One Plus 3: The Affordable Flagship

• Posted By Amritesh
• On June 26th, 2016
• Comments: one response

 

Most of us were eagerly awaiting for the launch of latest flagship from One Plus. Come last week, One Plus did officially launch the One Plus 3 and that too without the invite system or flashsale. The device is currently available exclusively on Amazon India portal, priced at Rs 27,999/-. Last Year, One Plus had launched the One Plus 2 which was a decent device but had its own share of limitations and did not enjoy the same amount of success as its predecessor. With One Plus 3, company has tried to address the concerns and made notable improvements. The phone comes with impressive hardware specs and like always One Plus has been very aggressive with the pricing too. The idea of not adopting the Invites and Flashsale is also very commendable as it caused more inconvenience to ultimate consumers.

 

Lets take a closer look at the device:-

 

Build and Display:The device sports the all metal unibody design, the first from One Plus. It weighs just 160 gms which is pretty light considering it is an 5.5 inch device, the weight distribution is good and ergonomics of the phone makes it really comfortable to hold. The aluminum build lends premium feel to the device. The front has also got some welcome changes, as it sports a fingerprint scanner at the bottom along with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The phone comes with pre applied screen cover which in my opinion could have been avoided as many would not have preferred using it. The curved edges and back ensure you get a good grip on the device so that it does not slip off easily. It is a big device and single hand use may not be possible for most users. However, one notable point is that the rear camera is slightly protruded which may get damaged if the phone is kept regularly with back facing the surface. Therefore, a back cover is recommended for the device, even One Plus have launched their range of backcovers which are extremely thin and is available in various finishes.

The device comes with Amoled screen as compared to IPS LCD grade screen seen on its predecessors. Amoled Screen has come a long way in recent years and now many of the flagship devices are using it. The color reproduction is adequately sharp and display in my opinion is pretty crisp. The legibility under the Sunlight could have been better and hopefully One Plus is able to address it with a software update.

The alert slider at the edge provides additional feature, such as device could be put on DND (Do Not Disturb) mode using it.

 

Battery Life: One Plus 3 has a 3000 mah battery which does not give a great battery life but will last for an entire day for most users even under heavy use. Do note that device comes with 6GB Ram which is very taxing on the battery but One Plus has tried to address it by throttling the Ram. However, users should not be complaining as it comes with a Dash charger (Quick Charger) which claims to recharge the phone from 0% to 60% in just 30 minutes. The dash charger does speak highly about the One Plus team as it seems to charge much faster than the Qualcomm Quick charging supported on some other devices.

 

Hardware Specifications: The device is not short on power either, as it comes with Quad Core Kryo Processors which are very powerful along with the latest Snapdragon 820 chipset which does seem to be a massive improvement over its predecessor. Adreno 530 GPU too is very powerful and will run any game at the highest graphic setting without any noticeable lag.

The phone does not support external storage but comes with 64GB inbuilt storage which is more than sufficient for most of the users and should not be an issue in my opinion.

The talking point of this device, however, is the 6GB Ram. It comes with massive 6GB Ram which promises lag free performance even while heavy multitasking. But many have complained of the memory management issue with this device which is due to the fact that Ram has been throttled to improve the battery life on the device. Again, if you are not a heavy power user you will probably never notice or have issue with it. We do expect One Plus to make some improvisations with a software update on the same.

The noticeable concern is that the speaker volume is not very loud and slightly powerful speaker would have made the experience even better.

Software and Features: One Plus 3 comes with the latest Android OS with custom Oxygen OS UI on top. The Oxygen OS Interface used by One Plus is very close to stock android along with few minor tweaks to improve the user experience. The phone comes with most of the sensors along with NFC support, and Finger print scanner. It also supports the USB reversible type-C connector.

The Finger Print Scanner is highly responsive while one may expect faster OS updates on this device in the future. The phone also offers option to use onscreen home buttons instead of capacitive keys.

 

Camera: The camera on this device is very impressive although it does not have the laser auto focusing (required for detailed close up shots) but comes with EIS (Electric) and OIS (Optical) image stabilization which helps you capture good images not only in daylight but also in artificial and low light conditions.

The video recording is slightly soft as it struggles due to lack of Laser Auto Focusing and also the fact that speaker on this device is not very loud.

 

Service Support: Well, in the past too I have expressed my concerns over the after Sales service provided by the Chinese brands as it is primarily outsourced to third party vendors who often struggle to get the spares on time. Therefore, one has to be careful about it but let’s hope going forward the services will improve as they look to expand their base.

 

Overall Verdict: The phone may have minor knit pickings here and there but overall it is a fabulous device at this price. The phone comes with advanced specs with great features which makes it a future proof device (for next 2 years).

Update: Concerns regarding Ram Management has been addressed with latest software update.

 

Key Specifications are given below:-

 

Processor	Dual Core Kryo Procesors clocked @ 2.15 Ghz & Dual Core Kryo clocked @ 1.6 Ghz , Snapdragon 820 chipset
Storage	64GB (No SD Card Support)
Operating System	Android Marshmallow 6.0.1
Rear Camera	16 mp/4K Video Recording
Front Camera	8mp /HD Video Recording
Ram	6 GB
GPU	Adreno 530
Battery	3000Mah
Display	5.5 inch (Corning Glass 4)
Type Sim	Dual Nano Sim/GSM 4G Support
Resolution	1080*1920(401ppi)
Touchscreen Type	Capacitive
Dimension(mm)/Weight(gms)	152.7 x 74.7x 7.4 mm/160