OnePlus 3 Review.
Introduction
OnePlus has never shied away from bold marketing: known for its “flagship killers” that “never settle”, and for throwing marketing cliches and ‘firsts’ at customers salivating at the prospect of a phone selling for half the price of Samsung Galaxies and Apple iPhones, yet with similar performance.
For a brand that was starting from (almost) zero, though, that kind of noise was necessary. Living through its rebellious teenage years, OnePlus had to deny everything and try it all before finally settling for a product that does away with a lot of the immaturity of earlier launches: the OnePlus 3.
Gone is the extremely annoying invite system that resulted in weeks of waiting and a lot of broken hopes, gone are the bold, but also outrageous marketing claims. Is it time to start taking OnePlus seriously? With a massive launch on day one with availability in 31 countries across the globe and fast shipping, the OnePlus 3 means business. Let’s see what it’s all about.
In the box:
- OnePlus 3
- Wall charger (5V - 4A)
- USB-C to USB cable
- User manual
- Sim ejector
Design
A grown-up, solid design with a comfortable, ergonomic in-hand feel.
The OnePlus 3 is a grown-up, solid design: with a body carved out of a single piece of aluminum, it has that substantial feel that you get from high-end devices. The design is not something new or original per se: the body looks a lot like that of an HTC phone, the camera hump seems to be very similar to that of many Huawei phones, but we don’t get a feel that OnePlus tried to clone a particular device, and it all comes together well.
First, let’s talk physical size. The OnePlus 3 is a 5.5-inch phone, and while it’s not as thin and compact as a Galaxy S7 Edge, it still feels fairly thin and compact for its size. The OnePlus 3 sits in your palm very comfortably and ergonomically with its nicely curved back. The device is also remarkably thin at 7.3mm, and at 158 g (5.57oz) – it feels relatively lightweight for a phone this size.
It’s worth saying that the OnePlus 3 team spared no effort and even the buttons on this phone feel well made. The rather large physical keys (a power/lock key on the right and a volume rocker on the left) are easy to press and respond with a pleasant click. And yes, there is a mute switch! Located right above the volume keys on the left, the three-step mute switch is a great time saver and comes particularly handy when you need to quickly mute your phone. We wish more Android phone makers would incorporate such a handy switch in their phones.
Up front, there is what appears like a physical home key. It’s not a button that you can press, though, but just a touch-sensitive area that you can tap on to go back to your home screen or to unlock the OnePlus 3 with your fingerprint. There are two invisible capacitive keys around the home key: you can actually customize them (you can set which of them to be the back and which - the multitasking key). We love that freedom of choice: we know plenty of people who are allergic to phones where the right key serves as a multitasking button, but we also know a ton of people who prefer it that way. Then, you can even disable those two keys completely and rely instead on on-screen buttons a la Nexus. The OnePlus 3 satisfies all those different tastes in a very elegant way.
There is no water resistance or any other protection from the elements, just in case you’re wondering.
Up front, there is what appears like a physical home key. It’s not a button that you can press, though, but just a touch-sensitive area that you can tap on to go back to your home screen or to unlock the OnePlus 3 with your fingerprint. There are two invisible capacitive keys around the home key: you can actually customize them (you can set which of them to be the back and which - the multitasking key). We love that freedom of choice: we know plenty of people who are allergic to phones where the right key serves as a multitasking button, but we also know a ton of people who prefer it that way. Then, you can even disable those two keys completely and rely instead on on-screen buttons a la Nexus. The OnePlus 3 satisfies all those different tastes in a very elegant way.
There is no water resistance or any other protection from the elements, just in case you’re wondering.
But what is this strange new Optic AMOLED screen technology, you might wonder? Don’t worry, you haven’t missed the next revolution in display manufacturing. Optic AMOLED seems to be no more than a marketing term that OnePlus uses to describe its specific calibrations and adjustments done for an otherwise regular AMOLED panel. The company says it performed some specific gamma corrections. However, we see nothing impressive on this front – just a boosted contrast level, which isn't necessarily a good thing.
This brings us to the actual colors. Put simply: this is one of the worst displays on a phone that has some serious ambitions.
Colors on the OnePlus 3 looks unnaturally bluish, and are way overblown, resulting in nearly neon-like nuances. Such bluish displays were often seen on cheaper Android phones a couple of years ago, but it’s quite a shock to see such poor color rendition on a modern, presumably high-end phone.
This brings us to the actual colors. Put simply: this is one of the worst displays on a phone that has some serious ambitions.
Colors on the OnePlus 3 looks unnaturally bluish, and are way overblown, resulting in nearly neon-like nuances. Such bluish displays were often seen on cheaper Android phones a couple of years ago, but it’s quite a shock to see such poor color rendition on a modern, presumably high-end phone.
Getting a bit more technical, it seems that OnePlus is targeting the NTSC color gamut, which is a bad practice given that most (if not all) content on the web including photographs, video and the whole Android system is made for the sRGB color standard. OnePlus is now promising that it will introduce an sRGB color mode via a software update soon, so needless to say, we're looking forward to that.
The screen is also not very bright, and you might have a bit of a trouble making out what’s on it on a sunny day. Another notable issue we have is that auto-brightness works surprisingly slowly. We noticed this when starting the camera: it takes the screen a few long seconds to adjust to bright light, and those could result in a missed shot. But it’s also just plain annoying: while other phones adjust their brightness almost instantaneously, the OnePlus 3 always takes a few seconds for such a simple operation.
Interestingly, there is a pre-applied screen protector on the OnePlus 3, but while we do appreciate this, the protector itself seems to be a bit too narrow, not quite covering fully the screen, so that your finger - rather than gliding smoothly across the glass surface - constantly bumps against the edge of that screen protector.
While we had a lot to criticize about the display of the OnePlus 3, the clean interface and fast performance of the phone left us impressed.
The OnePlus 3 comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow pre-installed and on top of that is the light Oxygen OS interface. For the most part, it feels like using a Nexus-like, stock Android phone. We have the same Material Design all throughout, with quick, to-the-point animations.
There are some key additions here: customization options are absolutely amazing on the OnePlus 3. You can set quick shortcuts to open particular actions when you double press or long press the home, recents and back button (go into Settings > Buttons for that). For instance, we’ve now set our OnePlus 3 to quickly launch the camera when you double tap on the Home button, and open Voice Search when you long press the home button. This is a level of customization that we would love to see on other Android phones.
The OnePlus 3 is also encrypted by default, which is nice.
You can also use and set gestures, so that a double tap can wake the phone, for instance. You have to manually enable these. To do this, go into Settings > Gestures > enable Double tap to wake. You need to have gestures enabled, in order to allow custom shortcuts like waving your hand over the screen to take a look at the time, for instance.
There is also the Dark mode (go into Settings > Customizations to enable it). It turns all the backgrounds in settings and the app drawer dark, which is easier on the eyes at night, but also helps save battery life.
Part of OnePlus’ reputation is that the company manages to build phones with the most powerful system chip available on the market and sell them at very low prices. It did it once again with the OnePlus 3: the phone has the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 820 system chip, and it performs admirably. Apps load very quickly, navigating around the menus is a breeze, and the phone just feels fast.
Technically, the Snapdragon 820 is a quad-core chip with custom Qualcomm Kryo cores (not your off-the-shelf Cortex A series) that perform very well in terms of single-core power, but also in multi-core applications.
Then, there is the 6GB of RAM situation. This has a lot to do with marketing: having the first mass-market phone with 6 gigs of RAM gives it a lot of publicity, but in real-life, OnePlus is killing apps just as it would do with its OnePlus 2 that had 4GB RAM. We do hope that RAM management is improved in a future software update, but so far, the benefit of 6GB of RAM is limited by OnePlus’ own software.
Gamers should also know that this phone comes with the Adreno 530 GPU, which is one of the fastest graphics solutions on mobile, and it performs on par with other flagships. Yes, this means that it should be able to handle even the most demanding games with a consistent frame-rate, and also be future-proof. Take a look at the benchmark scores to see how it fares against the competition.
We’re also tremendously happy to see a plentiful 64GB of storage as the base and only option for the OnePlus 3. While Apple is still insulting users with 16GB of storage for base models on the twice as expensive iPhone 6s Plus, and Samsung offers good-but-not-great 32GB of storage on the S7 series, the OnePlus 3 outdoes them all.
With 4K video on board, an ever-growing collection of music and a ton of heavy Live/Motion photo solutions on other phones, it feels like we rely on our phones more and more, and insufficient storage is one area that can often ruin the experience. The OnePlus 3 not only has a lot of storage, but it uses the fast UFS 2.0 storage that allows for apps to install and start much faster.
Unfortunately, there is no support for expandable storage. Rather than using a hybrid tray, the OnePlus 3 is a dual nano SIM phone and has no microSD card slot. For those few people that need more than 64 gigs, this would be a problem.
Unlike many other Android phones, OnePlus does not have such a huge problem with app duplicates. Yes, there are two gallery apps pre-installed (Google Photos and OnePlus’ own gallery app), but - blissfully - there is one browser (Google Chrome), one calendar (Google Calendar), and one mail app (Gmail).
Chrome is a fast and smooth-performing browser that syncs all its bookmarks and history across all sorts of devices - from desktop and laptop, to mobile - and that makes it very convenient. Surfing the web was fast and pages rendered quickly, so we had no issues here.
What about 4G LTE connectivity? The OnePlus 3 comes in three models: one aimed at the North American market in general, another one for Europe, and a third one for the Chinese market. In North America, the OnePlus 3 will support bands 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, and 17. This means that OnePlus 3 will work on AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as on their related MVNOs in the United States, but does not support 4G LTE band 13, the main band for Verizon Wireless, so you won't be able to use the LTE network with it. Sprint 4G LTE bands are also not supported. The European version of the phone supports all major carriers in the Old Continent, and it also supports the crucial band 20, which is good news. There is also a dedicated model for China with support for its specific TDD-LTE bands 38-41.
In terms of other connectivity options, you also have Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC support.
The screen is also not very bright, and you might have a bit of a trouble making out what’s on it on a sunny day. Another notable issue we have is that auto-brightness works surprisingly slowly. We noticed this when starting the camera: it takes the screen a few long seconds to adjust to bright light, and those could result in a missed shot. But it’s also just plain annoying: while other phones adjust their brightness almost instantaneously, the OnePlus 3 always takes a few seconds for such a simple operation.
Interestingly, there is a pre-applied screen protector on the OnePlus 3, but while we do appreciate this, the protector itself seems to be a bit too narrow, not quite covering fully the screen, so that your finger - rather than gliding smoothly across the glass surface - constantly bumps against the edge of that screen protector.
Display measurements and quality
| MAXIMUM BRIGHTNESS(nits)HIGHER IS BETTER | MINIMUM BRIGHTNESS(nits)LOWER IS BETTER | CONTRASTHIGHER IS BETTER | COLOR TEMPERATURE(Kelvins) | GAMMA | DELTA E RGBCMYLOWER IS BETTER | DELTA E GRAYSCALELOWER IS BETTER | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LG G5 | 816 (Excellent) | 4 (Excellent) | 1:2220 (Excellent) | 7816 (Average) | 2.14 | 4.34 (Average) | 8.43 (Poor) |
| Apple iPhone 6s Plus | 593 (Excellent) | 5 (Excellent) | 1:1407 (Excellent) | 7018 (Good) | 2.19 | 2.32 (Good) | 2.76 (Good) |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 edge | 493 (Good) | 2 (Excellent) | unmeasurable (Excellent) | 6586 (Excellent) | 2.03 | 1.47 (Excellent) | 2.62 (Good) |
| OnePlus 3 | 409 (Good) | 1 (Excellent) | unmeasurable (Excellent) | 8280 (Poor) | 2.08 | 7.42 (Average) | 6.84 (Average) |
Interface and Functionality
Nearly stock Android experience with a few additions and quite a few nice customization options. Other Android phone makers can borrow a few of these.
While we had a lot to criticize about the display of the OnePlus 3, the clean interface and fast performance of the phone left us impressed.
There are some key additions here: customization options are absolutely amazing on the OnePlus 3. You can set quick shortcuts to open particular actions when you double press or long press the home, recents and back button (go into Settings > Buttons for that). For instance, we’ve now set our OnePlus 3 to quickly launch the camera when you double tap on the Home button, and open Voice Search when you long press the home button. This is a level of customization that we would love to see on other Android phones.
The OnePlus 3 is also encrypted by default, which is nice.
You can also use and set gestures, so that a double tap can wake the phone, for instance. You have to manually enable these. To do this, go into Settings > Gestures > enable Double tap to wake. You need to have gestures enabled, in order to allow custom shortcuts like waving your hand over the screen to take a look at the time, for instance.
There is also the Dark mode (go into Settings > Customizations to enable it). It turns all the backgrounds in settings and the app drawer dark, which is easier on the eyes at night, but also helps save battery life.
Processor, Performance and Memory
All-out Snapdragon 820 guarantees solid, smooth performance throughout.
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Technically, the Snapdragon 820 is a quad-core chip with custom Qualcomm Kryo cores (not your off-the-shelf Cortex A series) that perform very well in terms of single-core power, but also in multi-core applications.
Then, there is the 6GB of RAM situation. This has a lot to do with marketing: having the first mass-market phone with 6 gigs of RAM gives it a lot of publicity, but in real-life, OnePlus is killing apps just as it would do with its OnePlus 2 that had 4GB RAM. We do hope that RAM management is improved in a future software update, but so far, the benefit of 6GB of RAM is limited by OnePlus’ own software.
Gamers should also know that this phone comes with the Adreno 530 GPU, which is one of the fastest graphics solutions on mobile, and it performs on par with other flagships. Yes, this means that it should be able to handle even the most demanding games with a consistent frame-rate, and also be future-proof. Take a look at the benchmark scores to see how it fares against the competition.
We’re also tremendously happy to see a plentiful 64GB of storage as the base and only option for the OnePlus 3. While Apple is still insulting users with 16GB of storage for base models on the twice as expensive iPhone 6s Plus, and Samsung offers good-but-not-great 32GB of storage on the S7 series, the OnePlus 3 outdoes them all.
With 4K video on board, an ever-growing collection of music and a ton of heavy Live/Motion photo solutions on other phones, it feels like we rely on our phones more and more, and insufficient storage is one area that can often ruin the experience. The OnePlus 3 not only has a lot of storage, but it uses the fast UFS 2.0 storage that allows for apps to install and start much faster.
Unfortunately, there is no support for expandable storage. Rather than using a hybrid tray, the OnePlus 3 is a dual nano SIM phone and has no microSD card slot. For those few people that need more than 64 gigs, this would be a problem.
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Performance benchmarks
Internet and Connectivity
4G LTE works on AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States, but not on Verizon and Sprint. The European version works well across the Old continent.
Unlike many other Android phones, OnePlus does not have such a huge problem with app duplicates. Yes, there are two gallery apps pre-installed (Google Photos and OnePlus’ own gallery app), but - blissfully - there is one browser (Google Chrome), one calendar (Google Calendar), and one mail app (Gmail).
What about 4G LTE connectivity? The OnePlus 3 comes in three models: one aimed at the North American market in general, another one for Europe, and a third one for the Chinese market. In North America, the OnePlus 3 will support bands 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, and 17. This means that OnePlus 3 will work on AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as on their related MVNOs in the United States, but does not support 4G LTE band 13, the main band for Verizon Wireless, so you won't be able to use the LTE network with it. Sprint 4G LTE bands are also not supported. The European version of the phone supports all major carriers in the Old Continent, and it also supports the crucial band 20, which is good news. There is also a dedicated model for China with support for its specific TDD-LTE bands 38-41.
In terms of other connectivity options, you also have Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC support.