FEATURE
- The OnePlus 3T features a bigger battery, faster CPU and better display
- It delivers excellent all-round performance which makes it good value
- The OnePlus 3T starts at Rs. 29,999 and is available through Amazon
The OnePlus 3T is a small upgrade with a big price increase, but it’s still fantastic value - especially with Nougat
Key Specification:
- 5.5-inches
- 1920x1080
- 158g
- Android 6.0 + Oxygen OS
- 16MP
- 16MP
- Snapdragon 821
- 6GB
- 64/128GB
- Yes
- Fingerprint sensor
Design:
Like the HTC One series and many other modern smartphones the OnePlus 3 is built from a single piece of aluminium. It has an attractive anodised finish, with its back slightly curved. The metal edges are ever-so-slightly rounded, too, with slim diamond-cut chamfers that catch the light just right to give a reflective glimmer every now and then. At just 7.35mm thin the OnePlus 3 is a pleasure to hold. It feels like a much slimmer version of the Moto X Style from last year. It's a similar width and height, with a 5.5-inch screen to boot, but is thinner overall. Despite that large display, the phone is pretty easy to grip, although it's hard to use one handed. The choice of material which looks virtually identical to the iPhone 6S's Space Grey isn't the only change from last year's OnePlus 2: the 3's volume rocker switch has now switched to the left edge (when facing), where it sits below the notification priority switch. Which makes sense, since their functions are related. All the buttons are well constructed, easily reachable with an index finger or thumb, and give just the right amount of feedback to give that tactile affirmation our senses often crave.
Display:
Compared to the AMOLED panels of high-end Nexus and Galaxy phones, the earlier OnePlus 2's LCD-based display was a little lacking in colour and contrast. Sure, it was crisp and clean, but lacked life. The OnePlus 3 changes that. Its 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED panel on the front is full of colour, has high contrast levels and still retains the crispness of the former phones. The display also features a dual-polarising layer which OnePlus claims makes the screen more easily visible when outdoors in bright daylight it works well in practice too, although you might struggle to see the screen if its surface is angled directly towards the sun. Likewise, indoors, 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 on screen dominates the front panel.
Corning Gorilla Glass 4 covers the screen, which is so closely laminated that content seems to almost float on the surface of the glass. Adding a final flourish, there's a subtle curve in the glass, all the way around the surface towards the edges. The screen's one negative is that it's not Quad HD resolution (2160 x 1440 pixels) a point that we've raised time and again with earlier models, but that point isn't a total killer. It's not even a partial killer, really, despite it being one of the main things absent that the "true flagships" have. Still, unless you're using VR headsets, such as the Loop VR, you are unlikely to notice the lower resolution, unless you happen to use your phone pressed against your face.
Software:
The OnePlus 3 runs OxygenOS which, this year in version 3, is built on top of Android Marshmallow. One of the notable things about OnePlus' software is that it looks and feels very much like regular stock Android, but with a few tweaks. The phone comes with a bespoke version of SwiftKey's keyboard pre installed, which has great autocorrect and predictive text skills. And 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, plus view the weather, date and reminders. It's potentially useful, but can be switched off if you prefer.
Perhaps the most important difference between stock Android and OxygenOS is the level of customisation you get. Using the built in software tools you can set the entire system to Dark Mode (a system-wide dark theme), customise LED notifications choosing different colours for specific app notifications, swap around icons in the status bar at the top of the screen, or swap between hardware or software buttons.
Other customisation options include changing the app icon size on screen, choosing how many columns of apps you want in the app drawer, and whether you want a semi-transparent greyscale Google search bar, or an opaque one with full Google colouring. There are also a number of different gestures you can use from the launch screen. For example, you can launch the camera by drawing an "O" on the screen in standby, or draw a "V" to switch on the torch/flashlight. You'll probably never use these gestures, but they are there.
PERFORMANCE:
The OnePlus 3T has a faster processor but while using the device I didn't notice any difference compared to the OnePlus 3. The OnePlus 3 is anyways a very fast phone, and so is the OnePlus 3T. There is no user interface lag on the phone. Animations are smooth. Fingerprint scanner on the front is fast. Apps switch seamlessly. Scrolling is smooth. And the phone doesn't heat up, even when you are playing games on it.
Along with the processor upgrade, the OnePlus 3T inherits its predecessor’s impressive list of core specifications. Namely, that Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 is backed up by 6GB of RAM and includes Qualcomm’s Adreno 530 graphics processing unit. As you had imagine, these top of the range specifications result in a smartphone that’s an absolute pleasure to use, and one that comfortably handles anything you throw its way. The performance of other components too is top notch. The screen, with its AMOLED panel and Full HD resolution, is the same one that you get in the OnePlus 3. It is equally bright and vibrant. The result is that whether you are using the phone indoors or outdoors, it won't put strain on your eyes, although in some cases the automatic brightness control is too aggressive. In low light especially, it reduces the screen brightness drastically. Although if this is a problem for you, you can always bring down the quick toggles in the notifications area and move the slider to increase the brightness. OnePlus 3T also offers users option to use various colour profile, which depending on what you like will give you either a screen with deep and rich colours or more a display with more subtle hue, in case you are particular about correct colours.
The OnePlus 3T is definitely not short of performance.
While using the device, I did not notice any issues with the call quality and the network performance of the phone. The device supports two SIM cards. In India if you tend to use the Jio SIM then all features, including VoLTE, work as advertised. As for call performance, I never encountered any problems with call quality. The microphone picked up my voice perfectly well, while I could hear callers without any issues. Using the OnePlus 3T as a loudspeaker, it delivers a surprising amount of volume, which was similarly the case with the original OnePlus 3. It's not going to deliver particularly impressive sound quality, but if you ar just after sheer volume it does surprisingly well especially if you want to casually watch something on YouTube.
Depending on which model you buy, you can get either 64GB or 128 GB of internal memory,but sadly there's no MicroSD card slot to increase your storage, OnePlus decided not to go for one of the new dual SIM trays that has the option of using one of the slots for a memory card, so the 3T is a strictly dual-SIM device. For this reason, we suggest opting for the 128GB OnePlus 3T, especially as the phone's performance will see it last for several years
before it needs replacing.
Observations:
Depending on which model you buy, you can get either 64GB or 128 GB of internal memory,but sadly there's no MicroSD card slot to increase your storage, OnePlus decided not to go for one of the new dual SIM trays that has the option of using one of the slots for a memory card, so the 3T is a strictly dual-SIM device. For this reason, we suggest opting for the 128GB OnePlus 3T, especially as the phone's performance will see it last for several years
before it needs replacing.
Observations:
- The grey aluminium has a slight red tint to it in certain lights
- The tiny bezels made it easier to hold, but I found it quite easy to activate the capacitive navigation buttons with my palm
- Silencing the phone with the notification slider is easy and fast
- Dash Chargers power other devices up to 2A, which is normal charging rate
- OnePlus sells a Dash car charger for 3000
- It’s got NFC, which the OnePlus 2 oddly didn’t - good for Android Pay
- The phone ships with an unlocked bootloader making it easier to load custom Android versions, should you not like OxygenOS
- It comes with a screen protector pre-installed, but like most screen protectors on contoured or curved glass, stands out like a sore thumb.
BatteryLife and Charging:
while the processor and camera improvements were hard to see in practice, I certainly noticed the extra stamina afforded by the 3T’s larger battery. It is a 3,400mAh cell compared to the 3,000mAh battery in the 3, yet the thickness and weight of the phone remain unchanged. That’s only a 13 percent increase in capacity, but I have been able to get extraordinary battery life from the 3T, even when I’ve used it while traveling. Most days I have been able to eke out more than five hours of screen time on it before it dies, with location, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LTE all enabled and the screen brightness set to automatic. Most phones, even the better ones, will struggle to meet 4 hours of screen time with my average use before calling it quits.
I suspect the 3T’s excellent stamina is a combination of its larger battery and new software optimizations implemented by OnePlus. It is running a newer version of Oxygen OS, the company’s lightweight take on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and it likely has improved power management. Though the 3T is disappointingly not launching with Android 7 Nougat, OnePlus says that it and the 3 will be updated to the new platform by the end of this year. Like the 3, the 3T uses OnePlus’ proprietary Dash Charging fast charging system, which promises to provide "a day’s power in half an hour" of charging. It lives up to that claim, rapidly charging the 3T’s battery in just a few minutes. But it’s not compatible with Qualcomm’s much more common Quick Charge platform, and it only works with OnePlus’ charging brick and USB cable.
Verdict:
WIRED gave the OnePlus 3 a 9/10 rating and it appeared the brand lived up to its name as an ‘Apple killer’ with the launch of the flagship device. The OnePlus 3T is merely a continuation of this, with some better features such as the improved front camera and battery, but overall it hasn’t deviated much from the design of the earlier device. The OnePlus 3T is more expensive too. The 64GB OnePlus 3 was 29999 compared to the 64GB OnePlus 3T which retails at 29999. This is a large increase for what doesn’t really seem like much. It makes you partly question why OnePlus decided to release a slightly upgraded phone instead of waiting to unveil something different. This would then warrant the different price tag. It's worth nothing that OnePlus has said that once the OnePlus 3 is all sold out, the company will not be making anymore and its customers will have to buy the OnePlus 3T instead. This probably won’t go down too well with fans who might not want to pay a higher price for what isn't a markedly different phone.
Having said this, the OnePlus 3T is a stylish phone and it is one of the few Android devices we would consider ditching iOS for. The size of the screen is great, the improved camera is a plus and compared to other Android devices, it is relatively straightforward to use. Despite the price increase, it still makes the phone one of the most affordable smartphones, in terms of specs, on the market. If OnePlus can continue doing this with its next devices, it will be interesting to watch where this takes the brand. The OnePlus 3T is available to buy from OnePlus.net or O2. There had been a delay due to shortage of shipments but OnePlus has solved the problem and recently confirmed it's aiming to have the OnePlus 3T available for "immediate delivery" in Europe and North America. This removed the need for a waiting list. As of February 10, OnePlus opened pre-orders for the gunmetal version of the 128GB OnePlus 3T. The immediate dispatch of OnePlus 3T 64GB in Soft Gold started on February 3 and the OnePlus 3T 64GB in gunmetal is already on sale. You get more than what you pay for with the OnePlus 3T compared to rivals.
Pros: all-metal, great fingerprint sensor, good screen, fast charging, good cameras, excellent notification slider, dual-Sim with dual standby, cheaper than rivals
Cons: not quite as cheap as it once was, no removable battery, no expandable storage, slow charging from non-Dash charge power adapters, screen low res for VR, not yet running Nougat.
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