The OnePlus 3 surely isn’t the best kept secret since mankind, or since this week. Either way, it’s no doubt it’s an exciting phone, and it’s finally here — officially.
The phone was launched in VR which may sound punk but it’s something OnePlus are quite used to. Anyway, let’s skip the launch event itself and talk about the phone — that’s what we’re here for.
The phone comes with the Snapdragon 820 SoC, which is far, far from a surprise. With that, the OnePlus 3 has a massive 6GB of RAM. It appears as though it’ll only be the 6GB RAM version of the phone that’ll go on sale initially. 6GB RAM… that’s a lot indeed! With that, the OnePlus 3 gets a nice 64GB ROM to work with.
We kind of missed the screen – let’s take a quick look. It’ll be a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a 1920 x 1080p FHD resolution. The display will be coated in Gorilla Glass 4.
Moving on to the camera department, the OnePlus 3 has a 16 mega-pixel rear camera with OIS (and full manual controls) along with an 8 mega-pixel front-facing shooter for ya selfie lovers.
The battery on the OnePlus 3 is a rather low-capacity one (3000mAh; low capacity for 2016, but then a lot also depends on the software implementation). That said, OnePlus have finally introduced fast charging (in the form of ‘Dash Charge’ quick charging, more than likely an OPPO VOOC equivalent).
What OnePlus have also managed to include in the OnePlus 3 is NFC, something that lacked on the OnePlus 2… and managed to irk the savvy population.
On the software side of things, the OnePlus 3 will feature the company’s OxygenOS running on top of Android 6.0.1, so no real surprises here.
As we’d reported previously, the OnePlus 3 will be available invite-free to anyone who wishes to purchase the phone. That said, OnePlus seem to be looking at the premium segment more than the ‘geek’ market, which they’re catered to with the OnePlus One and the 2.
Gizchina News of the week
Moving on to the most important bit — pricing, the OnePlus 3 will be available for $399 in the US, $519 in Canada, £309 in the UK, €399 in Europe and 27,999 INR in India. Some (including me) expected OnePlus to give the pricing a bit of a shave after the 27,999 INR pricing leaked in a newspaper ad (for real!).
Specs in a nutshell:
- 5.5-inch AMOLED 1920 x 1080p display
- Snapdragon 820 SoC
- 6GB RAM
- 64GB ROM
- 16 mega-pixel OIS rear camera
- 8 mega-pixel front facing camera
- 3000mAh battery
- OxygenOS (Android 6.0.1)
How is 3000mAh low capacity for 2016? It is the norm for 2016 Flagships:
LG G5 – 2800 (2K)
Galaxy S7 – 3000 (2K)
Xiaomi Mi5 – 3000
Zuk Z2 Pro – 3100
Meizu Pro 6 – 2560
Battery life is largely going to depend on how well the software is. If the software doesn’t get in the way battery life should be about the same as that of the Mi5.
Still average… I’m getting tired of this general policy of “the phone could last a day of use… If you watch your battery carefully”… As smartphone’s capabilities grow, the battery should grow as well, but that’s a point largely overlooked!
You lucky bast… Eahm… GG m8 ?
That’s a beast of a phone, although not in the category of “high end” (still it has more power than needed)… I’m currently waiting to see if they’ll fix the camera before considering buying it ?
It’s not 2 k but it’s not 6 inch either, you will not really notice the difference at 5.5 and for 300 it’s similar to the big brands, for me it’s a true flagship with a cheap price. I don’t need useless sensors, yeah and you are right with something let’s see the camera first, my next phone I want to have top notch camera.
RL player? Me too!
Seriously, though, why the OP3? Why not the ZTE Axon 7 for just $50 more? It’s so much more phone for just a little more money.
Umm… Just google “ZTE Axon 7” and read any one of the dozens of launch stories or hands-on reviews. It’s $449 for 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, SD 820 SoC, microSD/dual-SIM (not just in some countries, but everywhere), dual front-facing speakers with 24-bit/192Khz DAC & amplifier, QHD AMOLED display, 20MP Samsung Isocell rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, OIS and EIS, PDAF and sapphire outer lens, (very fast) rear fingerprint sensor, Daydream VR certification (which is far more than just a comittment of support), near-stock Android software implementation with fast upgrade to Android N (thank you Daydream VR), and a 3140mAh battery with QC quick-charge 3.0.
OnePlus who?
I wish I had that much time… haha
Who has time to play on their phones several hours straight when not at home? Security guards maybe…
Obviously, I do. Hahahaha. Full time physician, translator if needed, husband, parent to be, bla bla bla bla bla…
So that is why we have to wait in the doctors office so long.
2 (many, in this case) wrongs don’t make 1 right lol
I get your point about it being the general trend, but it doesn’t mean they’re all not wrong about it…
You both are right.
He’s right saying that 3000 mha is what all last flagships adopted and you’re right saying that 3000 mha isn’t enough.
Many 2014 flagships (OPO,MI4 to name few of them) had 3000 mha and since then we saw specs getting better (CPU, Ram, storage…) while the battery stayed the same.
It is indeed the bottleneck of this industry.
They can’t make battery with more capacity without adding bulk on it, and that’s why we don’t see more than 3000 mha on flagships.
Yeah, I wasn’t arguing with him because that’s a fact: many flagship does have around 3000mah battery, so it’s the phrasing in the article to blame as he said…
My point was against op: just because others do it, it doesn’t mean everyone have to do the same…
And I don’t really get the point in upgrading soc, ram and everything and then downgrading the battery like it isn’t the most important thing (you can do anything with 4gb of ram in place of 6gb, but you can’t do anything with 0% battery)
Oneplus is playing safe:
A big battery would have meant a thicker phone that might not sell as good as a thin one.Understandable.
We need more efforts regarding batteries, I mean, let’s look at drones, 20-25 minutes of flying is nothing and that’s the best that the market offers right now.
Yeah, after last year they decided to play “safer”, I bashed them myself many times for pulling out a phone ticker than ulefone power, yet with half the battery!
However, I still think a phone is not thin when the camera is almost 2mm protruding from the body… Isn’t camera part of the phone?! ?
Anyway, a revolution is needed in battery department, and that’s stupid how we read every 6 month “found a new technology for double the mah with the same space needed” and then… We have had the same batteries for 5-6 years now… I think no one is actually interested to invest in this right now…
Congratulations on drafting a list of 5.1-5.2″ phones where as the OP3 is 5.5″. (ok, the G5 is 5.3″ but everyone knows the battery is small because LG went with their failing version of modularity)
A few of those 5.1-5.2” phones also use a 2k display and the OP3 uses a 1080p. Congratulation on completely ignoring that fact.
I clearly saw your “2k” in brackets. This is about physical size, a larger phone should be able to accommodate a larger battery, right? (ie. A9 Pro) I also think you missed the fact that both the original OnePlus and Two had larger capacity batteries so people are perhaps perceiving this as a step backwards considering in reviews those phones just scored average in battery performance. You seem to already be perfectly happy with the battery specs considering no real reviews or endurance numbers have surfaced yet.
A larger phone should be able to. Again I am not arguing against bigger batteries, if you read my previous comments you would see that, I am only pointing out that 3000 isn’t low for 2016 it is the same as almost every other flagship. You seem to already be perfectly happy with jumping to conclusions without actually reading, but then again that is the norm for you.
well,well, a new baby is about to come home in 13 days 🙂