OnePlus One Pre-Orders Start Oct. 27, But Act Fast

Interested in getting your hands on the unlocked OnePlus One smartphone that's been causing a buzz on social media? Mark your calendar for Oct. 27.

At this point, the only way to get one of these handsets is to either secure an invite or participate in occasional promotions or contests the company runs. But that's about to change. OnePlus just announced plans to open up pre-orders for the One on Oct. 27.

But the pre-order window only lasts for an hour, starting at 11 a.m. EST, so you'll need to act fast. The good news is that you can prepare your order ahead of time to ensure your checkout goes quickly during that very brief 60-minute window.

"Go ahead and get your order just the way you want it," OnePlus wrote in a note on the pre-order page. "Save your cart, mark your calendar, and relax. You've got this."

But pre-ordering doesn't necessarily mean you'll get the phone right away. Once you successfully place your pre-order, you'll get an estimated shipping time. If you get an invitation after submitting your pre-order you can use it to skip the line and get your device shipped right away.

In a blog post, OnePlus said the invite system is a necessary way for the company to control the high demand for the phone.

"The first two weeks in October saw a tornado of invites sent out in enormous batches of 20,000 and 30,000," the company wrote. "This was our way of testing our servers to make sure we are well-prepared for dealing with a large volume of orders."

OnePlus said the trial was a "great success" but admitted that "anything can happen" during the pre-order hour, and advised users to be patient if any technical issues crop up.

Meanwhile, you can also tweet a link to the pre-order page to enter a drawing for a 64GB black OnePlus One.

The OnePlus One boasts specs similar to the Samsung Galaxy S5 ($74.66 at Amazon) , but it's $300 unlocked, as opposed to more than double that for the unlocked S5. It has a massive 5.5-inch screen, a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM inside, as well as 16 or 64GB of storage, and a large 3100mAh battery.

For more, check out PCMag's full review of the OnePlus One.