Making a splash in the increasingly-homogenized smartphone industry often involves breaking away from the norm, and upstart OnePlus did just this back in 2014 with the launch of their first smartphone, the OnePlus One. Fast forward a year and the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X somewhat failed to excite consumers as much as the first two handsets did – mainly due to some very questionable product-related questions – so the company has been forced to revisit the drawing board somewhat with the OnePlus 3. Is the third time really the charm for OnePlus, and can the OnePlus 3 prove itself to its biggest critics? Or is it more of the same with the OnePlus 3 ticking some boxes but failing to tick others? Let’s find out in this, our in-depth OnePlus 3 review.
Quick Specs:
5.5" 1080p AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, 6GB RAM, 64GB storage, 16MP rear camera with OIS and PDAF, 8MP front camera, Android Marshmallow v6.0.1-based Oxygen OS, Front fingerprint sensor, 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge (Dash Charge), Metal Unibody design, Dual SIM 4G, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection, NFC-enabled, USB Type C, weighs 158g, measure 7.35mm in thickness, Notification LED.
The third coming of the flagship killer is upon us, and the OnePlus 3 has a lot going for it. While the OnePlus One set a solid benchmark in terms of what we can expect from a flagship killer, the OnePlus 2 was a rather incremental upgrade that rolled in all the essential updates in terms of hardware and software without taking any big risks. With the OnePlus 3, the company has managed to preserve the essence of a OnePlus smartphone, while taking a different approach on the design front. The biggest change, however, is the fact that OnePlus is doing away with the invite system. You will be able to buy the OnePlus 3 directly via Amazon India, the exclusive online retailer for OnePlus 3 in India (for now). So, has OnePlus done enough to stand tall and win the flagship skirmish? Read our in-depth review of the OnePlus 3 below to get all the answers!
Build and Design:
Metal all way, the OnePlus 3 has gone all metal, and reeks of the quality and class that one expects from a flagship smartphone. At 158g, the OnePlus 3 is slimmer and lighter than ever before, with an Aluminium alloy-based unibody build that gently curves towards the edges for a comfortable grip. The design elements do remind us of HTC's previous generation flagship smartphones, but it doesn’t take anything away from the fact that the OnePlus 3 is an extremely good-looking smartphone. The front is flanked by edge-to-edge glass with the fingerprint sensor at the bottom center, which boasts of ceramic finish. The display, however, isn’t seamlessly fused along the curve and into the body, with its edge being slightly protruded, which sort of shaves away the benefits of a 2.5D curved screen that is used on the device. Moving on to the bezels, the OnePlus 3 has minimal side bezels and that certainly adds to the aesthetics of the device. Overall, the design of the OnePlus 3 is tasteful, classy and very premium. But, it isn’t groundbreaking or unique, and it won’t attract second looks or beg for your attention. If ever that happens, it would be high on your list of must-haves.
Display:
AMOLED displays are great when it comes to power efficiency, black levels and contrast. But, they aren't the most accurate displays in the business, and are often plagued with oversaturation and colour cast issues. Thankfully, the 1080p, 5.5-inch AMOLED display on the OnePlus 3 is not your typical AMOLED. In many ways, the Optic AMOLED display (as OnePlus calls it) is closer to an IPS display rather than an AMOLED display. As a result, you get fairly balanced colours, minimal oversaturation (yeah, it's still an AMOLED) and exceptional viewing angles. All this, with the added advantage of power efficiency and superior contrast levels makes it a smart choice for a flagship smartphone that runs on a modest, 3000mAh battery pack (more on that later). The display is quite bright and offers good visibility under bright daylight conditions, although it isn't as good in terms of outdoor visibility as the Apple iPhone 6s, which leads the segment. The display on the OnePlus 3 is slightly on the warmer side, and that's where the 'Color Balance' slider in display settings comes good, allowing you to tweak the overall colour tones to your preference. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4, and comes pre-installed with a high quality screen protector to protect it from scratches.
Performance:
In many ways, the core processing engine of the OnePlus 3 is what Android enthusiasts dream of: Performance on tap, with copious amounts of RAM and a slick stock Android UI with no sign of bloatware. Running on a full-blown Snapdragon 820 SoC, the OnePlus 3 literally flies through any task you throw at it. Those six gigabytes of DDR4 RAM on the device ensures you never really worry about memory utilisation. And, it gives you enough bragging rights to look down upon an iPhone 6s user, who has to manage his life with just two gigabytes of RAM. On a serious note, 6GB of RAM at this point is an overkill; it is nice to have as a specification, but not something that you can put to use right away. It's almost like an expensive insurance policy that just covers you from illnesses that aren't yet known to impact humans. But hey, it's comprehensive!
Coming back to performance, the benchmarks below are very much indicative of the real world performance that the OnePlus 3 is capable of. The 1080p screen chosen for the OnePlus 3 over a pixel-dense 2K display goes a long way in providing that additional headroom for the SoC to flex its muscles, when you put the pedal to the metal. Speaking of SoCs, unlike the previous generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC that gave us enough opportunities to narrate those eventful heating and throttling incidences, the Snapdragon 820 offers everything that a flagship Android smartphone could possibly ask for. It is fast, efficient, consistent and cool. On the OnePlus 3, it is no different, and the device only gets noticeably warmer under heavy loads, and when the surrounding temperature nears the 40-degree Celsius mark. Having said that, in a bid to dissipate heat rapidly, the all-metal body on the OnePlus 3 does get warm fairly quickly. The OnePlus 3 cleared our favourite torture test for flagship smartphones with surprising ease - 40 minutes of heavy gaming followed by a 10-minute 4K video clip capture didn't set the alarm bells ringing for the OnePlus 3.
Battery Life:
The 3000mAh battery inside the OnePlus 3 is the least in terms of capacity of all the three OnePlus flaship devices till date. And, no amount of wizardry can possibly make the OnePlus 3 shine in the battery life department. On regular to moderate usage, the OnePlus 3 will last you a day. Heavy users will have to resort to a quick midday charge to keep things going. What really saves the day for the OnePlus 3 is its super fast, efficient charging powers. OnePlus 3 uses ''Dash" charging technology that claims to fill up 60 percent of its 3000mAh battery in just 30 minutes. And, the claim is spot on (almost). We were able to go from 1 percent to 60 percent in 30.23 minutes. The Dash charger, however, is proprietary, and the OnePlus 3 won't exhibit such break-neck charging speeds with regular fast chargers. All said, the OnePlus 3 is an average performer on the battery life front, with the uber fast Dash charging technique helping the OnePlus 3 in recovering some ground.
Camera:
The OnePlus 3 uses a 16MP Sony IMX298 sensor with phase detecttion AF and OIS (optical image stabilization). The camera puts up an impressive show during the day time, capturing plenty of details with accurate focus. It is incredibly responsive as well, as long as there is enough light for the sensor to lock focus. With the f/2.0 aperture-based lens, the imaging system on the OnePlus 3 doesn't knock on the doors of the best flagship smartphone cameras from the likes of Samsung and LG, especially when it comes to low-light shooting. The OnePlus 3 tries to offset the slight weakness in the hardware department with clever software optimisation and algorithm tweaks. And, for the most part, it does pay off handsomely. The 'HD' mode, for instance, is a handy mode that enhances the level of detail and sharpness on images, and we found ourselves using the HD mode regularly to avoid the slightly soft images that the camera produces on default settings. The Manual mode is another great option to get your hands dirty, with the ISO, shutter speed and exposure levels at your disposal, and you can practically work around some of the weaknesses of the camera by using the Manual mode. One word of advice: Whatever you do, do not set the shutter speed below 1/50 second, when in hand-held mode. Choose to do otherwise, and you will end up with a blurry shot. In a bid to avoid excessive noise, the camera tends to use slower shutter speeds to keep the ISO levels low. The built-in OIS somehow doesn't seem to make a huge difference in allowing shutter speeds to stay at an optimum level. Coming back to the Auto mode, the OnePlus 3 uses noise management (read: reduction) to make photos appear more pleasant on the screen, and that is where the 'HD' mode that we mentioned earlier comes to rescue, by lowering the noise reduction algorithm and preserving more detail.
Front Camera:
Review under process, unsurprisingly we ignored testing the selfie camera. Apologies for the clear oversight on our part, we understand the importance of the front camera. We also clearly need a reviewer with narcissist tendencies.
Verdict:
The OnePlus 3 truly delivers a flagship Android smartphone experience at an extremely competitive price point. While it does have a few shortcomings in comparison to flagship smartphones priced twice or even higher, the OnePlus 3 gives you enough reasons to ignore its weaknesses and take advantage of the fact that it scores high on important aspects like performance, design and user interface.
Author : Saatvik Awasthi
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