patience is the key', is a line I believed in. So some might lose hope after not getting a response but I perserved; perserved for One. And after nearly four months of beating legs, I got an Invite to Buy. Yes, you heard it right – I got an invite to by!

Did I believed in what I saw? No, in fact I still don't believe I own the OnePlus One! At that moment when I was going to bid good-bye to my friend who was leaving to his home, I asked him to slap me in the crowd and he did slapped me couple of times with so much of ease I-don't-know-from-where-he-bought! We had 24 hours now to claim and purchase it; just 24 hours. In that meagre a time, I had to arrange money, some person who lives in countries where OnePlus ships their phone and whose address we can use plus he/she will return to India soon. Nonetheless to less I didn't had good finance then to buy the One nor did anyone came into my mind who could lend me money so soon. Catch 22 situation it was. Total tied. Here I was with a invite for which I waited so long but with plethora of other problems. Pillar to post I did made my try. I got none – no financier nor any person whose address we could use. On the other hand my friend too was trying his luck on train. 24 hours were getting short. Like in those movies, they seemed like fractions of seconds.

Wonder, I may want to call it for we got a person in US who was ready to let his address and he was coming to India after few weeks. Thanks to my friend who came to know of this manager while his weekly prayers in a nearby prayer hall and that manager knew this delivery manager in US whose address we used to ship our One. One worry was wiped of the stressed brains but other equally pivotal remained. Financier. Hard to get one when you are asking for an amount not so small but as soon as possible and for a phone that hardly general public have heard of. Total mess. Night was gone and with it went our 16 hours in total. 8 hours to go. And only one worry solved till now. I had tried calling every being on planet that I knew could be of help without much of troubled inquisition but rarely do some give his share of money without asking why. And at last when only a two hours were remaining, a girl from Chennai (south-east coast of India) striked chord in mind. I made a call, explained her what was at stake and how important were each seconds. She agreed. Finance was done. Address was done. What else to wait for? I typed in address bar www.oneplus.net, pressed buy and then there was another catch -PayPal!

We needed one PayPal account. I had mine but the card attached had problems. Total crap. And then a name striked me. Someone I knew from Facebook that he was doing his MS in US. He was my senior during school days. Someone I rarely talked with but this was the time; time when I had to make the move. Less than an hour remaining. Now or never, I uttered to myself. I texted him through messenger. And thankfully he replied. I explained him the situation and by some magic he believed me. He himself made the payment (Saturday) which I returned following Tuesday. And that's how the order was placed at last moment when everything seemed unconquerable.

Lessons are plenty. Perseverance and patience sure are the keys to life for the things you want to own or achieve. Never Settle is sure a formidable philosophy in which one must always believe in if perfection is the thing one aspires for. Rest? They are simple. Get your PayPal account ready, if you are in some other country where OnePlus don't ship then have one person in mind who can be of help to you in other nation where they ship. Last but not least – NEVER SETTLE!