The OnePlus 3 is the company's latest effort to redefine the definition of what a flagship smartphone really is.
While the previous two generations had their own set of successes and failures, one thing cannot be denied is that OnePlus ushered in the era of 'affordable flagships' (or flagship killers as some people like to call them) making way for the likes of the Xiaomi Mi5, the LeEco Le Max and many many more.
No matter what your opinion about the company or it's controversial invite system, one thing is for sure that you cannot be indifferent towards them. And it seems that with the OnePlus 3, the company may finally have delivered what it has been promising ever since the launch of the OnePlus One.
Featuring a gorgeous full metal unibody design, the smartphone finally doesn't just pack flagship level specifications, but also looks the part.
OnePlus has truly gone all out with the OnePlus 3, packing Snapdragons most powerful processor, the 820, 6GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. Realising its mistakes, the company has packed NFC and QuickCharging (Dash Charge, in OnePlus speak), both of which were missing in the OnePlus 2, in the One Plus 3. Basically, we have everything and the kitchen sink packed in a gorgeous and svelte chassis.
Is it enough to challenge the likes of the HTC 10, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and the iPhone 6S? Let's find out!
Design
This might be the most important section of the review, as this is where the OnePlus 3 has taken the biggest leap over it's predecessors.
When the OnePlus One was launched, it was unique, it dared to challenge the conventional price tiers of budget, mid-range and flagship as set by the mainstream companies like Samsung or LG. Thus for the same reason, the fact that it was made out of polycarbonate was forgiven.
By the time the OnePlus 2 came out, OnePlus found itself having competition in a segment which it can be said it itself created. Now, the dull looks and the polycarbonate construction couldn't be overlooked so easily in a market having smartphones made out of glass and metal.
Thus, for many, including me, the OnePlus 2 was a little disappointing, especially so after considering it lacked features such as NFC or QuickCharging.
Now with the OnePlus 3, OnePlus finally seems to have nailed it. The smartphone really looks incredibly premium with it's metal uni-body construction. Cut from a single slab of aluminum, the smartphone looks sleek and svelte, especially in the Graphite colour, which is what I have got for review.
While the design is nothing new, with echoes of Samsung's S6/S7, iPhone 6s and the recent wave of Chinese metal smartphones, it looks very classy and sophisticated. The design very much feels 'borrowed', but has been executed with panache and a surprising attention to detail.
The only 'sore' point of the design has to be the camera that sticks out of the back. Now compared to the iPhone 6s or the Moto Z, the bulge is not so prominent and doesn't look that out of place, but still breaks the flow of the design.
Now, the front is an all-glass affair protected by Gorilla Glass 4, with the front camera, a notification LED (wish more manufacturers included this feature), the proximity and ambient light sensors and the earpiece on the top and the capacitive key for back and recent apps along with the physical home button underneath the display.
The capacitive keys are responsive and can be customised in the settings menu, enabling you to swap them around or perform certain extra functions with a hold action. They can also be disabled entirely and related with a set of software keys.
Now coming to the dimensions of the device, the OnePlus 3 is rather thin at 7.35mm and weighs 158 grams. The left side of the device has the volume and OnePlus's extremely useful notification slider which allows you to switch between 'all notifications', 'priority notifications' and 'silent'. This is an extremely useful feature and one which i sorely miss on most Androids after shifting from the iPhone.
The right edge has the power key and the dual nanoSim slot, the top is bare while the bottom has the speaker, primary microphone, USB type-C slot and the 3.5mm headphone jack. Thankfully, unlike LeEco and Motorola, OnePlus still has some love for the trusty old 3.5mm headphone jack and hasn't binned it.
Ergonomically, the buttons are positioned well, with the thumb falling perfectly on the power button. They are responsive and clicky, and unlike a lot of recent smartphones, don't feel mushy.
Overall, minor nitpicking aside, the OnePlus 3 has a gorgeous design and is built to an exacting standard. The design may not be new, or something revolutionary, but it just simply looks classy and elegant. Personally, I have not been this excited over how a smartphone looks and feels since Samsung blew me away with the S6 Edge.
Display
The OnePlus 3 packs a 5.5-inch full HD 'Optic' AMOLED display. What exactly is an Optic AMOLED display? Ill get to that. First, lets dress the elephant in the room.
HTC, Samsung, LG, all have moved on to QHD displays. heck, even the LeEco LeMax 2 comes with a 4K display, with a pixel density of 515 ppi.
But OnePlus has decided to stick with the tried and tested full HD resolution. Does that put it at a disadvantage? Well, Yes and No. The lack of pixels isn't really evident for the most part. The screen is bright, the colors are punchy and vibrant, however, the lack of pixels does become clear while watching video and movies.
Comparing say, a Samsung S7 edge and the OnePlus 3 side to side, you can see the benefits of the QHD resolution, but individually, the OnePlus 3's display is more than adequate.
Now, what is this "Optic" AMOLED technology that OnePlus is talking about? Well, it is an AMOLED panel that OnePlus has tuned for greater emphasis on blacks and reds, which OnePlus believes gives a better brewing experience.
The screen packs all the usual AMOLED goodness, deep and inky blacks and ultra-vivid colors, but i really did not see much difference emanating from OnePlus's "Optic" terminology,
OnePlus has drastically reduced the size of the bezels on either side of the screen, which along with the new thin profile, goes a long way in making the device look as good as it does.
The display has good viewing angles and is also easily discernible in bright sunlight, thanks to it's dual-polarising filter. Of course, it is hard to view in direct sunlight but all in all, outdoor legibility is more than adequate.
Another handy feature on the OnePlus 3 is its proximity display. Wave your hand over the front-facing camera when the screen is off and it'll illuminate, showing you the time, and any notifications you have, in black and white.
It's very similar to Motorola's Active Display, so while it's not an innovation on the part of OnePlus it is nice to have, and something I found myself using a lot.
Hardware/Performance
OnePlus has left no stone unturned when it come to the specifications. The OnePlus 3 packs Qualcomm's most powerful processor - the Snapdragon 820 paired with a whopping 6GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. Sadly, there is no way to expand the internal storage as it lacks a microSD card slot. While 64GB is not a paltry amount by any means, power users might be left wanting.
OnePlus claims all this extra power gives its third-generation handset a 35% performance increase over the OnePlus 2, and a 40% graphics boost over its predecessor.
Now, how does all this power translate into real world performance? Well, that's a tricky question to answer. While the OnePlus 3 never really slowed down dramatically, or struggled with daily tasks such as web browsing, taking the occasional picture, using Facebook or WhatsApp, listening to music and so on, it did not really blow me away.
Why I say this because, while reviewing the OnePlus 3, the most daunting question on my mind was that will the extra 2GB of RAM really help? The OnePlus 3 is amongst the most powerful smartphones in the world today, more so than the S7 or the HTC 10, so is that power efficiently utilised?
Well, the smartphone is fast, very fast. Theres no denying that.
It poses great numbers in benchmarks, with a stunning score of 139938 in AnTuTu (higher than the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and the LeEco Le Max 2) and 2398 in Basemark OS 2. It also runs intensive games like Asphalt 8, Real Racing 3 and Mortal Combat effortlessly.
However, it does suffer from random lag and stutters, with Chrome crashing occasionally andapps sometimes taking an extra second to load. Now, is even slight lag excusable with 6GB of RAM? I wonder.
All in all, the OnePlus 3 preforms very well, with smooth navigation and swift app load times, but i really cant say that the additional RAM in the OnePlus 3 is noticeable compared to the OnePlus 2.
Our colleagues over at TechRadar UK posed that question to OnePlus, and a spokesperson told them that the benefit of 6GB of RAM, while slightly visible now, will be seen more so in the future.
Users have been complaining of memory management issues and lag while multi-tasking and OnePlus has promised an update to fix the same. In my personal opinion, while there might be some optimisation issues on OnePlus's part, the problem lies in Android itself.
For quite some time, Android has been lagging behind iOS on one aspect, and that is optimisation. Android's historically tend to slow down over time, and suffer from memory management issues. While Google is taking steps to address this issue, I feel this is the main issue holding back the operating system back at the moment.
Software
The OnePlus 3 runs on Oxygen OS, developed in-house by OnePlus after the ill-fated partnership with Cyanogen on the OnePlus One crashed and burned. It runs atop Android Marshmallow, and on first look, seems uncannily like stock Android.
Oxygen OS comes with its own set of tweaks and customisations, none of which are very intrusive. Where Oxygen OS succeeds dramatically is retaining the soul of stock Android. All the tinkering done by OnePlus only add to the Android experience, and don't take away anything.
This is a breath of fresh air amongst a sea of handsets running extremely customised and skewed skins atop Android, like Samsung's TouchWiz or LeEco's EUI. Personally, after reviewing so many smartphones with such distorted versions of Android that they fail to feel like Android smartphones altogether, Oxygen OS comes off as a relief.
What OnePlus has added is the proximity display which we talked about above and a feature called 'Shelf', which you can access by swiping to the leftmost home page panel. Shelf displays your recent used apps, the weather and frequent contacts as well as allows you to put widgets and write a memo instantaneously.
Oxygen OS also has support for certain gestures, like double tap to wake, the ability to draw an 'O' on the display to turn on the camera, a 'V' for the flashlight and more. Thankfully, these gestures work flawlessly and will actually help increase your productivity rather than being just gimmicks.
What is disappointing is that unlike HTC, OnePlus still chooses to bundle its own Gallery and Music applications along with Google's Photos and Play Music. This just causes redundancy, as the Google alternatives offer a better experience. Thankfully, unlike LeEco, OnePlus hasn't included it's own browser and stuck to Chrome.
The multi-tasking panel has a 'clear all' option at the bottom, which not only closes all running applications but also stops all background processes, freeing up RAM in the process. There is also a link to app management and a 'clean all' button next to 'clear all'
Lastly, OnePlus also allows users to legally unlock the bootloader, making the OnePlus 3 an attractive proposition for modders and tinkerers.
Camera
The OnePlus 3 features a 16MP rear camera with a Sony PDAF sensor and a 8MP front camera, which apparently, is the same unit found on the rear of the iPhone 5S.
OnePlus has packed a ton of features in the camera, including Phase Detection AutoFocus, OIS (optical image stabilization), EIS (electronic image stablisation, Auto HDR, HD Mode and Dynamic De-Noise.
The front camera is simply fantastic, and is a huge step up from most smartphones which offer a mediocre front shooter. The images are crisp and detailed, with hardly any noise. Obviously, in low light situations, the sensor struggles a bit, but still produces decent results. The lack of a front flash is a little disappointing.
The rear 16MP sensor was a big surprise. While not as good as the camera on the S7 or the iPhone 6s, it still produced superb results. In well lit situations, the images are sharp, clear, vibrant and full of detail. Obviously the AMOLED panel does help here, making images look very saturated and vibrant, but even when transferred to a computer, the images looked nice and crisp.
In low light, the smartphone does a commendable job eking out every last ounce of detail it can to produce extremely legible results. Noise does creep in, but not to an extent that renders the image muddy.
The shutter speed is impressively fast, but I found the focus struggled to keep up at times. I had to retake several shots as the originals turned out to be blurred.
The OnePlus 3 can shoot 4K videos, and the end results are good, if not great. The OIS helps stabilise videos very well, and the OnePlus is great for capturing the occasional video footage.
Battery Life
The OnePlus 3 is powered by a non-removable 3.000mAh battery. What is disappointing is that both the OnePlus One and the OnePlus Two came with bigger battery packs, at 3,100mAh and 3,300mAh respectively.
Now OnePlus doesn't go wild with their claims unlike certain manufactures, circa Sony, and promises a realistic one day's use off a single charge. OnePlus has a weapon in its arsenal in the name of DashCharge, which promises a 60% charge in just 30 minutes(!).
Does it really live up to that tall claim? Well, the answer is a resounding yes. While many other manufacturers now support Qualcomm's QuickCharging 3.0 technology, OnePlus claims that it's DashCharge is better. And well, it is.
The Device charged upto 100% in little over an hour, with a 63% of charge in 30 minutes. This makes up for the rather lackluster battery life. The smartphone does make it till the end of the day, but just barely.
During the week I used it as my primary device, the battery saver mode used to kick in around 7-8 pm, and the phone used to be at 6-7% when i reached home around 10pm. However, quick bursts of charge along the way thank to DashCharge really help mitigate the situation.
OnePlus has reduced the amount of heat generated in the device during charging by shifting the main power regulator to the plug block. The device does heat up during charging, but not enough for it to be an issue.
This also means performance isn't throttled during fast charging, allowing you to continue playing Real Racing 3 without excessive heat generation or lag.
The caveat here is that you have to have the Dash charger with you to make use of these quick charging times. With a normal charging block, the OnePlus takes it's own sweet time to refuel.
This problem is compounded by the fact that it uses USB Type C, which is not very popular. So if you forget your cable, there is little chance your mates can lend you one.
Overall the battery performance is a mixed bag. OnePlus has opted for a thinner deign at the cost of a larger battery pack. The DashCharge is a god send and is genuinely useful, but the one day battery life, while adequate, leaves you yearning for more.
Accessories
OnePlus offers a range of cases to go along with the OnePlus 3. There are 5 options to choose from, namely - Sandstone, Black Apricot, Rosewood, Bamboo and Karbon (yes, with a K). They are available for 1,499 each on Amazon India.
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