The
OnePlus 3 was launched on June 14, 2016. With a Snapdragon 820 processor, 6GB of RAM, 16MP rear camera, 8MP front snapper, fingerprint scanner and 3,000mAh fast-charging battery, the OnePlus 3 has the tools – on paper at least – to take on the big names.
As you may expect then, from a flagship handset costing just US$399 (£309, around AU$450), OnePlus has indeed had to balance features against expectation, but with the OnePlus 3 the compromises are more acceptable.
Let's compare the difference the OnePlus 2 &
OnePlus 3
The single biggest advancement from the OnePlus 2 to the
OnePlus 3 is the design. I forgave the original OnePlus One's polycarbonate looks because the phone offered such fantastic value for money, but when the OnePlus 2 came round many people, myself included, wanted more than what was on offer.
Thankfully OnePlus has answered fan's calls for a more premium design, delivering its first metal uni-body smartphone in the OnePlus 3, cut from a single slab of aluminum.
The result is pleasing. The metal chassis signals the evolution of OnePlus brand from a slightly shaky Chinese startup to a brand that knows what it's doing, and knows what people want. It doesn't break any new ground in terms of looks, with flashes of iPhone, HTC and Samsung, but it's great to eyeball and hold in the hand.
Here is the main specification for the
OnePlus 3
OnePlus 3 design and build quality
While the OnePlus One was a large, sandstone-textured performance beast, the OnePlus 2 had a more refined design. The
OnePlus 3 doesn't leap a great distance from its predecessor, but is another instance of where OnePlus has applied small changes to its formula.
In my opinion, the
OnePlus 3 is the best-looking piece of hardware OnePlus has made. At 158g, it’s lighter than either the One or the 2, which are 162g and 175g, respectively. From the back, the anodized aluminum unibody, at 7.35mm in thickness, has an attractive minimal design. It's sparse. The call speaker sits above the display, along with the front-facing camera to its left. To the left of the camera is the notification light.
Beneath the display is a fingerprint sensor, which also doubles as the home button. As with every front-facing sensor like this, you’ll need to take hold of the device with two hands to give your thumb an accurate aim. The sensor is fast when you get it right (and you mostly will), unlocking in up to 0.3 seconds, according to OnePlus. The sensor also has bling quality with its glossy ceramic construction.
On the left side of the
OnePlus 3 is the volume rocker, which sits beneath the notification slider, and on the right side is the sleep/wake button and dual-SIM card tray. All three of these buttons have a pleasingly tactile click. There isn’t much to see on the rear. Beautifully minimal, there is the protruding main camera sensor, flashlight, company logo and the antennas above and below. The combination of hard and soft lines, subtle color variation and even how the anodized aluminum disperses light, give the
OnePlus 3 a fine finish.
Then there's the size. With a 5.5-inch display, and as with every other phablet, this phone is a little too large to comfortably fit in trouser pockets. Its thinness helps pocketability, but if the issue of practicality is a major one for you, or if you've never owned a phablet before, then you mightn’t get along with the OnePlus 3.
OnePlus 3 display
The
OnePlus 3 display is a 5.5-inch, Full-HD AMOLED panel with dimensions of 1920 x 1080p, giving it a pixel density of 401 ppi (the same pixel density as the previous two generations). The 2.5D screen is made of Gorilla Glass 4, which is reportedly more resistant to shattering than previous iterations but, with that smooth aluminum unibody, I’d still lean towards using a case.
Overall, the display is pleasing to use, with oversaturated colors and deep blacks typical of AMOLED panels. Tolerances are also tight. The panel sits very close to the glass and the bezels, at 0.75 mm each, are also small.
OnePlus 3 special features
While in our OnePlus 2 review we discussed the introduction of a fingerprint scanner and the surprise dropping of NFC, you’ll be pleased to know that both of these features are in the
OnePlus 3. Aside from OnePlus marketing this device as VR friendly, with a global virtual reality launch adding a level of interactivity to the release, the most interesting new feature this time around is Dash Charge.
This is OnePlus’s first foray into quick charging. Dash can charge the battery to 60 percent in around 30 minutes. It does this by moving the bulk of the phone’s power management to the adapter, meaning that most of the heat generation that charging causes is kept away from the phone itself, just like other quick charging setups.
OnePlus 3 software
I’ve previously had some issues with OnePlus's Oxygen OS user-interface, namely small bugs and choppy animations, when compared to stock Android. Oxygen has matured since last year and now I’d call it a worthy alternative. The
OnePlus 3 comes loaded with Oxygen OS 3.1.1, which this review is based on, and was updated to Oxygen OS 3.1.2 a day before launch. If you haven’t tried it yet, this is a skinned version of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
It has the usual customizations that you’d be used to, such as dark mode, along with ‘Shelf’, which you’ll find when swiping right from the home screen. This is OnePlus’s alternative to Google Now on Nexus devices, or Samsung’s inclusion of Flipboard into TouchWiz. You can use it to host a collection of apps, shortcuts and widgets. It’s more or less the same as in previous versions of Oxygen.
OnePlus 3 performance
It has a quad-core Snapdragon 820, with two cores clocked at 2.2 GHz and the other two at 1.6 GHz. This is combined with an Adreno 530 GPU, 6 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. The Snapdragon 820 performs very well in the
OnePlus 3, without the throttling burdens that the OnePlus 2 experienced with its easily overheated Snapdragon 810.
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