The much-awaited smartphone from the Chinese manufacturer One Plus is here. Amid controversies regarding the VR headsets, overhyped expectations and the invite-free system, the OnePlus 3 has a lot of ground to cover. It is supposed to be a ‘flagship-killer’ smartphone at a significantly lower price.
With new technologies, high-end design and manufacturing flagship smartphones are packed with features. Can OnePlus 3 live up to it? We shall explore that in this article.
Design
Previous devices by the company One Plus One and One Plus Two both lost out to the ‘flagship’ phones in this aspect. While many appreciated One Plus for trying with a new sandstone back concept, the overall design scheme was not very appealing. With the One Plus Three, the company has adopted the aluminum-glass combination like most flagship smartphones. The phone has a uni-body anodized aluminum design which feels great to hold. Even though the screen is a full 5.5 inch the phone is relatively easy to hold. The back is smooth and gently curves which give the phone a very premium feel. The volume buttons and a separate mute button are on the left, and the right has the sleep/wake button and the Nano SIM tray. One Plus 3 has dual NANO-SIM slot with a single tray for both SIM cards. The back is not removable which gives the phone a very solid feel.
The back has a very clean, minimalist look to it. The camera and flash don’t sit in a single housing, unlike its predecessor. Although there is noticeable cameras bump which sticks out quite a bit. The top of the phone is smooth, and the bottom has a neat arrangement similar to many phones. The USB charging port is in the middle, thespeaker grille on the left side and the headphone jack on the right.
In the front the phone has a finger-print scanner/home button in the middle. The other 2 capacitive keys on its sides have LEDs which activate on touching them. The keys are very customizable and have a decently good response rate.
Overall the One plus 3 has a great design which was one the biggest setbacks in its predecessors. With One plus 3, One Plus has finally come up with a smartphone with not just ‘flagship killer’ specs but design as well.
Hardware
One Plus has always had top-notch hardware specs in its phones and the One Plus 3 is no exception. The device comes loaded with the best chipsets and a whopping 6GB RAM. One Plus 3 comes with the Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820, this with the 6GB RAM makes One Plus 3 one of the fastest devices available in the market. The GPU on One Plus 3 is the Adreno 530.
This coupled with the ultra-light Oxygen OS based on the Android Marshmallow (v6.0.1) makes One Plus 3 very responsive.
One Plus 3 has unlike its predecessors has Optic AMOLED screen panel with a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution and around 401 ppi. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4, which is a standard in most high-end phones.One Plus 3 also comes with a screen guard already put up on the device.
Camera
This time One Plus has opted for Sony for making their camera modules. The back camera is 16MP, f/2.0 with phase detection autofocus. The camera performs well in low light conditions, and One Plus claims that camera app uses the 6GB RAM to improve the user experience.
The front camera is 8MP, f/2.0 and supports full HD video recording. The camera is surprisingly very fast in autofocus. Both cameras are good, but other high-end smartphones offer better quality photos though the difference is not very noticeable in daylight conditions.
Final Verdict
One Plus 3 is a matured device which offers great value for money. The device easily competes with flagship smartphones from major manufacturers at nearly half of their prices. The design is great and the OS is clutter free and gives the user plenty of room for customization. One Plus unlike many other leading manufacturers doesn’t pre-install its own apps which make the Oxygen OS very light. One Plus 3 lives up t
