Here is the review of OnePlus 3 (OP3) that was recently launched and available in India for Rs. 27,999. The OP3 is using the well known Snapdragon 820 chipset and is loaded with 6GB RAM plus 64GB ROM. Is OP3 worth the price, read the review.
OnePlus 3 unboxing
Inside the box you will find the handset, user guide, quick start guide, warranty card, data cable (USB Type C), SIM tray ejector PIN and travel charger – its a DASH charger 5V/4A. SAR value as mentioned on the box : 0.784 W/Kg @ 1g head and 0.581 W/Kg @ 1g body.
Other optional accessories like the protective case and DASH car charger is also available (for extra cost) – you can have a look at that in the video review, or check the image gallery.
Design, Display and OS
The OnePlus 3 looks and feels awesome. The full metallic (Anodized aluminum) body with curvy design is slimmer towards the edges, slightly bulkier in the center. When you hold the handset it does give you that premium feel.
If you hold the handset other way i.e. the screen is touching your palm and you are looking at the metallic back panel, it actually feels like holding the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
OP3 weight with built in battery is 161 grams and dimensions are 74.70 x 152.60 x 7.60 (mm). Power button and SIM tray is on the right side. Volume rocker and notification button is on the left side. Speaker out (Dirac HD Sound) vent, USB Type C port (2.0), 3.5mm audio jack and primary Mic is at the bottom. There are dual Mics for noise cancellation.
This is a dual SIM handset you can use 2 Nano SIM cards. 4G is supported (Cat 6), also supports – CDMA EVDO: BC0.
There is LED notification and following sensors – accelerometer, light, proximity, magnetic, gyro and hall.
OnePlus 3 sports a 5.5 inch Optic AMOLED (super AMOLED) 2.5D curved screen supporting 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. Bezel is 0.75mm and the screen comes with corning gorilla glass 4 protection. Colour reproduction, viewing angles and touch response are very good.
Oxygen OS runs out of the box (based on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1).
Memory and Storage
The OP3 is packed with 6GB RAM and 64GB (UFS 2.0 – faster than most handsets) of internal storage space. There is no micro SD card slot. On the first boot you will get around 4GB free RAM and about 52GB free internal storage space.
OTG is supported.
Performance
Overall performance is excellent thanks to the well known Qualcomm Snapdrgaon 820 quad core chipset – on OP3 it is clocked at 2.15GHz with Adreno 530 GPU. Both the CPU as well as the GPU performance is impressive, however the handset does tend to heat up with heavy usage, the battery temperature should be well under 45 degree. The max battery temperature I encountered was 42 degree when shooting images / videos under direct sunlight.
Benchmark
- Quadrant – 44626
- Antutu (64 bit) – 137250 | 3D score – 55475
- Nenamark 2 – 59.9fps
- Internal storage Speed – Read (432MB/s), Write (179MB/s)
- Multi Touch – 10 Point
Gaming
I played Asphalt 8 in high visual mode and MC5 (modern combat 5). Both games worked well. With 6GB RAM you will be able to keep these heavy games running in the background while working on some other app / game – you can switch at anytime and continue from where you left (check video review for gaming / switching action).
Camera
Primary camera is 16MP resolution using SONY IMX 298 sensor with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash support. 4K recording and 720p slow motion is supported. Check the sample images and videos at the end of this review. Front camera is a 8MP shooter.
Camera quality is excellent; if you go manual you will get even better shots. Max ISO supported -3200.
Others
Sound output is clear and loud, in-call sound is also very good. I did not face any network issues. No issues with 4G, WiFi, GPS, NFC and Bluetooth. The finger print sensor is on the front, its very accurate and the detection, processing speed is too good. Just tap the button when the display is off (handset in standby mode), the handset instantly unlocks.
Battery
The 3000 mAh non-removable battery does a decent job. You can expect 3 to 7 hours of non-stop moderate to heavy usage. I got one and a half day battery life with mixed usage.
OnePlus 3 Battery Performance (time / battery % drop / battery temperature).
- Running Benchmark app – 9 minutes / 7% / 39 degrees
- Played MC5 + Asphalt 8 – 19 minutes / 8% / 38 degrees
- 4K video playback with full brightness (WiFi /4G on) – 30 minutes / 7% / 33 degrees
It took me 1 hour 51 minutes to charge the handset using Dash (5V/4A) wall charger from 7% to 100%. I guess there is some issue with the charger as other users are able to charge the handset to 100% in under 60 minutes.
Update: Use the USB Type C cable provided with the OnePlus 3 handset, if you use any other USB Type C cable it may or may not enable fast charging. I used a different USB Type C cable to charge the OnePlus 3 handset (but had used the Dash Charger) for the first time and as you see it took me 1 hours 51 minutes.
The second time I charged got the same result, I then used the USB Type C cable provided by OnePlus one and it worked really fast. Here are the results.
Battery from 12% to 62% it took 24 minutes. And for full charge from 12% to 100% it took just about 60 minutes. The battery temperature was 38 degrees when battery % reached 62 and after that temp was under 34 degrees.
Verdict
The OnePlus 3 is a powerful handset, packed with powerful features (6GB RAM / 64GB ROM) and comes with an excellent camera. Battery performance is decent, for very heavy users it might hardly last for a day. Apart from that it is a very good buy.
If you are looking for the latest hardware that is heavily loaded, the OnePlus 3 is the ‘One’.
Rating : 4 out of 5.
OnePlus 3 is available for Rs. 27,999.
Image Gallery
OnePlus 3 video review
OnePlus 3 rear camera sample
Front camera sample
