The first thing I noticed when picking up the OnePlus 3 is how well built it is. The metal unibody with the 2.5D curved glass on the front, meets seamlessly at the side, and the finishing feels really good too. There is a tiny metal chamfer around the phone which frames the entire front panel of the phone, giving the black front panel a nice metallic accent. The metal back also curves ever so gently so that it is nicer to hold in hand, and easier to pick up from a flat surface.
Design wise, this is an understated and inoffensive looking phone. It doesn’t shout “look at me!” like the S7 Edge’s dual edge display or HTC 10’s huge chamfers, but it’s still polished and well built enough that it still looks like a premium product.
On the Graphite version, the 5.5” AMOLED panel almost blends into the black bezels of the phone. While only FHD (1920 x 1080), I found the display to be pleasing to look at. QHD might be great for virtual reality content, but for my day to day use the screen looks sufficiently sharp for my eyes.
I do have a bit of problem with the colours though, which I thought looked “off” when I first powered on the phone. The issue can be resolved by turning on sRGB mode inside the developer settings though, and with that on, I am very happy with the colour reproduction on the phone. Outdoor visibility is not as bright as I would have liked, but still decent enough for day to day use. The auto brightness settings is a little slow to react to changing conditions, which is slightly annoying. Hopefully something software can fix.
Below the display, we have a capacitive home button that also double up as a fingerprint sensor. Just a light tap on it for a split second is all it takes to unlock the phone. This is one of the fastest fingerprint sensor I have used on a smartphone to date. It’s accurate, and rarely does it fail to recognise my prints.
The bottom of the phone houses a single speaker, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a USB Type C charging port. The speaker is unremarkable to say the least, a bit tinny, but should be usable in day to day situations. It sounds just about as good as the Galaxy Note7 which isn’t really a compliment considering the Note7’s speaker has to be IP68 water and dust resistant, the OnePlus 3's doesn't.
But due to OnePlus' choice to put the speaker on the left side rather than the right, it makes it even easier to cover the speaker completely when playing games. Which is kind of annoying.
Plug in your earphones, and you are also unlikely to be amazed by the run-of-the-mill DAC from the Qualcomm chipset. The output is also a little bit softer than I would have liked, having to turn it to full volume while I am jogging.
The USB Type C port is also a bit of a mixed bag when It comes to fast charging. It is neither using the more common Qualcomm Quick Charge (QC) standard, nor the USB Type C power delivery specifications 5V/3A charging that Google is using for their Nexus devices. Instead it uses its own Dash charging standard (which is pretty much VOOC charging for OPPO devices) for fast charging, which outputs up to 5V/4A. Basically the main difference is that instead of relying on the phone itself to dissipate the heat from charging, it shifts the power management system and heat dispersion elements to the charging adapter itself. Why is this good?
Batteries don’t like heat. When a battery is constantly operating at a higher temperature, it shorten its lifespan. Especially when you are charging and using the phone at the same time, this would generate even more heat than usual. If the phone runs at a higher temperature than normal, the processor will also normally limit itself in order to reduce heat. You might see performance degradation when the phone gets warm. Charging speed will also be reduced in order to reduce heat.
Just a quick note though, the charging technology is proprietary, so you need to be using Dash charging adapters, and cables if you want quick charging. I ended up trying Dash charging once, and then revert back to using my regular 5V/2A charger that I use for most of my devices just because it's more convenient.
There are a few additional hardware features of note. The alert slider on the left of the phone makes it easier to switch between modes without the need to turn on the screen first. The phone supports dual sim card as well, so for those who need to travel frequently or have 2 phone numbers would find it useful.
One of the main selling point for OnePlus devices is their price to specifications ratio. Their flagship devices often pack top tier SoC into phones that costs way lesser than their competitors, and the OnePlus 3 is no different. It packs the latest and greatest from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 820 chipset, Adreno 530 GPU, with a whooping 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and 64GB of UFS 2.0 storage. These specifications are as good as it gets for 2016. Combine this with less pixels to push, and a near stock Android software experience, the phone flies through most tasks that I throw at it.
Apps open quickly, the UI is responsive, and games are as smooth as it gets for an Android smartphone. Of course hardware is only half the story when it comes to overall performance. The software plays an important role as well. The OnePlus 3 runs a near stock Android OS called Oxygen OS, based on Android 6.0.1. Which also means that performance of the UI is as good as it gets for Android devices. I definitely appreciate the leaner version of Android more.
It comes with some customisation of their own, with some additional features, and icons. On the left side of the home page, instead of a Google Now page, you have what OnePlus call a "Shelf" for frequently used apps, contacts, and ability to take quick memo. A feature I quickly turned off.
There are also gestures that can be set to do specific tasks, and again this is something that I find myself rarely using since the fingerprint sensor is so fast to unlock, I can quickly get to what I want to do anyway.
My favourite aspect of Oxygen OS is its customisability over stock Android. If I am more used to Samsung's capacitive layout, I can swap them to suit my preference. If I want to use soft keys rather than the capacitive keys, I can do so too. My favourite of all would be the dark mode option which change the app drawer and settings menu dark. With the inky black AMOLED panel on the OnePlus 3, it looks really stunning with a blacked-out background.
(With dark mode off)
(With dark mode on)
Having been testing the Note7 too, Oxygen OS is a breath of fresh air to use. It's lean, and only adds minor touches to enhance the looks and functionality of the vanilla flavoured Android. Performance is speedy and UI is responsive too. It gets the basics right. TouchWiz on the other hand is a more heavy-handed approach, and it really shows in its performance. While it adds additional functionality that could be genuinely be useful to some, I find myself wishing I could turn most of them off.
Another plus side of the OnePlus 3 is that the developer community is actually pretty great for this phone. So while timely updates is still an unknown, at least if you have the know-how, you won’t be stuck on an ancient version of Android.
One of the common pitfalls of getting a budget smartphone would be its camera. If I want the best camera available on a smartphone, I need to be ready to shell out more cash to get a high end device. I wish I could say the OnePlus 3 is different.
The camera is actually pretty good, but just not there with the top dogs just yet. The 16MP rear shooter has an aperture of f/2.0, with a camera sensor that isn't particularly big too at 1/2.8”. It is assisted by OIS for steadier shots, and uses PDAF for focusing.
In daylight, the camera produce images that look true to life for the most part. Details are well preserved too with decent image processing. Auto HDR works really well too, with the resulting shot looking pretty natural. It doesn't have the depth of field that phones with wider aperture like the Note7 does, but is still able to produce some great looking close up shots with a nice bokeh effect. Image quality wise I am pretty happy with the OnePlus 3 actually.
In low light, the camera retains its true to life colour reproduction, and has decent details preserved. Some shots can look a bit noisier if I pixel peep, but nothing jarring. The smaller aperture and sensor doesn't help much obviously, so shots can still look pretty dark at times.
(Swipe up or down to change modes)
The camera app has a simple enough UI and is pretty intuitive to use for the most part. While the focussing system is not as fast as what Samsung has to offer, it is decent enough for its price range. The viewfinder refresh could be a bit better though, especially in low light.
While the OnePlus 3’s camera experience can't quite match up to other flagship devices in the market, it provides great quality images for its price.
Full resolution images available for viewing here.
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(With Dbrand's Concrete skin)
The OnePlus 3 doesn't really break any new grounds here in terms of features or technology. What OnePlus did tremendously well here, is balance the phone’s feature with its price. The build is solid, the specs are top notch, and the software is enjoyable to use. The camera is probably the only thing that I have reservations on, and not because it isn’t good, but simply because I have been spoiled by Samsung’s latest offerings. This is a very well-rounded phone that does very little wrong.
What we have here is a really really good smartphone for people not looking to drop a ton of cash. It may not be the best phone in the market right now, but it's close enough for the price that OnePlus is asking for it. In fact, it's a better buy compared to a handful of other so called "flagship" smartphones which costs more than the OnePlus 3. Colour me impress, OnePlus.
Now, they just need to get better at selling and distributing their phones worldwide. So far, the launch in Singapore has been nothing short of disastrous. Earlier news cited availability on 30th July via offline retail stores and online stores. The phone did indeed went on a pre-order on Lazada on the 4th of July at a discounted price of S$649 (RRP S$699), but it sold out in a minute or two. The phones shipped some time around the 25th of July, and since then, the phones have seemingly disappeared into thin air. Even the Lazada listing has been taken down. I am not sure what the heck is going on, but they need to work these things out if they expect to become a bigger player in the market.
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A bit of a side note. While it is easy to say that all flagship phones should be priced like this so it’s affordable to everyone, it’s just not realistic. It is only because of those more expensive phones that the OnePlus 3 can be priced the way it is. New technology will always be implemented on these high costs devices before it can be commoditised into cheaper ones. It needs to achieve a certain economies of scale before the technology can become cheaper, before a phone like the OnePlus 3 could be possible.
The reason OnePlus 3 can be priced like this while being still so good, is because there is no need for the phone to break any new grounds. There is no new fancy dual edge curved displays, no Iris scanner, no dual camera setup, no dual pixel sensors, no 3D touch, etc. The OnePlus 3 just does the essentials well for a smartphone in 2016, with little to no bells and whistles (perhaps with the exception of the 6GB of RAM).
So while I love smartphones like the OnePlus 3 which offers great value for money, I also love smartphones that tries to push the boundaries of what a smartphone can do, and how it can make our lives easier.
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