OnePlus 3 preview: Affordable flagship beater

In previous years, OnePlus hasn’t been shy about pitching its devices as “flagship killers”. To call the company self-assured would be something of an understatement, but this year’s launch seemed a little more subdued. Perhaps uncharacteristically so.  

In fact, if you didn’t download the Loop VR app, there’s a chance you would have missed the entire launch. Which is strange, because the OnePlus 3 is shaping up to be one of the best phones on the market this year. The company should have hyped this up far more than it did, because the new device seems rather brilliant. 

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OnePlus 3 design

Like the HTC One series, and many other modern smartphones, the OnePlus 3 is built from a single piece of aluminium. There’s an attractive anodised finish, and the back is slightly curved to make sure it feels comfortable in your hand. The metal edges are ever-so-slightly rounded too, and have very slim diamond cut chamfers which catch the light just right to give off a glimmer every now and then.

At just 7.35mm it’s very sleek and is a pleasure to hold. In hand, it feels like a much slimmer Moto X Style from last year; it’s a similar width and height, but is far thinner. Therefore, despite being a phone with a large display, it’s still pretty easy to grip in one hand. It feels solid, and the graphite finish looks virtually identical to the iPhone 6S’ Space Grey colouring. There will be a gold finish model with a white front panel available at a later date.

The material isn’t the only change from last year’s OnePlus phones. The volume rocker switch has now moved to the left edge, where it sits below the notification priority switch. Arguably, this makes sense, since their functions are related. That leaves the dual-SIM tray and the power button together on the right edge. The bottom edge features a USB Type-C connector flanked by a 3.5mm jack and six individually machined holes for the loudspeaker. Sadly, no stereo speakers here.

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OnePlus 3 display

If there was any criticism for earlier OnePlus flagships, it was perhaps that the 5.5-inch LCD-based displays were lacking in colour and contrast. They were crisp and clean, but lacked life when compared to the likes of the high-end Nexus and Galaxy phones. The OnePlus 3 changes that.

The 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED panel on the front is full of colour and features a dual-polarising layer which OnePlus claims makes the screen more visible when outdoors in bright daylight. Even with the brightness set at just 50 per cent the screen looks very bright. 

What’s more, its bezel is nice and slim, so the content onscreen really dominates the front panel. Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4 covers the screen to protect it from scratches, and is laminated so tightly to the actual display panel that content seems to almost float across the surface of the glass. Adding a final flourish, there’s a subtle curve in the glass all the way around the surfaces towards the edges.

Its one negative, perhaps, is that it’s not Quad HD resolution. Looking at the spec sheet, it’s probably the only thing it doesn’t have that the “true flagships” do. Still, unless you’re using VR headsets like the Loop VR, you’re unlikely to noticed the lower resolution, unless you happen to use your phone pressed against your face.

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OnePlus 3 camera

OnePlus promises a lot with its camera, and on paper it certainly seems more than capable of challenging the best of them. Spec-wise, we’re looking at a 16-megapixel Sony sensor with f/2.0 aperture and 4K video recording. But it’s the added software controls that could make the real difference here.

It has something called Dynamic De-noise which helps smooth out any grainy-ness you find in typical low-light shots. It also has HD mode for boosting sharpness and clarity, as well as HDR mode for producing balanced images even in harsh lighting conditions. But, more importantly, there are manual controls in the camera app.

You can manually change the shutter speed and focus to get the ideal shot, as well as customising the brightness and exposure. And, to ensure that you get a great shot as often as possible, it features both optical image stabilisation to deal with shakiness while taking photos and electronic image stabilisation for video. Both combined with PDAF (phase detection autofocus) help images come out sharp and reduce the blur you’d often see if you or your subject happens to be moving.

Photographers will be pleased to know they can save images in RAW format, losing no detail or image quality, while selfie fans should be more than happy with the 8-megapixel front-facing camera, again with a Sony sensor.

Perhaps the only downside is that the rear camera sits inside a rather large square protrusion on the back. That means that whenever you lie the phone down, it can’t sit completely flat, it’s always leaning on the camera. Let’s hope that glass covering the lens holds up, otherwise it could get considerably scratched.

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OnePlus 3 hardware

Inside the OnePlus 3, there’s a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 820 processor. It’s quad-core and is paired with a massive 6GB of RAM to ensure that you never, ever feel as though the phone is sluggish. There’s also 64GB of built-in storage, but sadly no option to expand via MicroSD.

To make sure it keeps all that power going all day, there’s a 3000mAh battery. With Android Marshmallow’s built-in standby power management and OnePlus’ own optimisations, the OnePlus 3 should easily get through a full day on a single charge. What’s more, even if it does run out of juice, it has Dash Charge technology which works the same way as Chinese manufacturer, Oppo’s VOOC flash charging. It uses the thick cable to dissipate heat so that it can deliver more power to the phone without it overheating. You can get up to 60 per cent charge with just 30 minutes plugged in, even if you’re using the phone at the time.

Like the OnePlus 2, the latest model has a dual-SIM tray, so if you have both a personal and work mobile numbers, you can use both without needing to have two phones. It’s handy if you have a SIM from two different operators with varying levels of reception strength in your area. It also comes equipped with the fingerprint sensor on the front which also acts as a touch-sensitive home button, and has a capacitive back and recent apps button on either side. 

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OnePlus 3 software

One of the notable things about OnePlus’ OxygenOS software is that it looks and feels very much like regular, stock Android, but with a few tiny tweaks. Perhaps the most important difference is the level of customisation you get.

Using the built-in software tools you can set the entire system to Dark Mode, customise LED notifications; choosing different colours for specific app notifications, swap around icons in your status bar at the top of the screen or swap between hardware or software buttons. You can even choose which of the buttons is the back button, and which is the recent apps button. It’s extremely handy.

There’s also a number of different gestures you can use from the lock screen. If you choose to, you can launch the camera by drawing an ‘O’ on the screen in standby, or draw a ‘V’ to switch on the torch/flashlight.

It comes with a bespoke version of SwiftKey’s keyboard pre-installed too, which has great autocorrect and predictive text skills. Then there’s Shelf, the screen that sits to the left of the first home screen. Here you can type memos, and quickly get in touch with your favourite contacts or launch your most-used apps as well as see the weather, date and reminders. It’s potentially useful, but can be switched off. 

First Impressions

Although not entirely original, the all-metal finish is sleek and sturdy and makes the phone seem like a real premium device. It’s a far cry from the plastic-backed phones of previous years. The screen appears to be rather fantastic, with popping colours, deep blacks and sharp detail.

As an overall package – and as is often the case with OnePlus phones – the third generation flagship killer seems incredible value for money. At £309 it offers many of the same features and specifications of phones twice the price.