While OnePlus has managed to grab the attention of a lot of smartphone buyers in the past two years, they haven’t been ‘flagship killers’. These smartphones were positioned as flagship phones by the company. The OnePlus 1 (Review) offered great performance but disappointed in the design, battery, and camera departments. The OnePlus 2 (Review) had a lack of software and fingerprint sensor, among other flaws. The OnePlus X (Review) has been the company’s most affordable phone so far, but we did notice some issues with its build quality and camera. All that aside, it was very difficult to buy a OnePlus device under the company’s invite system.
It seems that OnePlus has listened to the user’s heart. The company has now finally announced the end of its invite system and has introduced a new flagship smartphone in its affordable phone series. OnePlus 3 has been launched at Rs 27,999 and this smartphone is giving a new challenge in the flagship phone category with this price. However, this smartphone will face tough competition from another successful smartphone Xiaomi Mi 5 (Review). Will OnePlus 3 be able to become a successful phone? Know the pros and cons of this phone in our review.
Look and design
The OnePlus 3 has seen a major change in the design of the phone. Gone is the rear panel with its stand-tone finishing. It has been replaced by cold, hard aluminium. Apart from that, the phone is a unibody with a dull metallic finish that reminds one of the HTC One M9. The OnePlus 3 is a beautiful, well-built phone and finally puts OnePlus in the league of companies offering great designs.
The front of the phone is also quite stylish. Corning Gorilla Glass 4 has been provided with curves on the edge of the screen, which protects the phone from any kind of scratches and damage. Apart from this, there is a capacitive home button in the front which has a fingerprint sensor built-in. There are two more capacitive buttons on both sides of the home button. Usually these buttons are invisible but the backlight gets activated when the button is touched. With the help of the software given in the phone, these buttons can also be deactivated and you can switch to on-screen buttons as per your convenience. Our review unit had a screen protector film already installed but it does not cover the front completely and scratches easily. Therefore, we would prefer the phone without a screen protector film.
The fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 3 is a significant change from the one on the OnePlus 2. It unlocks the phone easily and even when in standby mode, the phone unlocks without activating the device. The fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 3 is also much faster than on many other devices, including the Mi 5, which require you to press the physical home button first to unlock the phone. The OnePlus 3 can store up to five fingerprints and the sensor can also be used to authorize purchases and access controls for certain apps.
The edges of the phone are designed quite well. OnePlus’s familiar alert slider and volume buttons are given on the left side. On the right side is the power button and dual SIM tray. At the bottom are the speaker, USB Type-C port and 3.5mm socket. Although the phone is 7.35mm thin, due to the curved rear, the phone seems quite thin at the edges. Along with this, OnePlus 3 is also comfortable to hold. One thing to note is that the primary camera is quite outward and if you use the phone without a protective case, it can get damaged. Users get five plastic case options which you can buy with the phone for different looks and finishes. Carbon, bamboo, apricot, rosewood and sandstone are the five plastic case options. The texturing done on the case is quite beautiful and the phone looks quite beautiful even without the case.
Like the previous phone, the OnePlus 3 has a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels and a density of 401 ppi. However, this time OnePlus has used an AMOLED screen. The OnePlus X also had an AMOLED screen. There is a polarizing layer to make the phone readable in sunlight. Although it is not as crisp as the 1440×2560 pixels that many flagship smartphones come with these days, it is quite sharp and offers great picture quality.
Specification
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor is finally making its mark and there are now a number of devices available in India with this processor. Except for the LG G5 (Review), all the models with this processor are priced under Rs 30,000. The recently launched LeEco Le Max 2 is also included in this list at Rs 22,999. Not only does the OnePlus 3 use this powerful processor, but it also comes with 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of non-expandable internal storage.
Apart from this, the phone supports 4G connectivity on both SIMs for FDD Band 3 and TDD Band 40. Features like Wi-Fi A/B/G/N/AC, Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC are present in OnePlus 3. To power the phone, a 3000 mAh non-removable battery has been provided and this is the first device of the company to come with some kind of fast charging technology. This phone comes with a 20 watt dash charger, which charges the phone up to 60 percent in just 30 minutes. The phone gets fully charged in just one hour of charging.
Charging and connectivity in the phone is done through USB 2.0 Type-C port and the computer and charger can be connected using the cable provided with the phone.
Interestingly, OnePlus will also sell a Dash Charger specifically designed for cars that can be plugged into a standard 12W car socket. We connected this charger to the phone, although the charging from it was not as fast as a wall-socket charger, but if you travel most of the time then this can be a useful accessory for you.
Software
Talking about the software of OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3 runs on OxygenOS 3.1.1 based on Android 6.0.1. OxygenOS works a lot like stock Android Marshmallow. It also has some useful new features. OxygenOS gives many customization options in the phone, while most of the features of Marshmallow have also been maintained in the phone. These include a new look app permission system, Now on Tap, and Doze mode. Bootloader can be unlocked quickly with OxygenOS.
One of the most important features of OnePlus 3 is Shelf, which can be accessed by swiping right on the home screen. This gives you quick access to weather information, most used apps, widgets, and contacts. Other options like adaptive brightness, color temperature settings, ambient display mode can be accessed by going to the settings menu. Ambient display uses the proximity sensor to give you basic information without having to reach the phone. Apart from this, you can also choose the default keyboard option using Swiftkey.
Other customisation options include activating a ‘Dark Mode’ on the phone that changes menu colours to a dark shade, customising the LED notification light colour for different functions, among others.
Camera
The primary camera of OnePlus 3 is 16 megapixels with Sony IMX 298 sensor while there is an 8 megapixel front camera with 1.4 micron pixels. 4K video can be recorded from the rear camera and slow motion video can be recorded at 120 frames per second. While slow motion video can be recorded from the front camera at 1080 pixels at 30 frames per second. Apart from this, optical image stabilization, phase detection autofocus and RAW image format support are also present in the rear camera.
The camera app is the stock app from Google that you see on Nexus devices. The app is designed simply and takes up most of the screen space for the viewfinder. Hence, there is a single shutter button for taking pictures and video recording is a two-step process. Modes like time lapse, slow motion, video, manual and panorama can be accessed from a small toggle in the top left corner.
While taking pictures, you can also toggle the self-timer. There are also control options for flash, HD shooting, HDR mode and camera switcher. The camera app is pretty easy to use but we have seen better apps with more controls on other devices.
When shooting outdoors in good light, the phone takes sharp photos with plenty of detail but the images are a bit blurry. Colours are vibrant and the images look bright and good. Autofocus seems to be slow at times but once you lock on to a subject or scene, the images turn out well. Both optical and electronic image stabilisation help capture good quality photos and videos. But in low light, the images taken with the camera are oversaturated and blurry.
The phone can capture great videos with great detail even at full-HD resolution. And for better sharpness, you always have the option of 4K video recording. Slow motion and time lapse modes give good results. The front camera is able to take quite sharp pictures and the pictures taken by it are much better than other typical smartphones. Overall, the camera of OnePlus 3 gives much better results than a normal smartphone shooting.
Performance
Among all the smartphones we have reviewed so far with Snapdragon 820 processor, OnePlus 3 proves to be a powerhouse. From playing games to loading web pages, opening apps to taking pictures, everything works very smoothly. With 6GB of RAM, the performance of the phone is excellent. There is no problem of heat or any kind of performance in the phone and the phone works well even when doing heavy tasks.
When it comes to benchmark figures, the OnePlus 3 has broken quite a few records with its terrific performance. The OnePlus 3 is one of the most powerful Android smartphones we have ever used.
The phone worked well on cellular networks. The phone always performs well on 4G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The OnePlus 3 offers better call quality and the device’s dual microphone setup also makes voice transmission good. In our video loop test, the phone’s battery lasted 16 hours and 45 minutes. Even with continuous 4G network and heavy workload, the phone easily lasts for a day without needing to be charged.
Our verdict
After three previous smartphones, OnePlus has finally managed to make the OnePlus 3 a great phone. The phone has done well in every department and OnePlus has eliminated all the problems seen in the previous device. The phone has essential features like NFC, accurate fingerprint sensor, great AMOLED screen and fast charging options, which makes this phone live up to expectations everywhere.
However, the OnePlus 3 is not perfect. While the 64GB of internal storage is adequate, some people may find the lack of expandable storage a problem. The single speaker is a little weak and we encountered some file format recognition issues with the phone, which prevented us from playing some video and audio files. Low light photos were not up to our expectations. But all these minor flaws aside, the OnePlus 3 is a great smartphone. With these features and capabilities, this phone can prove to be a ‘flagship killer’ at Rs 27,999.
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