The most exciting smartphone of the year so far is also a cause of immense frustration for many.

Everyone wants to get their hands on the OnePlus One, which combines cutting-edge specifications with an affordable price tag, but you need an invite if you want to buy one — and they’re incredibly hard to come by right now. But don’t spend your savings on another smartphone just yet.

OnePlus has told fans that the One will be much easier to get hold of if you want until June.

I can’t tell you how much of my life has been wasted staring at boot up screens. I’m sure most smartphone owners are in the same boat. But those who upgrade to the new OnePlus One will hardly ever have to endure that painful wait again.

The $299 flagship has an insanely speedy boot-up time. In fact, in a simple speed test against the Nexus 5, the One booted up, powered down, and booted back up again in the time it took Google’s device to get to the home screen.

After months of hype and speculation, the OnePlus One finally got its official unveiling today. At just $299 for 16GB of storage and $349 for 64GB, it is perfectly priced to compete with affordable smartphones like the Nexus 5 — but its design and internal specifications are very much taking aim at the latest flagships.

In fact, OnePlus calls its debut smartphone the “flagship killer.” So, does the device have what it takes to take on rivals like the HTC One M8, the Sony Xperia Z2, and the already popular Samsung Galaxy S5? We’ve compiled an in-depth comparison between them all to help you decide.

I don’t know about you, but after all the hype surrounding the OnePlus One in recent months, I was worried it was going to be ugly as sin. After all, it has all the cutting-edge specifications you’d expect from a high-end smartphone, but something had to give to meet that $299 price tag — right?

Maybe, but it certainly wasn’t the design. The One is as beautiful as you would have hoped, with a super-sleek magnesium construction that measures just 4.6mm thin and weighs just 162 grams. It will be available in Sandstone Black and Silk White as standard, which a choice “StyleSwap” back covers including wood, denim, bamboo and Kevlar.

Yesterday, thanks to some leaked press renders, we got our first glimpse at OnePlus One final design and its StyleSwap covers. Now, a staff of the OnePlus team has posted some screenshots of the flavoured version of CyanogenMod that the handset would be running.